rifraf wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 8:25 am
brumby33 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2024 9:14 am
Yeah Rif Raf, I think they are a great little product, I first seen these on Darren Alff's YT channel Bicycle Touring pro and after my Vivente Touring bike falling over from the Centre stand (the first Vivente i had, not the present) where a huge chunk was taken out of my gel saddle when it hit the pavement at a railways station.
I've had the elastic plastic stabilisers before but they are easy to snap and even though they stop the front wheel from swinging completely around, they never stop it completely and the bike will still fall if on a centre stand, side stands are much more stable.
Been an avid fan of Darrens over the past years, loved his bicycle travel videos touring to all parts of the world, but another guy Sam was supposed to take over his website and YT channel but did nothing with it, I was chatting to Darren online last week and he intends on relaunching his Bicycle Touring YT and Website next year hopefully.
Hi Brumby,
your on your second Vivente World Tourer?
They must be doing something right.
This is my first exposure to Darrens videos so on your recommendation I'll make some time to check out some more.
Fingers crossed his relaunch is as enthusing as obviously was his last.
And yes the Ogre has taken a few spills whilst parked, so I can see the Steerstopper eventually emptying my wallet and migrating to my bike.
I was impressed with the first one I saw in the flesh and it was a lengthy recovery from an accident that saw a lack of investment investment in my cycling.
Happy Spinning
Hi Rifraf,
Yes I bought my first Vivente World Randoneur but it was a used one, 2013 model with the Trekking bars, mech disc at front and V-brake on rear, had 48/38/26 on the front and the 11-32 on the back with rapid fire Shimano MTB gear change system then after a couple of years there were new Models with full Hydraulic gears, a better lighting system, bar-end shifters, 46/36/24 and 11-32 gearing, i bought that new for just under $2800, now because the derailleur system has been discontinued, they are only with the Rolhoff 14 spd hub gears and are priced just under $7K which is still reasonable for a fully featured world touring bike.
As for Darren Alf, he has done and incredible amount of touring videos, i think at least 600 since her had done it 15 years ago, his goal was to teach people how to tour on bicycles. He teaches about camping and stealth camping, how to pick a site, I seen this episode where he spoke about the steer stopper, great idea i thought at the time and i thought it was only available in the US. He wrote a 400 page book a few years back called the Bicycle Touring Blueprint, I bought this book and it's great. He's also done 3 tours with an older Australian gent called Kevin from Handorf SA and he's an interesting chap too. Darren has toured Ukraine, Poland, Romania as well as Norway, Finland and Sweden many times. I think it'd be easy to have a good weekend binge on his channel
https://www.youtube.com/@bicycletouringpro/videos
enjoy
brumby33