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« Last post by froze on November 28, 2023, 06:34:22 pm »
I think the bike choices you are looking at are very good choices, the Rivendell is a bit on the pricey side for what you get, yes it has beautiful lugs, but they're not made for loaded touring, light touring yes, heavy-loaded no.
So that leaves the Kona, and in fact, when I bought my touring bike I had it whittled down to the Kona Sutra and the Masi Giramondo 700c Speciale. I had eliminated the Surly because the components you get on it are a level down from the Kona and the Masi, but you pay a bit more for the Surly, so that one didn't make sense, also I found out later Surly has a horrible warranty department should that ever be needed, so I'm glad I didn't select that bike. The Masi ticked all my wants boxes, the others ticked most of them, but not all of them.
What I finally decided on was the 2019 Masi, it would have been a good bike but something happened. When loaded with 60 pounds of camping gear the frame was shimming, or flexing, at first it flexed just a little, but as time went on it started to flex really bad, where it was swaying about 2 inches on both sides. I contacted Haro about the problem they told me to take the bike to their dealer near me, which I did, he test rode it and said it was dangerous, he weighs about 50 pounds more than me and with the bike loaded he claimed, though I doubt it, that rear stays were swinging a full foot in each direction, whatever. But even with just an inch or two that would over time weaken a weld someplace and the frame would break.
Haro was extremely fast at getting me a replacement frame and fork, man was I stoked, I had a problem with Ridley bike that cracked after 8 months and 8,000 miles they said it due to fatigue and not covered?! I got screwed on that one. But Haro sent me a new bike within a week after the bike shop guy told them what it was doing.
I did run into another problem, they were supposed to cover the cost of the labor to swap the parts, but the guy at the bike shop when he called them he was told they would give him store credit, which I guess is standard in the industry, but the bike shop guy told them that he wanted a check because his landlord won't take store credit, Haro said no, so the bike shop called me and told me to come get my bikes he wasn't going to do the swap. I offered to pay him myself but he refused, so I took it to another bike shop in town that is not a dealer. I told Haro what I did and they decided to send me a check for the labor which is something they never do but due to the dealer going ape nuts and there was no one else in town that handled Haro, and I had already paid the bike shop, they sent me the check. There was a bit of delay because no one was returning my calls at Haro, turned out that Haro office all came down with Covid, so they weren't up to full staff.
I think overall Haro did a fantastic job of taking care of a customer, I doubt any bike company could have done the same. Even Rivendell they don't even offer a warranty whatsoever, they only say that if something goes bad send it back in and they will determine if an adjustment will be made at Rivendell cost...not a very comforting warranty.
I'm not sure how good the Kona warranty is.
I have not ridden the new bike at all, it's still in the shop, so can't comment on if they got the frame flex taken care of. I do know that the frame has the exact same measurements as the old one, but the fork is completely different, it looks beefier. The old bike the brass-colored paint on the top tube was a tad of a shade lighter than the rest of the tubes which sort of bugged me but it wasn't something worth crying about. The new bike paint, a medium metal flake blue, is much better quality than the old one. My only question is, will it still flex, I hope not.
I think Haro might have known they had a problem because they never even questioned my load placement or anything, which I tried all sorts of combinations of load placement and nothing worked, so I think they were just going to take it as someone who calls noting an issue, they'll replace it no questions asked, but most bought those bikes and will never load the bike up, those will never know there was a flex problem.
Would I buy that bike again knowing what I went through? That's a tough question, if I had bought the Kona and had the same problem what sort of warranty trouble would I be experiencing with them? That's a huge unknown answer.
So if what I said about the Haro scares you, then get the Kona, that bike is the best of the ones you mentioned.
Another bike you didn't mention is the Salsa Marrakesh, or some such name, that was my number 3 pick.
I would also call or e-mail each company, tell them how much you weigh and how much gear weight you will be carrying, so they can tell you if the bike is up to the task, and write the person's name down whom you talked to, or save the e-mail response. I did that with Haro, and they assured me it was up to the task.
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