Mike, thanks for the clarification! Based on your original post, I see that you're a tall guy (63 cm Hilsen), which means that your bike is a 700C model of the Hilsen. I'd suggest that you may, if you don't already have them on the bike, fit it up with a set of sturdy tires. The Gran Bois types, that are so often frequently esteemed within the RBW community don't, IMO, cut it for loaded cyclotouring (I have a local acquaintance who just finished up a tour in the mountains of Southeastern Arizona using the Gran Bois tire - he blew out a sidewall after hitting an unavoidable rock).
The only other caveat I'd have is that, based on the description that Grant Peterson has on the rivbike website for the Hilsen, he apparently didn't spec it for loaded extended touring. Here's a quote: "The A. Homer Hilsen is a Country Bike. A "Country Bike" is our name for a smart, useful, comfortable, practical, and hellatiously versatile road-ish bike. It's a road bike with good clearances for tires and fenders, and one that can carry racks. It's not a loaded touring bike for self-contained extended tours. But you can certainly put 20-25 pounds on it and head out for the weekend." I don't own a Hilsen and haven't ridden one, so my experience certainly doesn't count for that particular model. I'm sure others, some of whom have responded on this thread, would feel that the Hilsen performs well in loaded extended tours. It's your call, many cyclists, during the era of the photos that you linked to on Flickr (hammarhead) road on the Bikecentennial cross- continental route on skinny tired bikes that were loaded to the hilt with tent, sleeping bag, campgear, etc (almost always on the rear rack of the bicycle). With youth and a sense of adventure, most of them had a great time. Jim On Jun 27, 11:33 am, Mike <mjawn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey Jim, the tour my friend and I are doing is based on this Alex > Wetmore's tour from 2007: > > http://blogs.phred.org/blogs/alex_wetmore/archive/2007/07/27/5-days-a... > > It looks great. We'll be camping although it looks we'll have some > opportunity to pick up supplies at a couple of spots. My friend is a > more experienced tourer and outdoorsman than I and I'm following his > lead with this. I'm confident I can keep the weight down. But if it > appears I'll have more stuff than the Hilsen can handle I'll just deal > with changing up the Surly to a geared machine. I have the parts, I > just need to deal with it. I'll do some kind of shake-down ride within > the next 2 weeks on the Hilsen to decide if that's the bike I want to > roll with. I'm prepared to face the reality that this might require > more stuff (40lbs?). My friend an I did a 235 mile overnight tour in > 2007 where we just camped out at a picnic area. I had everything in a > Carradice bag and a sleeping bag mounted on my Mark's rack. I felt I > had too much stuff then. Obviously this is different. I'm hoping to > not bring a tent and just bag and pad. My buddy has some kind of tarp > shelter we can make due with should it rain. As it gets closer to the > take off date we'll decide about a tent. Believe me, I'm good at > roughing it and don't require much in the way of creature comforts. > > Kent P has an impressive piece on how and what he packs that is > inspiring for going light: > > http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/05/closer-to-fine.html > > --Mike --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
