DC / MD Bike Store for Touring Rebuild

[Andiroo]

All

Can anyone recommend a LBS who really know there stuff when it comes to building touring bikes?

Thanks

[Westinghouse]

What do you mean by building a touring bike? Do you mean making the frame and attaching the components? Do you mean just attaching the components to a frame already built? If it is the latter definition you are asking about, I do not have the exact answer you are asking for.

The fact is, you can easily buy a frame and attach the components yourself. If you are unfamiliar with your bicycle's anatomy of cables, spindle, wheels, gears, and bearings and such, assembling your own bike will give you valuable knowledge that might just come in very handy once you are out there on the road.

[Andiroo]

Hi - i meant the latter ie assembling components on bare frame and fork. Totally agree re DIY option. Idea is great but my concern is less about fitting the parts - which i am sure i can work out, than it is getting the right sized parts in the first place. I am looking at both as options and even hybrid of they do some and i do some.

[Westinghouse]

Getting the right fits could be a problem. Some people can afford to let a bike mechanic take care of it. A shop might have all the parts on hand or know how to get them. You might want to figure out the parts you need, then contact a mechanic, show him your frame, and try to ascertain whether or not he can do it for you. As for exactly who to contact, I could not say.

[paddleboy17]

If you are comfortable picking out your parts from a QBP catalog, any bike shop should be able to install them for you.  I basically put mountain bike components on my bikes.  You can go with any beefy hub set and a beefy rim.  Shimano's Tiagra hubs are a good value hub.

[Pat Lamb]

College Park Bicycles had a decent reputation for touring bikes some years back.  Don't know if they still have the people and interest they used to have.

I was very impressed with the way the REI in Bailey's Crossroads built up my Randonee a couple years back.  I had broken the frame on the first day on the TransAm, between Yorktown and Williamsburg.  Everything worked well from then on.  Fenders and racks were solidly installed, and I haven't had any loose bolts yet.  Wheels were tensioned and trued; they stayed that way with two minor tweaks in 6,000 miles or so since then.  What really impressed me was that, while the original wheels started breaking spokes within 500 miles, the new wheels - that REI's mechanics laid hands on - haven't broken a spoke yet.

[Westinghouse]

Breaking spokes within 500 miles of cycling makes me think somebody did not know how to build a wheel.
I used to buy $25.00 27 by 1 1/4 wheels that never broke a spoke on the front, and might go 3800 miles before breaking the first spoke on the freewheel side. And that was cycling developing world roadways with 65 pounds of gear. IMO, if you break spokes within 500 miles, the wheel is defective, unless the wheel was put through some abnormally high stress.

I got some Weimann 700s for $37.50 each. They took me from SE coastal Florida to San Diego in the winter of 2009-2010. After that, I cycled a 500 mile round trip to Key West. After that I rode those wheels all over daily, and not the first broken spoke. Out of true somewhat? Yes. Broken spokes? Not at all.

[Pat Lamb]

I'm not sure your 27 x 1 1/4 wheels are directly comparable; what were they, 5 or 6 speed, with a 126 mm spacing?  I think the current 8/9/10 speed rear wheels are dished more.

Agreed on the 500 mile spoke breaking thing, but I don't really expect machine built wheels to be tensioned and stress-relieved properly.  That's why I was (and am) impressed that the wrenches at Bailey's Crossroads did such a good job on the replacement -- and it lasted 4,000 miles plus carrying a heavy load.  Front wheel is still true, rear wheel was re-trued in Hutchinson, KS, and Missoula, MT, and it was just minor touch-ups each time.

[whittierider]

I'm not sure your 27 x 1 1/4 wheels are directly comparable; what were they, 5 or 6 speed, with a 126 mm spacing?  I think the current 8/9/10 speed rear wheels are dished more.

The strength problem with the dish is of course the decreased spoke bracing angle on the drive side.  5-speed went with 120mm dropout spacing.  There were a few 6-speed put on 120mm, but most went on 126mm, as were 7-speed.  Although modern cassettes are thicker, a few things working in favor of modern wheels are: stronger rims than we had in the days of 5- and 6-speed, off-center rear rims (ie, the spoke holes are not centered) which nearly equalize the spoke bracing angle on the two sides so the drive side is much stronger than in yesteryear, and wider dropout spacing to make room for the thicker cassette without taking away so much room to keep a good spoke bracing angle on the right side.  The result is that my modern 9-speed wheel (which will also accept a 10-speed cassette) with 130mm spacing has a much better spoke bracing angle on the right side than my 1977 5-speed with 120mm spacing.  In 40,000 miles of riding between those two however, I have not broken a spoke on either one.  (I've had other problems with other wheels, just not those two.)

than it is getting the right sized parts in the first place.

I worked in a shop in the 70's and have done all our work on my family's bikes since then, and although I'm comfortable doing almost anything (one exception I can think of is cutting a carbon fork steering tube), whether moderninzing older bikes or building up bikes or changing parts or just repairing,  I can say that there have been a few times that things that basically fit didn't work well together.  For that reason, I think it's generally better (more economical too) to buy a complete bike since that's already figured out, and then change a part here and there if necessary, like if you want different gearing or shifters.