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I was an early buyer of the QV and my # 13 has the older 10-speed cassette and front Mountain Drive. I've done some quite long camping trips from the UK as far as Lyon in France and carrying around 22kG of gear plus me (about 67kG) So far I've never found a hill I couldn't climb! My tent is a
Vango F10 Xenon UL 2 Person Tunnel Tent which is very light but, as you can see in the photo,
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can actually "swallow" the QV!
I hear many recommendations of the Rohloff setup on the QV but I would be careful about the Dronten installation as the return chain runs underneath in a tube- so effectively reduces the ground clearance. A good friend of mine who lives in Brittany (France) did his own Rohloff conversion which IMHO is better as the chain above the floor but this did quite a lot of extra carbon fiber work.
The QV is a great machine but I do not think the development is at a stage where I would consider taking it on a trip like you plan -before doing some thorough test riding to sort out any potential problems. Like all new designs it takes some time for various "weak points" to be progressively modified. As one owner pointed out " if the initial machines were unbreakable then they would probably be too heavy to be useful!"
The chain under the chassis is absolutely no option for me, problems are programmed this way.
I like your tent, exactly what I am using at the moment, mine is even a bit longer and would swallow the QV easily.
In the meantime, after so many good info about the QV, I am concerned that this is the right machine for my trip.
Just not rugged enough and no way for repairs and spare parts.
I seriously consider building my own rugged Quattro with locally available materials and a Rohloff properly installed.
The framing would be not a problem, but building the fairing would be a huge job, and a nasty one too
I have a lot of experiences with this kind of work, trough my hands have gone already about 3 tons of epoxy and the same amount of glass fiber and carbon materials.
Maybe I build the fairing in light wood or honeycomb, have to make some calculations.
Something like this could be used to as a base, those machines are almost indestructible
Cost about U$ 5.000,- which is not to bad and it would be quite easy to put a light fairing around.
But this baby weights already 25 kg
Not easy to decide in what direction to go ...
Have a great day