After a whole lot of investigating we have finally chosen our bikes for the journey, the Santos travelmaster 26″.

Both of our bikes are Santos Travelmaster 2.6 aluminum and are custom built for us. Before choosing our bikes we needed to decide on three important points: steel/aluminum, 26/28 inch, Rohloff hub/derailleur.

The Santos Travelmasters 2.6 have been awarded with best long travel cycling awards and also have a modern design what we like so for us the best touring bicycle. We went test riding on this bike and also on some steel frame bikes and felt that the aluminum suited us better. People say that it is easier to fix steel abroad because it is easier to weld. At the same time aluminum is sturdier so it is less likely that problems would arise. So we chose aluminum.

Read our review of the Santos travelmaster 2.6

We have named our santos travelmaster 2.6 and written a small story on how they got their name 🙂 Read the post who are Mojo and Isaba. They are our trusted bicycles and we enjoy everyday cycling on them still after more than 20000km.

The following choice was 26 or 28 inch wheel size. Because 26 inch makes the going easier on difficult terrain we decided on the 26 inch wheels. Also this size is more available in many of the countries that we will pass through which makes it easier to find spare tires and spare rims if any problems would occur.

The last decision was Rohloff or derailleur. There is a large price difference between the two, so we should have been very impressed by the Rohloff hub to go for it. We also think it is a bit of a black box, we don’t know what is going on inside it. If there is a problem (of which they say it doesn’t happen) it is very hard to fix. We decided on a derailleur which is a little more sensitive but easier to fix when it gets damaged or works less than perfect.

Below you can see the specifications of our bikes:

  • Travelmaster 2.6 alu Custom built derailleur 3×9
  • Frame: Travelmaster 2.6 alu, 19inch
  • Group: Custombuilt derailleur 3×9
  • Front fork: Santos steel Travelmaster Front fork (extra strong)
  • Headset: Santos Stainless steel
  • Lights: Busch & Muller led headlight (60 lux) + led rearlight
  • Rear carrier: Santos TravelRack black, extra strong (Santos Design, made by Tubus)
  • Lowrider: Tubus Ergo black
  • Mudguard: SKS black
  • Stand: Pletscher rearstand
  • Handle bars: Ergon with extra long barends, anti slip
  • Saddle: Brooks B67 (Normal model for Martin, pre-aged model for Susanne)
  • Shifters: Shimano Deore
  • Frint derailleur: Shimano XT
  • Rear derailleur Shimano SLX
  • Cranks & brackets: Shimano
  • Cassette: Shimano LX 11/32
  • Chain KMC gold (anti rust with gold layer of Titanium-Nitride)
  • Breaks & Breakhandle: Magura HS11
  • Front wheel: handmade with SON hubdynamo
  • Tires: Marathon Mondial 2.0/50mm

We wrote about how we chose the santos travelmaster 2.6 in the This is how we chose our bicycles a small write up out how we figured out what bicycle we wanted and of cause the santos travelmaster 2.6 was a favorite from the start. Santos bikes has proven strong and we are very content with our choice.