My new touring bike!

[Ambikes]

http://www.bikes.com/DATA/BIKE/962_large.jpg

I finally made a decision and put a deposit down on my new touring bike, a 2011 Rocky Mountain Sherpa!!!

I considered most of the usual suspects when I was shopping, and they were all good bikes. I chose the Sherpa because my favorite LBS is a Rocky dealer. The only bummer is that I have to wait until MAY(!!!) to get my new bike :(

In the meantime, I'm shopping for the racks, panniers, etc. to make this bike a dream touring machine!

[redrhodie]

Oh wow! You must be so excited! She's lovely!

Any tours planned yet?

[malkin]

That's a nice looking bike!

You're waiting until MAY!? I'm waiting for a package coming by Media Mail and it is making me crazy impatient!

[Catrin]

I have read quite good things about Sherpa touring bikes on a LHT email list I belong to, congratulations! You have as long to wait as I do for my Gunnar (for different reasons), we can encourage each other to be patient :)

[maillotpois]

Lovely bike!!! May will be here before you know it!

[Ambikes]

redrhodie: I do have a tour planned for this summer. I talked my DH and all of my in-laws (mom, dad, 2 SILs, and BIL) into touring from Jasper to Banff along the Icefields Parkway this July. I am SUPER excited!!! DH and I have also talked about doing a longer tour (maybe Vancouver, BC to San Diego, CA) when I finish my PhD.

malkin, Catrin, and maillotpois: Thanks! I'm impatient, but trying to look on the bright side of things. May is quite far away, but it's so cold and snowy here that I wouldn't be able to ride a bike right now anyway.

[Tri Girl]

SOOO exciting! That's one beautiful steed!! I'm with you- waiting until May will feel like a kid waiting on Christmas to get here. SO far away! :p

Have you thought about what kind of panniers/accessories to get? I get so excited seeing others build up their dream bikes- almost like I'm getting one, too (without the bill to go along with it). ;)

[wnyrider]

Did you order the 47cm Ambikes? I was keeping an eye out waiting to see if you were going to do it! I look forward to May now too.

Here is a picture of my Sherpa before I took off the panniers and racks and put her away for the winter. The pink fenders were left on.
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=12525&stc=1&d=1295307060
I received a pair of front Ortlieb panniers (as a gift to myself) this past holiday. Preparation and anticipation are such a tease.
How wonderful for you to already have a tour planned.

[Bike Chick]

Very, very nice!!

[Ambikes]

Tri Girl: My DH actually bought me front and rear panniers for Christmas. I chose Ortlieb front and back rollers, and he chose the color (bright yellow!) so that it would still be some sort of surprise. I'm looking at racks right now. I think I want to go steel for those too, but I haven't made any decisions past that. I'm also trying to decide what I absolutely need vs. what I want. I'm not a big person, so I am trying to be careful with gear to keep the weight of the bike + stuff down (without sacrificing too much durability!). I know from my experience backpacking that if I buy it, I will feel obligated to use it!

wnyrider: Thanks again for your help in the other thread. I did end up ordering a 47 cm to get the appropriate TT length. The shop actually had a 2010 Sherpa in the 50 cm size, and it was quite obviously too big. The whole experience actually reinforced my love for my LBS. When I was road bike shopping, a different LBS put me on a bike that was a size too big and tried to tell me that it wasn't too big and that we could make some adjustments that would make it more comfortable. It turned out that they were just trying to clear out last year's stock to make room for the new stuff. Putting me a a too big bike to clear out stock was never even an option at my LBS, which makes me feel good about spending my money there.

I love the fenders! What kind of racks do you have?

[Catrin]

Did you order the 47cm Ambikes? I was keeping an eye out waiting to see if you were going to do it! I look forward to May now too.

Here is a picture of my Sherpa before I took off the panniers and racks and put her away for the winter. The pink fenders were left on....

This is just beautiful! I find myself a bit leery about getting a front rack for my LHT, but that is likely just from my overall lack of riding experience. By the time I am actually ready to do any real touring with my touring bike, it shouldn't be an issue.

[Grog]

Wow, I'm so glad they are bringing back a classic and classy looking Sherpa! Fantastic! Congrats on your new bike.

[wnyrider]

...What kind of racks do you have?

The racks are both Jandds-- Extreme front and Expedition rear. Please note, I did have to buy 12" rack extenders for the rear. The 8" ones that came with the purchase of the rack were too short. I don't know if you will find this adaptation necessary when you select your racks or with your smaller size or not, but I figured I would share it with you.

