Kona Sutra

Well, with all the talk and dreaming of the Salsa Vaya one would have thought that’s what I would have bought but no.

Short version. I wanted something different than what everyone else has like the infamous Long Haul Trucker by Surly which is followed closely by the Trek 520 in the world of loaded touring. Hence my keen interest in the Salsa Vaya.  I love the Vaya but it was just a touch out of my price range. I looked on C-list and found a 2013 Bianchi Volpe for $850 with racks.  Very interesting but I wanted to ride one before committing to buying it. I sought out the local dealer and checked it out. Nice bike, very nice but it didn’t really fit me as I am short in leg and long in torso which when it comes to road bikes it means that I either ride a 55 or 56cm so it fits my legs or I ride a 57 or 58cm which fits my torso. I usually opt for the fit in the legs and put a longer stem on it but this can be problematic as my hands are so far forward that the handling becomes twitchy at best. So the Volpe was out even though the price appealed to my cheap a** ways. I was mulling things around when I saw a bike with racks on it in the corner. It was the Kona Sutra (2012 model).

I immediately pulled it out and threw a leg over it and it felt good, it was a smidge snug in the stand-over but nothing ‘pressing’ to deter from investigating further. I took it out for a spin and fell in love. The comfort of this bike is unsurpassed. The bar end shifter were a little odd as I have never owned a bike with them. The BB7 disc brakes are incredible. When I got back from the ride I looked intently at the bike for flaws of any kind and that’s when I noticed the bike was not a 55 or 56cm. Neither was it a 57 or 58cm.  It was a 59cm!  What???  How can that be?  Well, obviously the top tube (as you have undoubtedly noticed in the picture above) is sloped taking on a more mountain bike frame look and feel that a standard straight bar road bike does not. Also, the head tube is really tall, like really tall. Add to that the spacers on the steering tube and the length of the top tube and well, you have a perfect bike for my short legs and long torso.  Now I know why it was (is) so comfortable for me.  It fits great in the legs and the long top tube allows for me to be really stretched out making it very comfortable for me. Everything about this bike I like, well almost.  The cranks are 50-39-30 which is a bit too high for my liking.  I’m not a speed demon so having large cranks is not that important to me. Getting up the hill is important to me. So more than likely I will at some point in the future, change them to a 48-36-26 crank set. At the very least I will swap out the 30 with a  26t or even a 24t.  We’ll see.

As for other changes, the only immediate change I will make is putting a Brooks B-17 aged saddle on it.

 

Future changes will be obviously what was mentioned above, the cranks. I am also looking at increasing the tires from the OME 32c to 35 or even 40s if I decide to take off the fenders but not sure if I will do that. Tires would change from the Continental Contacts to the Schwalbe Marathon Supreme HS.

I am also looking at changing out the handle bar to the Ragley Luxy bar. Think of the Salsa Fargo’s Woodchipper 2 handle bar only slightly wider and with more flare on the drops.

And if I’m going to do that, then I will seriously look at changing the shifters/brake levers to  the Retroshift CVX levers.

So the bar and levers would look something like this…(only these are the Woodchipper 2 bars)

 

 

These are basically ‘thumbies’ attached to the lever.  These are becoming very popular with the CX crowd.

BTW, these pics were downloaded from a really cool bike blog site called, www.g-tedproductions.blogspot.com . Check it out.

Just hit me that I have not posted a picture of my bike!  Yikes!!

Actual bike at my house…

So there it is.  My touring rig with a list of changes to be made.

I look forward to a three state park loop tour in March.  Until then, it’s training rides around the hood!