Raleigh Sojourn

[bikerHen]

I was a little afraid of the bar end shifters on my LHT but now I love em! When I started riding my road bike it took quite a few rides to stop reaching for the bar ends to shift.

Now the down tube friction shifters on my new/old mixte, thoses are scary. bikerHen

[dex]

But what's with the bar end shifters? Not sure I could ever get used to those and having to actually move my hands so far to shift.

The barcons definitely take some getting used to, but it's a pretty shallow learning curve. The first few blocks of test ride felt a little wobbly, but by the time I'd shifted a few times, I was feeling perfectly fine/stable/comfortable <-- this is saying quite a lot for clumsy, uncoordinated me.
I'm told the biggest advantage of these over STI shifters is ease of maintenance/repair when out in the middle of nowhere.

That Raleigh reminds me of the Trek Portland.

It's a very similar bike, but in steel and about $600 less. Add in the Brooks saddle (which I already ride and love on my other bikes), full fenders and rear rack and I'll probably squeal with glee if the fit works for me.

(still excited, despite the food poisoning that found me last night...)

[Zen]

(still excited, despite the food poisoning that found me last night...)

Brief hijack but an important one.
you didn't by chance have raw tomatoes, did you?

[dex]

Brief hijack but an important one.
you didn't by chance have raw tomatoes, did you?

I didn't. It was shrimp. Evil, evil shrimp.

I'm allergic to raw tomato...I break out in big, painful bumps on the side of my torso and my face. Ugly stuff. And tragic, because until that started happening, I loved tomatoes. Is there a tomato poisoning thing going on? If yes, I should tell my parents, as my dad loves his raw tomatoes.

[Eden]

The Raleigh looks like a lovely bike - too bad it comes in such a limited size range....

Dex - re the Cannondale, was it one of the old oversized aluminum tube ones? My parents had those. IMHO handled like mud. Not really a bike I liked. (heck it might be my mom's.... she gave it to me and I gave it to someone I'm pretty confident probably never rode it.... was it black and red with some funky, funky bar covering that looked like a bunch of little rubber tabs?)

[dex]

I noticed the limited size range. I hope that's a side effect of this being the first production year, and in testing the waters for adding this kind of bike to their line they just decided to go with "common" sizes. Then again, finding touring-type bikes in smaller sizes seems like it might be a pretty big challenge--at least from what I've seen when browsing around online.

The Cannondale I saw was dark blue with black decals. I didn't bother trying to ride it, because when I hopped up on it in the store, it was pretty immediately obvious that it was too small for me. I did get a good laugh at how, um, squished my chest was with the 38cm bars on it, though. Heh.

I've gotten a couple of proddings from friends to check out the Salsa Casseroll and the Soma Speedster, as well. So, I might go seek those out this afternoon. (How much do I love giving myself time off from work? I'll be back to the daily grind tomorrow, so I might as well take advantage while project schedules will allow.)

[Zen]

Tomato salmonella http://news.google.com/news?q=tomato...num=1&ct=title

[7rider]

It's a very similar bike, but in steel and about $600 less. Add in the Brooks saddle (which I already ride and love on my other bikes), full fenders and rear rack and I'll probably squeal with glee if the fit works for me.

$600?? All I get is "$$$$$" for the price info on the Raleigh site, and no price info comes up.
The Portland is spec'ed oodles better than the Sojourn - a nice mix of 105 and Ultegra and the BB7's are primo.
Can't speak for the ride of either...but my LBS is a Trek AND a Raleigh dealer. Hmmmm....

[dex]

*sigh* The Sojourn is not to be.

I did manage to go in on Tuesday to ride it, and was still almost giddy at the prospect. It is soooo pretty.

But, it's also soooo heavy. Don't get me wrong, the ride is nice and smooth. And those WTB Dirt Drop bars are awesome (and the leather bar tape is pretty awesome, too)--in fact, if WTB releases the dirt drop with an internal diameter that will accommodate barcons, I'm going to have to get some (apparently the version on the Sojourn were a special run made just for Raleigh). But the bike is just so very heavy.

Add to it that I kept getting my feet tangled up in the front fender when trying to do some slow turns...Not so much with the good there.

So I didn't buy it.

But, all is not lost. My quest for a good commuter/light tourer/all-arounder type bike marches on. I test rode a Salsa Casseroll at Free Range Cycles and just about fell in love. We're going to try one size smaller with a longer stem to see if we can find me a touch more standover clearance. I'm running into my usual problem of getting enough length in the top tube on bikes that are short enough for me to stand over. (i.e. By the time a bike is short enough in height for my stumpy legs, it's usually *way* too short in length. <-- The guys at Counterbalance helped me figure out that was why I was so uncomfortable on the Long Haul Trucker that I rode recently.)

[KnottedYet]

Sorry it wasn't a blissful bike for you, Dex.

But those Caserolls sure are purty!

Free Range is my *other* LBS. I took Trek there to try a LHT, and Bikerhen there to buy one. They truly understand steel bike love. (and the chickie who owns Free Range is just plain cool. I keep telling DebW she needs to apply for a job HERE, not out there on the east coast!)

Got my fingers crossed for ya!

ETA: guess I'll stop lusting after the Sojourn, and keep lovin' on my Surly Cross Check.

[Laru]

*sigh* The Sojourn is not to be.

I did manage to go in on Tuesday to ride it, and was still almost giddy at the prospect. It is soooo pretty.

But, it's also soooo heavy. Don't get me wrong, the ride is nice and smooth. And those WTB Dirt Drop bars are awesome (and the leather bar tape is pretty awesome, too)--in fact, if WTB releases the dirt drop with an internal diameter that will accommodate barcons, I'm going to have to get some (apparently the version on the Sojourn were a special run made just for Raleigh). But the bike is just so very heavy.

Add to it that I kept getting my feet tangled up in the front fender when trying to do some slow turns...Not so much with the good there.

So I didn't buy it.

But, all is not lost. My quest for a good commuter/light tourer/all-arounder type bike marches on. I test rode a Salsa Casseroll at Free Range Cycles and just about fell in love. We're going to try one size smaller with a longer stem to see if we can find me a touch more standover clearance. I'm running into my usual problem of getting enough length in the top tube on bikes that are short enough for me to stand over. (i.e. By the time a bike is short enough in height for my stumpy legs, it's usually *way* too short in length. <-- The guys at Counterbalance helped me figure out that was why I was so uncomfortable on the Long Haul Trucker that I rode recently.)

dang, sorry it didn't work for you. I never went and tried one myself. Talked myself down...
That's disappointing about the bars being special made for Raleigh. I wanted to get those bars for my bike! I just put the velo orange "left bank" bars w/ reverse levers on my mixte and, lemme tell ya, I am sooo much more comfortable! I think I can hang with what I have for a while.

Hope the casseroll works out because that is a very nice bike.
: )