We're one more day closer to May!

[Ambikes]

I find myself a bit leery about getting a front rack for my LHT, but that is likely just from my overall lack of riding experience. By the time I am actually ready to do any real touring with my touring bike, it shouldn't be an issue.

From what I've read, it's actually better to put some weight up front when you are touring with a heavy load. I guess it balances everything out or something. I don't have any personal experience with loaded touring yet, so I can't say for sure whether it's true or not.

[emily_in_nc]

From what I've read, it's actually better to put some weight up front when you are touring with a heavy load. I guess it balances everything out or something. I don't have any personal experience with loaded touring yet, so I can't say for sure whether it's true or not.

This is very true. In preparation for a long self-supported tour, DH and I did a two-day shakedown tour with our equipment. I had purchased a set of large rear panniers (Arkel), and filled them with the approximate weight of what I'd need to carry on the long tour. My bike handled really poorly b/c all that weight was on the back. I did have a front handlebar bag, but that wasn't enough to balance the back weight. There were times when I was going up climbs that my front wheel wanted to lift right off the road -- definitely unsettling! And there were other handling issues I don't really recall now (this was in 2004).

In any event, I sent back the large panniers and ordered two sets of smaller panniers, along with a front rack. This was a much, much better setup, though more expensive. In fact, the research I did after our shakedown indicated that if you are only going to use one set of panniers, they should be on the front (not huge ones, of course). I wish I still had the web page, b/c it showed all sorts of pannier configurations and made recommendations based on how much gear you needed to carry.

[anaphase]

That is a sweet bike. Enjoy it, and have fun on your tour!

We are going to start touring a bit this summer, so we're researching everything related to bags & racks. We already have bikes & most of the ultra-lightweight camping gear already, which makes it a lot more affordable.

[soprano]

From what I've read, it's actually better to put some weight up front when you are touring with a heavy load.

My experience with my Surly LHT has been that rear load + handlebar bag = super twitchy bike. Transferring some of that weight to a low front rack completely transformed the bike handling; the bike feels like it's on rails, it's so stable.

I have a Tubus Tara front rack, but if I were doing it over again I think that I would look at racks with a platform for a handlebar bag. I love having the handlebar bag for long rides, because it keeps my map near my face and snack food close at hand, but it also interferes with my headlight mount. I'm planning a long tour this summer, and I've really gotta get this resolved.

[Ambikes]

This whole summer has been a combination of good and bad times for me, which is why I haven't updated any of my posts in so long. I finally feel like I'm in a place to get back to posting in a public forum though.

So, my Sherpa arrived in May, but I didn't get to use him much until the middle of June because I was training for and recovering from a marathon at the time. I put in some base miles (not enough!) between then and the first week of August to prep for a 4 day tour in the Canadian Rockies. We cycled from Jasper to Canmore, which was a fantastic trip. I felt like I didn't train enough because I was having some health issues leading up to the trip, but I think that no amount of cycling in the prairies will prepare you for cycling up and down mountain passes anyway :eek: I was super thankful for my granny gear and good brake pads!

I ended up going with Ortlieb panniers all around, an Ortlieb handlebar bag, Tubus racks, and Planet Bike fenders to complete my ride. I *think* I attached a pic of me riding during our tour below. At this point, I had already ditched the front panniers because I wasn't feeling well enough to drag that much weight up the mountains.

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Photos/2011-08-07/079.JPG?w=b722f5c5

[Ambikes]

YIKES! That photo is huge, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Does anyone know?

[divingbiker]

Did you post a trip report on your Canadian Rockies tour? I'd love to read it since that's on my list of must-do rides.

[Ambikes]

No trip report yet, and I'm not sure if I'll ever have time to write one. It's a great tour, though. There are so many options. You can do hostels/hotels or camp. You do have to bring some food, but there were quite a few places we could have stopped along the way if we wanted. Plus, the views are just as great as everyone says they are. We saw lots of wildlife (including grizzly bears :eek:) too.

Compared to what I normally ride (prairie), there was some serious climbing. I didn't feel like any of the trip reports I read were all that accurate in regards to difficultly, but that could just be my lack of experience showing. Personally, I would not plan to do much more than the 50ish miles a day that we did. I think you get to enjoy the route more that way, anyway.