Susana and I purchased our touring bikes this weekend. I had considered using my 10-year old Bruce Gordon BLT, but didn't want to worry about its hard life on every bump -- the corrosion from riding winters in the salty roads of the midwest catching up to it, the abuse of years of small tours and enduring a car accident. All of this would be on my mind as we rode through remote parts of Greece. So we'll each have a new bike on this trip.
We opted for Co-Motion Americanos, which we've been thinking about for a long time. Co-Motions are hand-built in Eugene, Oregon, and after talking to the founders at the Bike Expo last weekend, and answering every question I could think up, it sealed the deal. Whereas my relatively new Look bike is built for speed, these bikes are built for pulling stumps and working hard. The rear wheels are slightly wider tandem wheels, 145mm versus the standard 135mm. Becuase they are tandem wheels, they are symetrical and thus stronger. All spoke breakage on previous trips has been on the drive-side of regular dished wheels, so hopefully we can put wheel worries behind us. The concern I had was the lesser availability of replacement parts for tandem-sized hubs on the road, but the theory goes that you won't need replacements on the road with these wheels.
The standard component package is excellent -- XTR derailleurs, DT-Swiss hubs, Velocity rims, Race Face 24/34/46 crank, 11-32 XTR cassette, 700c x 37mm Continential Top Touring tires that let you look up from the road... you just roll right over everything. I'll put my new Brooks saddle on mine and outfit both bikes with STI shifting (we plan on bringing barcons as spares, at only 200g more), and replacing the V-brakes with Avid Shorty cantilevers. Fabian at Ti Cycles recommended against this, but I've only used cantilevers in the past on touring bikes and have had plenty of stopping power. Plus we'll need the short-pull cantilevers to work with STI. Other disadvantages of V-brakes on touring bikes: greater chance of uncontrolled skidding and higher pad wear because of the higher mechanical advantage, not to mention the lesser availability of pads on the road.