Photos Pardy
Two 911s on the road
By HANS-HEINRICH PARDEY
Photos Pardy
September 19, 2022 · The Patria Argos and the Diamant Villiger.
So Rohloff or Pinion.
Or something completely different?
We seek and rise.
“I want a bike for the really long journey.” Anyone who enters a bike shop with this sentence makes the euro sign flicker in the dealer’s eyes.
The customer is planning a real purchase.
Then there will almost certainly be two good German brand names: Rohloff or Pinion?
Neither the 14-speed Speedhub gear hub from Fuldatal nor one of the – as is often rumored: invented by former Porsche engineers – bottom bracket gears with up to 18 gears from Denkendorf near Stuttgart can be objected to.
Neither are lightweights, a Pinion gearbox also requires a special frame, and a Rohloff hub can remind musical ears of a less talented cello novice with its scraping noises in the middle gears.
But when it comes to the range of gear ratios with an even gear step, reliability and low maintenance, nothing better can be found.
So depending on your taste, Pinion or Rohloff, if you want to have a good time with your touring bike.
However, those who, like many cyclists, prefer a hub gear for their heavily laden bike see little as an alternative.
Recently there was the Kinderay XIV with 14 gears, which can be changed to different wheels with little effort.
But with a price of almost 1450 euros, it is even more expensive than a Rohloff hub.
The Shimano Alfine 11, on the other hand, is significantly cheaper. First of all, it only has eleven gear ratios and an overall lower gear ratio of 409 percent instead of the 526 percent of a Rohloff.
And the Alfine 11 is badmouthed with a lot of persistence.
City, country, river: Whether it's a day tour or a round trip several thousand kilometers long - Germany can be cycled along rivers and coasts beyond its borders.
The routes shown here are only a fraction of the possibilities.
Illustration: Carlo Stanga
In a nutshell: The Alfine 11 is actually just an Alfine 8 that has been bored out at the wrong end of the gear ratio scale. Yes, from second to eleventh gear it has pleasantly even gear increments of between 13 and 14 percent.
But between first and second gear gaped around 29 percent.
Compared to the Alfine 8, the range of gear ratios has been expanded, especially in the direction of the thicker gears.
While a Rohloff Speedhub achieves a minimum deployment (calculated for 28 inches, the shortest distance covered per crank revolution) of 1.67 meters, the deployment of the Alfine 11 in first gear is 2.10 meters (Alfine 8: 2.35 meters).
In summary: The Alfine 11 lacks the right mountaineering skills to slowly but inexorably crank itself up to the summit on luggage tours.
Quite good experiences have been made with an Alfine 8 in the past.
It worked not only on short to medium tours without any complaints.
When she finally underwent a thorough inspection after several years and numerous stays at sea, her inner workings gave no cause for concern either.
The Alfine 8 had been scrambling happily through Holstein Switzerland, and the new touring bike was not to be tormented over the Alps or up to the Hindu Kush.
So the choice fell on Alfine 11. And not the least point was that with it a budget of 4000 euros could be met without saving anywhere else on the new touring bike.
It should be a Patria again, this time the Argos model.
When Heinz Helfgen set off on his sensational tour “I cycle around the world” at the beginning of the 1950s, he drove a Patria WKC, which is probably not a bad recommendation.
I would have loved to have been able to make the purchase at the nearest Patria dealership, barely seventy minutes away by bike.
But from the very first telephone contact, the tune was “We probably know a little better than you what you really need”.
So, as already happened successfully, Ulrich Peter was supposed to measure the bike 180 kilometers away in Göttingen.
The trip was worth it, although the configurator on the Patria website, which went down to the last detail, was used in advance to put together the desired equipment.
The Patria Argos model
Taking measurements on the adjustable measuring stand called the Velochecker took an afternoon.
It turned out again how useful this cumbersome-looking procedure is.
Starting with a basic setting that corresponds to the selected frame, a trial is made, the dimensions are changed little by little, then we continue to try.
The customer should be able to feel whether it is more comfortable to sit and crank one way or the other, and the specialist should see how much the knee bends and the leg has to stretch.
The three points of contact between man and bike, pedals, saddle and handles, are positioned individually, but can also be felt in real life.
The desire for an extended top tube that arose on the screen at home proved to be superfluous.
But it showed up on the bike with no wheels,
that the smallest standard frame height was still too high.
Because of the standover height - does the top tube of the frame fit under the crotch?
– advised Ulrich Peter to have it custom-made, which added up to an additional 224 euros.
A clean solution: Shimano Alfine 11 hub gears and the Chainrider chain guard
A clean solution: Shimano Alfine 11 hub gears and the Chainrider chain guard
Load or light: luggage at the front causes the problem on the Patria Argos: where to put the headlight?
Load or light: luggage at the front causes the problem on the Patria Argos: where to put the headlight?
Punctually as agreed, Patria delivered a very small 27.5-inch wheel in the desired color, a cinnamon-brown metallic tending orange with black components at the final price of around 3700 euros.
No question, it fit as precisely as a made-to-measure shirt.
It was equipped with Deore XT components as requested and immaculately finished.
If you not only drive screws into the frame eyelets with a cordless screwdriver, but also pull a washer over the greased thread, you know: This bike has been assembled with dedication.
Ready to drive, it weighed 17.78 kilograms, which added up to 20.3 kilograms with the air pump, tool bag, lock and other small items.
Despite the advertised "light noble tourer" and the use of tubes from the Columbus Zona series for the main frame, Patria puts stability ahead of lightweight construction.
