Custom Touring Bikes

“I think they [Knards] will be too slow.” “You won’t find 29er tires or tubes in Africa.” “That thing is going to be heavy.” I pretty much ignored the aforementioned comments, among a couple other worries that were floating around in my skull, and rolled into Africa with the ECR, complete with Knards. Here are my thoughts after 1,000 KMs.

A quick post showing the final Africa setup for ‘Steve’, as Virginia named her blue Troll, which I think she came up with so she could boldly announce, ‘My ass hurts, must’ve been that long ride on Steve.’

I’ve always admired the lust-inducing photos of vintage, quill-driven, lugged randonneuring gems, beautifully documented within the pages of sites such as Lovely Bicycle. So I decided to attempt and give one of these old steeds a shiny second life.

Here is my grocery getter and around town bike. I built this over the summer from a crusty $50 relic I found on Craigslist.

Riding on a train in Ireland during the first week of backpacking about Europe during the Summer of 2010 I saw several groups of travelers boarding with lightly loaded touring bicycles. The moment I saw this I thought that it would be a great way to see Europe…

Bike Touring Nerdery

It’s been about a year since I started planning a burly bike build for a big trip. After looking at a lot of bikes on various blogs and forums, I found the one that would perfectly suit my style of riding. Enter the Surly Troll, the ideal bike for off-the-beaten-path touring…