My First Ortliebs

Once again I have transformed a bicycle I no longer ride into equipment for The Great Escape. This time a single speed that I had built-up from an old 70’s Huffy Scout sold on Craigslist and the money, in part,  went toward a Tubus Ergo front rack from CycloCamping.com to carry the Front Rollers I got from my last bike sale.   I got the panniers at REI because with my 20% members coupon and some of my dividend from last year they came out to just over $80, which is half-price. I got the Ergo from cyclocamping because they had it on sale. Daddy loves bargain prices.

I have been wanting a set of Front Rollers since last Thanksgiving. Since the death of my wife family holidays are a bit rough on me so Thanksgiving weekend has generally become a time of travel. In the past my children and I have used that weekend to visit St. Louis, go Mountain Biking in Tsali in N.C., go rock climbing in Red River Gorge, and go camping in the mountains all over western N.C. This past year both children had plans with friends, so on ‘Black Friday’ I loaded up Bertha and Mule and rode out to Mounds State Park for the weekend.

Since the highs that weekend were in the low 30’s and the lows below 20, I needed extra space to carry bulkier winter gear so I used some cheapo rear panniers and a rear-rack trunk-bag to carry road fuel i.e. water, cliff bars and gel packs; emergency supplies i.e. first aid, and tubes and tools; as well as layers that changed during riding and stops.

During the rides to and from the park I noticed an occasional ‘shimmy’ of sorts from Bertha’s backside. After checking the spokes, wheel and tires and then doing some research when I got home I came to the conclusion that the problem was Bertha’s backside being too heavy in relation to her front, which caused her to ‘shimmy’.  I’m told that this is a common problem for ladies like her.

Since the accepted weight distribution for gear on a touring bike is 60% front and 40% percent rear to account for the distribution of the rider’s weight I came to the conclusion that I needed to shift the small amount of weight I was carrying in panniers and bags from rear to front. Enter Ortlieb Front Rollers and a Tubus Ergo.

As for the Ergo, it installed quite easily.  I did have to place a few washers between the supplied spacer and the fork to allow more room for the ‘tubular’ shape of Bertha’s fork–something to keep in mind if you are looking to buy this rack.  Aside from this minor hiccup there were no major issues and the rack sits nice and level. I also used some stick-on felt bumpers (commonly used on cabinet doors) to keep the rack from potentially rubbing against the fork. And I used some loctite to keep the bolts from vibrating themselves loose.

Once installed, the Ergo is quite solid.  I was a bit scared about this since it is so light (406 grams or 14.2 oz), but I guess the claims by Tubus about their geometry are well-founded, since I felt no sway and the rack didn’t budge a bit while loaded.  I chose the Ergo over its sister the Tara because it has a little more adaptability for mounting and more options for the lower clip placement on the Ortliebs and only weighs 46 grams (1.6 oz) more.  The Duo simply wouldn’t work because the mounting holes on my fork don’t go to both sides.

There’s nothing I can really say about the Front Rollers that hasn’t been said thousands of times in thousands of other places, so I won’t go into a review mode other than to say I really love these bags. Once I adjusted the placing of the attachment points to the Ergo and put in the correct Clip spacers the bags felt secure and ready for a test ride. So, I gave them one.

(If anyone needs a set of the 8mm clip spacers for Ortliebs, get in touch and I’ll mail them to you)

Berth’s New Luggage

I loaded the bags according to what I planned on using them for: Tools, tubes, first aid, locks, and water in one, and kitchen supplies, lights, and water in the other. This came out to about 8 pounds per bag. There was plenty of room left in each bag which is a good thing as I plan to carry other things in them like rain gear and food when I’m on the road, but I didn’t want to get too carried away until I found out how the bags affected handling. To simulate the tongue weight of Mule (10-15 pounds depending on the load) I put a gallon and a half of water in the old commuting panniers on Bertha’s rear rack. I then took them with me on the same ride I used to test my Etrex.

I know I said I wouldn’t go into review mode, but I want to add my name to the thousands of others out there who have praised Ortlieb’s attachment system.  Once adjusted for the Ergo and attached, the Front Rollers didn’t budge until the end of the ride when I grabbed the carrying handles and lifted them up and off–easy peezy.  Also, due to the roll-top and straps, combined with the attachment system the gear inside these beauties didn’t rattle or shift around while I was riding, which is a definite improvement over the old panniers which tend to noticeably sway when loaded.

As for my only real concern–handling, I was very pleasantly surprised.  It took a couple of seconds to get used to the slightly heavier feel when turning the handlebars at a stop, but once I got Bertha rolling her handling was noticeably better, not worse as I had feared.  She seemed more responsive and ‘solid’.  There are many statements out there about how dedicated touring bikes like the venerable Long Haul Trucker feel and handle better under load, but while Bertha shares some traits and geometry of a touring bike she is classified as an ‘urban bike’ so I didn’t expect this to apply to her–I was wrong.  She felt like a whole new bike, and seemed to love the extra weight up front.  symmetry good – asymmetry bad.

Stopping and starting with the Rollers in place also felt different, but not much.  Like I said before it took a couple of seconds to get used to the steering being heavier when sitting still, but after the first couple of stops I didn’t really notice it anymore.  Though I could see how not evenly weighting the panniers would cause problems.  As for stopping, the extra weight on the front wheel didn’t really cause a problem for Bertha’s disc brakes. The heavier feel to the steering as I slowed down took a bit to get used to, but once again after the first couple of stops was hardly noticeable.

Granted, on this ride I never reached speeds over about 14 mph or did any sharp climbs or descents, any of these things could have impacted my results.  But, Indianapolis is a flat place.  The best hill I know of for such a test is at the northern end of the Fall Creek Trail so I will try this test again the next time I use that trail which means I have one more test to confirm what the results of this test are screaming at me–this new set-up with trailer and front panniers is definitely the way to go for me.