Paul Klampers can stop a semi truck.

Sounds like you just bought the wrong frame for your body?

@@drunepa Delegating the responsibilty to the customer is a common error in reasoning. I have a hint for you: If you want to really solve a problem, i.e. afterwards the problems does no longer exist, you have to find the true(!) cause. In this case it's Tout Terrains fault. They simply don't understand frame geometry. Tout Terrain bicycles look very cool but they don't really work. According to the authorized resellers recommendation I have the second largest frame size. Save your money and don't buy a Tout Terrain unless you are willing to pay double prize for less than average quality. If you want to really use your bicycle and make a friend for your life simply keep your hands off Tout Terrain.

Sounds like you had some bad experience with your bike. I traveled on my Silkroad GT from Berlin to China in 2016 and had a great experience. It is true, that depending on your feet/shoe/body/frame size, you might need to mount your panniers to the further end of the rack, to ensure enough space between your shoes and the panniers in all situations - at least that is how I setup my bike. This has never been a problem though. Firstly, in most countries it is impossible/suicide to ride a bike at night (doesn't matter how much light you use, not the traffic, but the "road" surface will kill you or your bike at night). Secondly, if I really did ride into the later evening (on very few occasions), I used head and tail lights mounted to my helmet, so the light always shines where I am looking. With a fully packed bike, it is very difficult to be overlooked. A rear mounted taillight does not make much of a difference in my experience. For my setup I made explicitly sure, that there were no lights mounted to the frame and nothing on the frame or wheels reflected light at all, because I didn't want to be seen once I am off the road and in a tent, which is where I slept most nights. All panniers I came across have reflective properties and combined with a color other then something dark make you very visible on the road, but invisible once off the road and in a tent (assuming you store your panniers in your tent every night, which is what I usually did). I do agree though, that there is no need to buy an expensive bike like this one (or any other famous ones, like the KOGA WorldTraveller etc.) or a Rohloff Speedhub, for bicycle touring. You can get a decent bike from about 1500 USD. But I also met a girl along the way, that had bought a bike for 300 USD in a Korean supermarket and had already ridden all the way from there to Tajikistan on it. The only difference was, that she had bike issues about once a month, but was also able to fix them every time (or in her case, miraculously find someone else to fix them, because she didn't know jack about bikes, which interestingly turned out to be not necessary at all).

New to bikes looking for a belt driven chromoly gravel/touring bike any suggestions. Seems like the bikes that I like only have aluminum frames but I want steel

@@godsfriend4120 try Co-Motion Cycles they might be what you are looking for… they are in Oregon.

The Rohloff SPEEDHUB offers more range than a 2x road derailleur system. No problem to get a low/high cadence gearing for climbing. It's all about which external sprockets you select. You can compare ratios here: www.sheldonbrown.com/gear-calc.html or here: gear-calculator.com/

Rohloff has exchangeable sprocket ranging from 13 to 21

Both are top quality drive trains. There are some situations where one might edge out the other but neither is definitively better than the other in our estimation, with 15 years of experience using Rohloff regularly and 3+ years on Pinion. Feel free to give us a call to discuss. Both options will carry you reliably across the US and beyond!

@@cm545atholI have a rose bike with pinion 1.18. It has had lots of problems with squeaking from the rear hub wich is also pinion. And I can find several films here on youtube with pinion bikes that makes the same noice... Pinion says it's lack of lubricant in the hub. But the you need to do maintenence every 2000km is my experience...

@@madshovgaard3297 We have seen this noise on a couple of our demo mountain bikes with Pinion. The solution was to grease the sleeve that sits on the axle when you pull the driver body off. We don't track distance on the demo bikes, but we have not had to re-grease this piece regularly. Also, there are plenty of other single speed hubs on the market if the Pinion hub is giving you regular problems.

@Jurre is Online cool, thank you so much. But 70€ is a hefty price for this little gimmick. 🙄

No chain - belt drive!

No - it's welded on for additional strength and durability over traditional racks

Be more explicit regarding your thoughts about and experience with Tout Terrain, please. See my above contributions. And I'm willing to spent more time to help interested people save their money and health. Even though I have two years of experience with Tout Terrain I'm not sure whether they are just unknown (which I would appreciate) or if e.g. Google offers suppressing bad comments at least for say 80%, 90% or 95% depending on how much the customer is willing to pay to keep the internet clean. Another example: I got my first 'Plug5 Plus' (Tout Terrains charging interface) in November 2018 and needed three specimen until I got a (more or less) working one. Until today there's just one similar report by Andy Milsom and regarding my investigation I have not doubt, that there is more frustration.

@@runninggreenhorn9185 Why have you replied to my comment? Your response has absolutely no relevance to mine. You sound bitter. The problems you had with your Tout Terrain could all be of your own making. Did you get properly fitted for your bike? It sounds like you didn't and had no idea how to make it fit. Heal strike on panniers could be for a whole number of different reasons which were down to you. Do you have big feet? Where was your foot positioned on the pedal? How long were the cranks? Where on the rear rack were your panniers positioned? So many unknowns. Looking at the rear triangle it doesn't seem especially short meaning there should be lots of space to avoid heel strike, in fact, like the Surly LHT, it seems quite long meaning the bike gives more space and would also be more stable loaded up. As far as I know Tout Terrain are an extremely good brand of bicycle and they make extremely capable commuting, everyday and expedition bicycles. Quite a few have been ridden around the world. I am sure if you had visited one of their reputable dealers then they would have made sure that your bike fitted you. You seem like an internet troll.

