Kelly I

Here's another vote for Rodriguez. They listen to your desires and make them happen. My husband wanted a belt drive Rohloff, and has been very happy with the choice. He has an odd body shape, but was able to fit one of their 22 (?) stock size frames. This bike has seen four long tours. He estimates 10,000 miles on the bike
Rodriguez Bikes come with a built in bottle opener!

jkinner

I'm sure everyone will provide excellent suggestions and recommendations. Here is mine: Thorn Nomad Mk 3 with Rohloff Hub and Gates drive. See details here: https://www.thorncycles.co.uk/bikes Also I recommend you take a look at Peter White's site here: https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/

h_curtis

Thanks. The first builder is in the UK and the second doesn't offer a belt drive. My road bike is a British maker. Chas Roberts. Love it, but it isn't a good touring bike. Seems the only belt driven bikes in the US are Co-Motion. I wish that used one was my size. Sure is a huge savings.

h_curtis

Thanks. I'll study them.

h_curtis

Thanks, they have what I am looking for and will do some reading.

h_curtis

Thanks. Nice rig and I will look into them as well.

str

my Firefly touring. at Flickr Tyler publishes all their work in detail. impressive!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflybicycles/

Tourist in MSN

I assume you are only interested in a complete bike, not building up a bike from parts. The Thorn would be steel, welded in Taiwan but the frame would be built to the specs by Thorn in the UK. They predominantly serve the touring market and have been doing that for several decades.

I ordered my Thorn Mk II frame and fork, plus a lot of other parts from SJS. That is Thorn's retail arm. I then built it up myself. I think I paid about 6 percent customs duty on the Thorn order. I expected it to be 4 percent, so that was a small surprise. That was before Brexit, so that was the European rate, but I assume it is still the same.

The Mk III frame and fork are very different from my Mk II, so I can't really say anything about that bike. Thorn builds up different sized bikes for flat bars than drop bars, so you for sure would want to decide on the type of bars you want before you buy a bike from them. Their flat bar bikes have longer top tubes.

I think if you buy a complete bike, shipped from UK to USA, customs duty might be 11 percent but I am not sure on that. I just wanted to make sure you are aware of the possibility of a surprise cost when it arrives. It is my understanding that bike parts and complete bikes have different tariff rates. You might want to research that if you get serious about importing a bike.

If you look further overseas, a lot of Koga World Traveler owners are really happy with a Signature (custom) bike. I talked to several of them when I was in Iceland on a tour.

Santos Travelmaster is another option, but I have only seen two of them that I can recall and have only talked to one Santos owner, so I can't say much more than that.

I would not worry about getting an aluminum Koga or Santos, they have a good reputation.

If you flew to Europe and picked it up, bringing home a used bike might be less customs duty than if they ship a new bike to you. I think Delta still does not have an oversize fee for a bike in a box, I think they dropped the oversize fee four years ago.

tcs

Rodriguez, previously suggested by others.

https://www.rodbikes.com/catalog/mak...hift-main.html

Priority.

https://www.prioritybicycles.com/products/the600

jkinner

Belt drives on a touring bike are probably as common as unicorns. Two suggestions before you buy: 1. Read journals on Crazy Guy on a Bike and find out what long distance riders are riding; and 2) Check out Tom's Bike Trip here: https://tomsbiketrip.com/

Trakhak

A warning if you're a steel fork proponent, as many or most U.S. touring riders are: Koga-Miyata's touring bikes are supplied with either aluminum or carbon forks. I prefer aluminum myself, but I'd trust Koga's carbon forks, too.