Raleigh Aravis

John Hopkins

August 2, 2012 at 2:45 pm

I have just finished a 3500km bike tour of Southern USA and Mexico on a steel frame Aravis touring bike with 700c tires – no, nobody has ever heard of the Aravis. Anyway, absolutely no problem with the frame and pannier racks (tubus) and I had new wheels built in Austin, Texas – DT Swiss TK 540 rims 36 spokes front and back which were great, and I was using Schwalbe Marathon tour plus tires (700 x 45) which look as good now as they did when I started. I had a Brooks Flyer saddle. I was fairly heavily loaded with about 85 lbs on the back, but I am very light at only 140 lbs. I was on paved roads the whole way although at times in Mexico the roads were pretty bumpy, and I hit a couple of large pot holes at speed, but everything held together.

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