21 comments

1. Really like the evo also. One small thing that bug me is that you either charge your cell/gps or you use the light not both. I have a luxos u with a battery cache built into it. It has a daylight mode that I always use. The light work and charge at the same time. The cache empty itself but it not charging for about 5 min then it start to charge again. On day that are rainny the light is a life saver and not be able to charge at the same time would be a bummer. But the switch on the evo is really nice !

2. In order to achieve that, you could easily just remove the switch and splice the charging and light cables together! That said, I’ve found that charging is VERY slow when I have my lights on too; I rarely do it.

3. Yes I guess you could do that but that would render the switch useless. As far as charging goes with the light on ,one time I left the house with my garmin edge 800 at less then 15% of charge. Less then 3 hours later it was at 100%. Didn’t really check with my cell though.

4. I really like this for adventure touring NZ South Island, lots of road but will want lower gears for the back road camping too. How would I do this on the base model AWOL – a new triple AND cassette do you think would work with all the other existing bits? What about if I go for the Comp for the nicer steel, I guess lots more is involved to change the range? Finally, also looking at the Fuji as it seems like totally ready to roll and great value, would put on some 38c gravel tyres. Relative merits. Thanks this site has been so great getting ready for my first big tour.

5. Thanks for the kind words, Callum!

   There’s only really one way to get proper touring gears on bikes that use STI integrated shift/brake systems, and that is to swap the crankset out for a “compact plus” design. You’ll then be able to use a crankset like the Sugino OX601D in order to achieve gears as low as 20″ with a 26t front chainring. The AWOL Elite would be the perfect candidate for this upgrade.

6. Thank you for the quick reply Alee. The Sugino looks really nice. So my understanding its just the crankset I need to order with 26 t, and then it’s a matter of getting the existing derailleur positioned. The shifters will still work ok? Have been riding single speed too long haha.
   Someone suggested put a 26t on the sora, bit my Spidey senses were tingling.

7. You CAN technically swap out the 30t for a 26t on a road triple crankset, however it will exceed the capacity of the derailleurs. What this means is that if you were using the front 26t and the small cogs on your cassette, the rear derailleur would not have any tension on it. Manufacturers would never recommend it, but assuming you were always aware of the problem and skipped those gears, you could make it work! I recommend using a ‘chain keeper’ if you were planning on running this option.

   The reason that I like to recommend compact plus cranks is that they offer a better chain line. You can also use every single combination of gears without needing to think about it.

   You will be able to use the existing derailleurs, shifters, chain and cassette with either option.

8. These are pretty cool. When you say “There’s a little more fork trail across the board” do you mean more rake (fork offset) or do you mean more trail? Forks have rake, but trail’s interaction of the wheel outer diameter, headtube angle and fork rake.

9. The fork trail has been increasing as the bike’s geometry evolves.

10. I guess that before you answer, can you stop writing “fork trail”? Forks have rake, and “trail, or caster, is the horizontal distance from where the steering axis intersects the ground to where the front wheel touches the ground.” Do you mean that the forks have more rake? Or less rake?

11. But I am talking about fork trail, not rake! The rake has not changed since the bike was introduced.

12. Trail. Got it. So why do you call it “fork trail?”

13. I feel that “trail” alone is a much too broad term without the context and prior knowledge of bike geometry. I prefer to specify that I’m talking about the front end of a bike, so I call it fork trail. Sorry about the confusion.

14. DONT BUY AN AWOL WITH THE 19MM MEGAEXO TRIPLE CRANKSET OR REPLACE IT AND THE BOTTOM BRACKET IMMEDIATELY!!!

15. Any reason why?

16. Junk BB. When it seizes to your frame and the dealer (that didn’t apply grease on install) “needs” to special order a $50 P.O.S. FSA BB-4000 and tries to charge you (with labor) nearly the cost of a 105 groupset to “fix it.”

17. Hi Alee
    Thanks for your good work. I have the same issue (and also live in hilly NZ), Do you think that a standard 10spd XT or SLX crank with 38/26 would work with the BB and STI arrangement on the 2016 Elite?
    Cheers , Mike

18. Hi Alee, how would I go about achieving a lower gear on the AWOL Elite? Would it be possible/easy to swap out the double crankset for a triple to do this or would that require changing the other parts too?
    Thanks!

19. The left shifter is double only. The easiest way to get lower gears would be get a Wolf Tooth Road Link and a Sun Race 11-40t 10-speed cassette.

20. Ah ok that makes sense. Using Sheldon Brown’s calculator gives a low gear of 23 inches. Sound about right?

21. Yeah, that should be about right. You’d need to change quite a few more parts to go lower again. This page will help you there: https://www.cyclingabout.com/wider-gear-range-road-shifters-gears-for-easier-hill-climbing/

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