Will’s touring bike

This bike has been a long time coming for Will. He approached me looking for a bike designed for loaded touring and ready for just about any abuse he could dole out to it. This frameset with double oversized tubing is ready for it. Both of us come from a BMX background so when he mentioned the black and yellow paint schemes of early Torkers, I knew exactly where he was going.

The polished stainless lugs and crown are just to add that touch of class on this black beauty. The saddle is a titanium Avocet X-Country that was reupholstered by Busyman Bicycles of Australia. The rear rack is a classic Tubus but I made some alterations, stripped the black powder coat, and had it chrome plated. The custom chrome plated front rack and low rider attachments are made of 3/8″ chromoly to match the diameter of the steel on the rear rack. The front dynamo hub is a SONdelux SL which has the wire connector built into the dropouts. There is a stainless tube that runs inside the length of the fork blade that houses the wire. The front light is mounted directly to the stainless fender which, unlike alloy fenders, is strong enough to withstand the bumps and bouncing that goes along with the rough roads of Western Massachusetts where this bike will be ridden most. There is also power going through the steerer tube to the stem cap called the Reactor which is manufactured by Sinewave Cycles just north of me in Cambridge. This svelte cap gives the long distance tourer the option of charging a phone or GPS device so as to not have to worry about running out of juice on the road. In this day and age, the Reactor is an almost essential piece of long distance touring equipment that I couldn’t imagine riding without.

One of the other special requests on this bike was the custom stem with an integrated parking brake. Will has used the front quick release hanger on his other bikes to lock the front brake so the bike will not roll when loading the bags. I integrated this quick-release hanger/parking brake on this stem for him. There are a lot of other details but I feel that the pictures will do a better job of explaining them. To see everything that went into making this bike, I highly recommend going through the 93 picture slideshow below.

One last thing, every newly assembled bike needs what is called “the shakedown ride.” I’m usually good about doing this to the bike before it goes to the customer so I’m confident that the bike will perform as desired. Well, Will wanted to give the bike the ultimate shakedown ride and rode the bike 150 miles from my shop to his home in Western Massachusetts! Will and the bike made it with a couple of adjustments in one day which is a feat in itself considering the hills he had to climb. Amazing.