In early 09 I began playing with the idea of bicycle touring, it was something that I had always thought would be a fantastic way to travel and see the world, but never had the chance to do.
I began looking at what options were out there in terms of bikes, the choices at the time seemed to be either road or mountain bikes adapted for the task but very few that looked like it could handle multiple tasks well from fully loaded road touring to off road touring and single-track.
I had seen people setting up old 700c road bikes with wider knobby tyres or running drop bars on fully ridged 29er mountain bikes and loved the idea of combining the two styles of bike into one, the drop bars allowing more hand positions than a standard flat bar, while also having the option and choice of 700c road tyres or 29” knobbys.
Salsa had not long began making the Fargo which I liked the idea of, sort of an adventure tourer, but I wanted something a little more personal so I began looking at custom builders to create something based around a frame I had designed.
It was then that I thought I would drop in down at Baum in Geelong not really knowing what to expect to look into having something made.
Little did I know this trip would end up with me working at Baum for a while and the touring idea would be put on hold. That is until a discussion with Garry turned into what has become The Long Road Tour.
So... It's been a little while coming, but a little over 3 years since my original idea for having a custom drop-bar 29er made, my new Baum Wills is ready to go, together with Garry’s Baum Burke, complete with a custom "The Long Road" version of Baum's GTB paint scheme, and we couldn’t have asked for a better result.
I began looking at what options were out there in terms of bikes, the choices at the time seemed to be either road or mountain bikes adapted for the task but very few that looked like it could handle multiple tasks well from fully loaded road touring to off road touring and single-track.
I had seen people setting up old 700c road bikes with wider knobby tyres or running drop bars on fully ridged 29er mountain bikes and loved the idea of combining the two styles of bike into one, the drop bars allowing more hand positions than a standard flat bar, while also having the option and choice of 700c road tyres or 29” knobbys.
Salsa had not long began making the Fargo which I liked the idea of, sort of an adventure tourer, but I wanted something a little more personal so I began looking at custom builders to create something based around a frame I had designed.
It was then that I thought I would drop in down at Baum in Geelong not really knowing what to expect to look into having something made.
Little did I know this trip would end up with me working at Baum for a while and the touring idea would be put on hold. That is until a discussion with Garry turned into what has become The Long Road Tour.
So... It's been a little while coming, but a little over 3 years since my original idea for having a custom drop-bar 29er made, my new Baum Wills is ready to go, together with Garry’s Baum Burke, complete with a custom "The Long Road" version of Baum's GTB paint scheme, and we couldn’t have asked for a better result.
Over the last few weeks I had been making regular trips down to Geelong to help with the finishing process and final assembly of the bikes. I documented the process with a selection of images bellow.
 |
| Masking the frame to work out positioning of the graphics before polishing. |
 |
| Darren polishing the titanium frame before masking. |
 |
| Weeding out the masks for the frames graphics. |
 |
| Masking the frame for sandblasting. |
 |
Sandblasting finished, graphics covered over for second blast with glass bead.
|
 |
Detail under the down tube after bead blasting was finished, The Long Road Tour logos.
|
 | |
|
 |
| Building up the Wills down at the Baum workshop. |
 |
| Garry's frame ready for assembly. |
 |
| My Custom TLR BAUM Wills Ti drop bar 29er/tourer. |
 |
| Garry's Custom TLR BAUM Burke Steel drop bar 29er/tourer. |
 |
| Burke and Wills ready to go, only thing left to do now is attach the Tubus racks and Ortlieb pannier bags. |
Bellow is the build specifications list for the two bikes.
FRAME: Baum Burke (steel), Baum Wills (Ti).
FORK: Salsa Fargo V2.
HEADSET: Chris King Nothreadset.
DRIVTRAIN: SRAM X9 2x10, 175mm 42-28 Crankset
11-32 cassette.
BRAKES: SRAM Apex levers, Avid BB7 Road discs.
BOTTOM BRACKET : SRAM.
STEM: Thomson Elite X4 10°.
POST: Thomson Elite.
SEAT: Brooks B17.
BAR: Salsa Woodchipper.
TAPE: Fizik.
PEDALS: Shimano XTR.
RIMS: DT Swiss TK540.
HUBS: Chris King ISO disc front, ISO 150 disc rear.
TYRES: TBD
EXTRAS : King bottle cages, Stainless/Ti
RACKS: Tubus, Duo front, Logo rear.
PANNIERS: Ortlieb, Back roller classic, Front roller classic.
Additional images can be found on our flickr site:
Both Garry and I would like to thank everyone that has helped contribute to the making of our two touring bikes, especially Darren and the team down at Baum Cycles in Geelong and Rob at SRAM Australia for setting us up with a couple of group sets.
No comments:
Post a Comment