Taking the rough with the smooth

From my SBS Cycling Central blog

For some 35 years now (ouch) I’ve been travelling the world with my bike, or rather I should say with a selection of bikes.

Along the way I’ve ridden through jungles, deserts, over the Himalaya’s, and down bob sled runs, not to mention taken on the biggest sportives and a fair few races too. At one time I was able to take a dedicated bike of choice, one specific to the task in hand. But that has long since changed with the necessity to ride and shoot on and off road, up and down hill, and with growing airline baggage restrictions.

My days of carting a road and a mountain bike around in one monster sized bag are years behind me now – but in order to come back from a trip armed with MTB and road material most of the time I need to carry a bike that can do both, and which looks the part in the images.

If you’re heading to ride an MTB enduro or to hack it out for a top 10 in the Etape then for sure you’ll want to take along your regular and specialized ride, be that a full susser or a carbon mean machine. On the other hand, if you’re travelling in a more general way then versatility and durability come top of the list.

Fat or thin?

For versatility you really cannot beat a fully rigid mountain bike. Given the right tyres you could easily handle a big sportive or a road tour as well as most XC and rough offroad trails.

If super technical is not your thing, but you’re up for a little rough riding here and there the humble yet swift cyclo cross bike has to be the answer – you could quite easily switch to thin tyres and race on one, as many riders have and still do; it just feels a little more sedate.

Personally my choice mostly falls between 2 aging Litespeed’s – a fully rigid MTB and a touring/cross bike. Neither allows me to take usable selfies both on and off road (magazines are very particular about the bike in pics), so if I can hook up with or locate an MTB or rider locally I go with the cross bike, otherwise I play safe with the MTB.

I do have a concept bike in the works, which I’ll tell you about if and when it comes together.

Rocking, rolling, and stopping

Simple, efficient and durable are prime factors in a choosing a bike for travel. Having used most frame materials I have settled on titanium as the perfect material for a travel bike. It’s not the lightest, but it’s as tough old boots, comfortable, durable and very safe. Apart from the odd scuff my two main travel bikes have not suffered any trauma during their decade of travel, which is well worth the extra kilo of weight and the extra cost has been well worth the longevity of the frames.

At one time my travel bikes were extremely retro-simple, and I was able to repair just about anything with a pair of Val’s old knickers and tweezers, but these days it’s hard to find quality old kit, so compromise and technology have to be meshed together.

Whenever possible I role with regular hand built spoked wheels; not deep section factory wheels. These are light, comfortable and very easily repairable on the road.

For tyres; that’s always a tough call. On the cross bike I’ve been using a pair of 32mm Conti Top Touring tyres for years. They’re slightly sluggish on the road, but can handle all but real mud off road, and I’ve never had a puncture while travelling. If I have a lot of road-work to do I will also tale a pair of 25mm folding tyres, and if I have some wet offroad 1 cyclo cross tyre for the rear. I’m currently looking at 28/30mm options, which I will test in the coming months.

On the mountain bike my wheel choice has been restricted some due to running discs and wanting hubs with screw on discs (essential if you are packing the bike regularly), but I have some new hubs waiting to be built into regular 32 spoke wheels.

Having used slicks, semi-slicks and regular XC tyres I’ve come to the conclusion that hard pumped nobly tyres are the way to go. If I do need to run up 100km plus road days I may turn to slicks, otherwise these are fine.

Cantilever brakes were always my stopping weapon of choice, but after using discs on the MTB for some time now they are very hard to go back to, and I will make the switch to road discs too when I get the chance.

The importance of using quality discs is something I can’t emphasize enough, and I do have some remotely implemented titanium plates to back this up. Hope brakes are hard to top on performance and reliability, and are the only discs I’ve not had issues with over the years.

Under foot

Unless you’re 100% on road and not stopping along the way fit SPD style pedals and take either MTB or touring shoes. Try to use shoes with a soft and grippy rubber sole, and not with carbon soles (plates can twist and they are not comfortable for walking in). Recently I’ve gone with a pair of Mavic Cyclo Tour shoes, which look like road shoes but have semi-MTB soles, which are ideal for most road-rough roading.

Accessorized

Keep your kit to a bare minimum, but try to cover most eventualities. Sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not.

A decent mini tool, a good pump, saddle pouch, 2-3 tubes, patches and glue, zip ties, tyre levers, and a small pot of oil should be on your bike at all times.

I also always carry a lightweight pedal wrench (don’t chance Allen Keys on your knuckles), a cheap plastic floor pump (weights almost nothing and saves so much effort), toe straps, a rag and a splined disc removal tool and wrench (wouldn’t it be great if somebody produced a super light pedal wrench with a basic splined tool on the other end).

It’s also well worth having a small rear light and a basic lock in your pouch.