@@alexmorgan3435 If been writing for internet forums and on different subjects for more than ten years and even though now and then some people dislike what I say, I have never been accused to be a troll. Thanks for this new insight. :-) Quite the contrary, people experienced on the subject discussed usually agree with my contributions and express thankfulness because it's not that easy to make a lot of (bad) experience on the one hand and write it down for others in a few short paragraphs on the other hand. You wrote: 'You can tell this guy doesn't actually ride this bike let alone own one or toured on one.' I say so, too. And this is why I was thankful for your comment. I remember my own experience and I supplement to your words: '... yes and especially he never tried what happens with panniers on this damned rack.' Note that the above 'Silk Road' represents the 26 inches product group of travel bikes, where the '5th Avenue' belongs to the 28 inches group and for the sake of completeness the 'Tanami' stands for the 29 inches group (the abbreviation 'GT' means drop bars for each product group). Hence, the 'Silk Road' frame is even narrower than the '5th Avenue' frame and the drivers heels strike deeper in the panniers. Also note, that pictures of moving Tout Terrain bicycles with panniers are very rare. Why? Aren't these famous travel bicycles? The Tout Terrain problem has nothing to do with bike fitting, but with a constructional fault, trust me. There is not much to fit, see the configurator on their internet page. Is there a better fitting word than 'embarrassing' for the mere fact, that Tout Terrain has been building the '5th Avenue' for more than ten years, before I got mine (by the way after of cause visiting an official dealer who finally 'earned' between 2000 and 2500 Euro for selling a useless bicycle; ... and no, there is almost no chance to return the bicycle and get the money back, basically because the dealers and producers business models vitally include, that the money transfer between the customer and them has one direction, only)? Either Tout Terrain simply never tried what happens when they mount a pannier or they already know and decided to keep the erroneous design despite they know better. If you want a real travel bike, have look for example at the Patria 'Terra' or 'Argos' (a little lighter), especially regarding the well-proven frame geometry. Trust me again, when I say that there is no chance to really 'individualize' a Tout Terrain bicycle, for example, by printing your name on the frame. The word 'individual' in the orwellian Tout Terrain speak means, that each customer gets precisely the same. Still believe, that I'm a troll? Investigate in what I write here and you'll confirm a very elaborate point of view and far more valuable information than any authorized dealer will give you. I have 10.000km (ten-thousand) of practical experience riding a '5th Avenue' with just two standard panniers on the rear rack, especially riding 3000km in four weeks in the French Alpes. I attest Tout Terrain crude frame design, a few well-known parts with trusted names like the Rohloff gear hub or the SON lights and the remainder a lot of components not worth to make words about, double the prize and hopefully the customer will not really use the bicycle or at least never come back. I can assure you that no force in heaven or on earth will ever convince me to give Tout Terrain a second chance. A final note: Tout Terrain sells a very cool image, but nothing else. The company could be much better off, when they decided to spent more time and money in gaining experience than for their product design and placement agency. The dealer tells the customer what the customer believes he must hear to trust in the dealers knowledge. The communication between dealer and customer is a complex game and the common dealer has far more experience than the common customer. Neither the dealer nor Tout Terrain cares wether the customer is happy or frustrated with his new bicycle. I tell you what happens, when the customers money has gone: Nothing! The dealer will promise to report problems to Tout Terrain and Tout Terrain is famous for not answering. In the rare cases where they answer, they give excuses or tell the dealer that they where unable to reproduce the problem. Why should they care for the customer? The 'bicycle' is just the means which makes the money travel from the customers pocket to dealers and the producers pockets. By the way, from my point of experience this is the only situation where 'traveling' really happens, when the customer buys a Tout Terrain travel bike. Bon voyage!

@@runninggreenhorn9185 I simply don't have the time nor patience to read your novel.

Why are internet bike people such derpy snobs?

How tall are you? Their XL size covers relatively tall riders - 6'4"+

@@cm545athol 6' 3" but bikes of that size seem so cramped.

Caution! The Tout Terrain bicycles look great but they have severe disadvantages for people who want to use them for riding; see my above comment for more. Save your money a don't vote for Tout Terrain!

@@runninggreenhorn9185 Just read your 'severe warning' message and confirm I have read countless comments regarding heel strike when panniers are attached to touring/trekking Tout Terrain bicycles. So glad I did not buy a ToutTerrain midget bike. I eventually bought a Velotechnik S-Pedelec Scorpion fs 26 with a Pinion P1. 18 gearbox retrofitted. Twin batteries, too. I've never had so much fun! Now I'm looking at buying a Santos Travelmaster with the 70cm frame! Now that is what I call a decent frame size. Go look at their website and read reviews on the Santos Travelmaster. Santos bikes knock Tout Terrain, with their shitty little midget frames, into a cocked hat. www.santosbikes.com/en/bikes/travelmaster-series/travelmaster-3

@@albertdesalvo7273 Thanks for your reply and the nice Santos link. :-) I don't want to waste your time. But I received answers to my comments and responded to these forum entries. Perhaps this is also interesting for you. See below my 'severe warning' and below Alex Morgans 'You can tell this guy ...' post. Best wishes, and always a good road under your tires!