>>1471751Wouldn't buy Rohlof again. I bought it a few years back when I went on a long solo trip through South America. I thought it would be very hard to get any spare parts at all, so I wanted to get something reliable. My experience with my past Shimano Deore was that it was always a bit fiddly. Turned out it wasn't needed.
It has been the single most expensive thing that I ever bought. And although I am not unhappy with it, I wouldn't buy it again. I've already had the Rohloff break down on me once, which was annoying, cycling through Tanzania. In the end it was only half of the gears that broke and I could still continue with it for 4000km. (actually, the Rohloff is another thing that I had repaired professionally, because it was still under factory guarantee).
I bought that VSF T400, for 2100 euro. Not bad, but certainly not great either. Especially the hydraulic brakes are shit. I've had two leaking break levers already, while I've never had a single problem with cable-powered V-brakes.
Right now, I think that a second hand +/-2000 era Koga World traveler would have been a better choice. Light-weight and spare parts are to be had in every big city, even in most of Africa.
The shimano sora is on a roadbike that I have for when I want to cycle with my manly friends that only cycle on roadbikes clothe themselves in brightly colored lycra.
Schwalbe Mundial or similar is kind of a must in many poor countries. It's one of the few tires that protects somewhat against the steel fibres from collapsed car-tires that are on the road everywhere in South America and Africa. And since they last 10.000-15000km on the rear wheel, it ain't that expensive in the end.