The Argos can be loaded up to a total weight of 180 kilograms.
Not only low maintenance and robustness under bad conditions speak for the hub gears on touring bikes.
The ability to shift gears at any time while stationary also has its advantages on a heavily loaded bike.
Example starting up a hill.
You crank yourself up in the lowest gear, have to stop and want to continue.
With a derailleur gear, the chain has to be shifted to a slightly larger sprocket when pushing.
Because when you start off in the lowest gear, the bike only makes a short jump, you don't have the time to put your second foot on the pedal, and you're standing again.
No problem with the hub gear.
You just shift into a slightly higher gear;
on the Alfine 11, switching is done with two buttons.
Thirty gears and more are available and of course twelve, eleven or ten gears.
1×1 and 1×12, i.e. a chainring at the front and a gigantic sprocket set at the back that is so large that the brake disc can easily be hidden behind it, are popular with mountain bikers and in the bikepacking scene, for example.
Just at the time when Patria was first considering the bike, a touring bike with a 1×11 drive appeared in the range of the traditional Diamant brand from Hartmannsdorf.
The second 911 wheel was practically bought off the shelf.
There was nothing to choose from except the frame height.
Actually, the way the purchase came about was more interesting than the choice.
The local diamond dealer determined August as a possible delivery date on the computer with worried eyes in February.
No guarantee that this will work.
You can search for dealers on the Diamant website.
For the touring bike with eleven gears, there was only one page: "Currently not in stock".
Or with a shrug of the shoulders: "Stock not available, contact dealer." In Bonn-Beuel, however, the Bico dealer Sport-Fahrrad-Hübel reported the bike he was looking for in several sizes as in stock.
A visit to the Rhine, only a short uphill test drive up to the command in Ramersdorf,
The Villiger model from Diamant
The bike had cost a euro less than 1500.
When delivered, it weighed 15.53 kilograms with the M frame, just like the upgraded Patria finally weighed 17.8 kilograms.
With the name Villiger – yes yes, Villiger Kiel, the Swiss cigars with the thin mouthpiece – Diamant reminds us that there was a renowned San Bernardino by the Villiger bicycle brand a long time ago.
With its 7-speed gearbox, that was something very special at the time.
In addition, the Diamant brand, based near Chemnitz, which today belongs to Trek from Waterloo, Wisconsin, experienced a revival after the reunification under the umbrella of the Swiss group, whose bicycle division was also sold to Trek, but no longer appears as a brand.
It can hardly be said that the Diamant wheels have become more beautiful since the American takeover.
They seem somehow less original than the first few years of the Diamant reboot.
And they are, as the Villiger shows again, shaped by the fact that Trek, as a major player, also prescribes Bontrager components in Hartmannsdorf.
Then such a touring bike gets bulky luggage racks at the front and rear, which German equipment occasionally doesn't really fit well with, for example because strange appendages on the tubes get in the way, which may be good for something.
Big lap: The Diamant Villiger's 1x11 derailleur gears result in monstrous sprockets
Big lap: The Diamant Villiger's 1x11 derailleur gears result in monstrous sprockets
Tight calculations: It's tight under the Diamant Villiger's fenders
Tight calculations: It's tight under the Diamant Villiger's fenders
The Villiger is very similar to the Diamant 135, which was also compared in this newspaper in 2020 with a Patria model, albeit a very different one.
The steel frame with an aluminum fork is the same but nice to look at now painted in sky blue gray (zircon) instead of postal yellow.
The 135 collection bike – the numbers refer to the age of the Diamant brand – was also intended to be a touring bike, but did without mudguards in order to show off Schwalbe G-One tires and score points.
The Villiger was given mudguards that just about fit over the 50×622 Marathon Mondial Evolution, because a touring bike should have mud flaps.
However, because the frame is quite short and rather narrow overall, there is not always enough space for the feet.
In sharp turns, the toe of a shoe can hit the fender.
This should be improved, but it will hardly be possible to fix it completely.
The 1×11 gear system (Shimano Deore Shadow+) lifts the chain at the back over sprockets with between 11 and 51 teeth, the chainring of the Bontrager crankset has 42 teeth at the front.
The bottom bracket doesn't look particularly valuable, especially when you look at it from above and see the plastic protection ring wobble.
The hydraulic disc brakes are Shimano MT200.
A 3D72 hub dynamo from the Japanese runs in the front wheel, but only supplies power to the headlights (Herman's H-Black MR8);
The rear light is a battery light from Busch and Müller.
Yes, you can actually lose the USB-chargeable Toplight 2C that's also mounted on the Argos if you don't snap it cleanly into place.
And as if it couldn't be otherwise: The saddle on the Villiger is also a Brooks B17, as standard.
Once it's broken in, there's hardly anything better
The equipment of the Argos has not been discussed here as much because it was put together according to personal wishes.
It could look completely different, cost more or less.
In all its simplicity, the bike from Patria is not only the more beautiful, visibly higher-quality bike for connoisseurs' eyes. The precision work is also smoother on every meter and with every step.
That's to be expected given the huge price difference.
The Villiger is also not that sustainable.
The manufacturer limits the maximum system weight of bike, person and luggage to 136 kilograms.
If a real guy sits on it, things can get tight with the camping equipment.
But the bike from Hartmannsdorf gets up mountains a little easier.
The gear changes are smooth,
even if the chain has to be quickly lifted onto the pizza tray of the 51 sprocket.
Both 911s are good bikes for traveling under your own steam for different requirements and budgets of different sizes.
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