Trip 1 – Nov 1, 2021 – Around NSW and Vic – first day after lockdown ended
For the first trip, I used the world traveller with Gates belt as stock standard apart from replacing the rear cog and belt to give me some more gear inches for the hills. I like to tinker with my bikes, but everything I have is in storage after selling out of Sydney – so, very few changes were possible, and that allowed me to understand the bike a little before any tinkering.
It had the Koga Denham Bars which I was keen to check out, and the Tubus rack on the back. I added a Bike Bag Dude handlebar sling which needed a few mods because of the bars and cables. I had an email conversation with Kedan from BBD and initially disagreed with him, but after 7,700km so far, I think the guy was spot on.
I wanted to use spacers to position the sling away from cables and bars, so I hacked a pair of thongs / flip flops, taped some pieces to the bars and attached the sling. It worked out pretty well for the first trip.
The bars and I have a love hate relationship. They’re wide which provides loads of control, but too wide for a few doors of hotels I stayed in on this trip. I’m used to Jones Loop bars, so the sweep back was a change, but absolutely fine.
The bars also have two bullhorns which mimic the brake hoods on a road bike. They worked well but I found that they were too low for me and stretched my back a little too much. If they were angled up a little, the bars would be perfect for me. Compounding this was the fact that the stem was too long – so these bars deserve more investigation.
Luggage wise, I ran with 2 front panniers on the back, an Apidura full frame bag, two 5 litre dry bags on Blackburn Outpost fork cages, and the aforementioned handlebar sling.
Sometimes when I needed extra food, I’d use another dry bag on top of the rear rack. I had two drink bottles attached to a bracket on the saddle rails, and two Decathlon chaff bags, one for another bottle and one for phone, glasses wallet or snacks. This worked well for this time of the year but I knew I’d need more warm gear for the next trip.
The bike is a beast. The only thing that went amiss was the front right crank came loose twice, but as soon as I started carrying a 10mm Allen key (oh the grams), of course, it hasn’t worked loose in another 5000+kms.The Rohloff hub was flawless as you’d expect, and the belt drive was too – apart from squeaking when dry – easily fixed.
So, in summary, I think the friendly folks at Koga have really thought this bike through and perfected it. It feels solid and simply doesn’t break.
What worked well in the first 2,500kms
- Rohloff and belt – flawless
- Koga Denham bars
- with one mod, they’d be perfect
- Tubus rack – solid
- BBD sling
- never moved and did the job.
- It was too tight on the brake lines though.
- Apidura full frame bag.
- I’ve had this for a while and it’s great
- the gimmicky Bell / Compass that came with the bike
- It’s great to know what direction you’re heading in – at a glance
- the Schwalbe Allmotion tyres
- superb on all road types
What didn’t work
- my legs for the first 500kms
- The Brooks C19 saddle that came with the bike.
- It was hard the whole way and my bum didn’t appreciate it. Saddle sores were never far away. That’s disappointing because it’s completely impervious to the weather. Can’t wait to retrieve my B17 from storage