Building a Touring Bike – Introducing The Lord Baldrick

All cycle tourers need to name their bike and mine is called The Lord Baldrick. It has a cunning plan, I am generally not included. However, on this page, I will discuss the pros and cons of building a touring bike. you are unlikely to save much money over purchasing a bike unless you go second-hand for your components.

This page is split into the following sections. If anything is unclear or you need more information please don’t hesitate to contact me.

• The Pros and Cons
• Get a Bike Fitting
• The Saddle
• The Components I Chose
• Bike Building Tips

Building a Touring Bike – the Pros and Cons

My reason for building my touring bike was simple; I enjoy putting things together and this was an opportunity to build a whole bike and customise it. However, this comes with some great benefits and unfortunately, a few pitfalls which, could make life difficult on the road. But don’t let this dissuade you from giving it a go.

Building a bike can be a lot of fun but will also be frustrating at times as you suddenly realise you have the wrong component or you need an extra component (for me this was a chain tensioner – I had to wait a week). However, with good planning and discussing your design with others, you can bypass a lot of the issues. YouTube is a great source of knowledge on how to put bikes together and discuss the pros and cons of certain components.

Building a Touring Bike – Get a Bike Fitting

I’ve had several bikes before and assumed, being 171 cm tall, that a 54 cm frame would be perfect for me. However, I would be on this bike for several hours per day so after building the bike (yes after – first mistake) I opted for a bike fitting. The bike fitting was done by a physiotherapist who specialises in bike fittings and I would also recommend this. A bike fitter in a shop will not necessarily have an understanding of how your body moves and how any injuries will impact the bike setup.

The physio told me that I should’ve gone for a 52 cm or 50 cm shorter frame. I only had one way to alter the bike and that was the stem length, not ideal. I had to just hope that I would not get too much pain. A lesson to be learnt; get the fitting before you buy the frame.

They will also help you with saddle adjustment. This is important to avoid knee and ankle pain when cycling for days at a time.

The Saddle

Before I go on to the actual build I thought I would touch on this topic. Get this wrong and you will suffer! I did. There has been much written on this subject but a friend reminded me of this one famous line; ‘People spend their whole life looking for the right saddle and never find it.’ I started with a Brooks saddle and it started well but after a few months I was unable to tighten it any further without causing damage to the leather.

I tried several different types over the years and I’ve now settled on a saddle I bought in Uzbekistan and gone back to using padded cycle shorts which I hand wash (as a minimum) every couple of days. This keeps the saddle sores at bay.

Building a Touring Bike – The Components I Chose

In this section, I will try and explain my choices for components and whether I would go with something different if I were to build it again. Part of me wants to build a carbon version of a touring bike. Expensive fun.

Component	Reason or Change
Frame – Surly Disc Trucker (2019)	It is a good frame but I would change this for the Surly Bridge Club with bosses for the fork bag attachments.
Handlebar – Surly Moloko	This was the first time I had an angled handlebar. If building again I would go back to a flat handlebar with bar-ends. Suits my riding style more.
Headset – Cane Creek 40
Stem – several	I’ve had several and no real difference between them, the only reason for the change was the length.
Drive system – Rohloff Speedhub	I have a bit of a love/hate relationship. It is great when it works but a nightmare when it breaks and mine did. Much is written on this and I might get around to writing about them in the future but it is too much for this section. Don’t forget to buy the chain tensioner if you have a verticle drop-out!
Crankset – GRX with and Ultegra 34T chainring	Low crankset to combine with the Rohloff for helping to get up hills!
Wheels – Andra 40, 26inch	In hindsight, I would change to 28 inches and go with tubeless and carry a spare tyre. I would continue with Andra rims.
Wheel build – Spacycles	Get Roddy at Spacycles to build your wheels. ‘Touch wood’ I have not had any issues including broken spokes and am not expecting any.
Tyres – Schwalbe Marathon	Specifically Marathon Tour Plus MTB. They have been rock solid and I managed to get 19,000kms out of one before it needed replacing.
Pedals – Funn Mamba S	Reversible mountain bike pedals. Allows me to clip in (SPD) on flatter roads for more efficiency.
Brakes – SRAM Avid BB7s	Simple mechanical disc brakes. The main issue has been with getting SRAM brake pads. If I was building again I might look for the equivalent Shimano version. I did consider hydraulic but it requires more tools to be carried if they break.
Bottom Bracket – Shimano BB-RS500
Chain – KMC E1 (110 link)
Grips – Ergon GP1
Front Hub – SON 28	I have not used any power generated with this and if I was building it again I would not bother. I have 2×20,000 mAh battery packs and that lasts 8 days.
Rear rack – Tubus