XT 756’s are practically Tourney’s these days. There is nothing special about it. I’ ve used almost all Shimano hubs, except XTR’s. Any XT starting from M770 is really solid.

Basic Shimano hubs have sealing issues. I broke a few of them, mostly entry to mid-level, but newer XT’s with thick, aluminium axles never disappoint. Anything below XT, or older XT’s are definitely not suited for wet riding, let alone bike touring. I’m a fairly heavy guy, ride anywhere with ridiculously high pressure and skinny tires, so I’m not very friendly to hubs.

It has a typical feel of a sturdy steel mountain bike frame. It’s forgiving and takes a lot of weight. Flex was not a problem for me.

Hi Niel,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. You asked what else I might change about my bike in hindsight. In addition to larger rotors, I would invest in higher quality rear hub with better sealed bearings (maybe cartridge bearings). I used a fairly economic Shimano Deore XT M756 hub and it didn’t last very long. The water got in an caused premature wear on the bearing races and also the freehub pawls started getting stuck. I would recommend a Hope Pro 2 or something of that caliber. I might also go for a more durable bottom bracket. I had a basic Deore BB to start with. It lasted about 5,000km before it needed replacing. Again, I think it was due to water ingress. Make sure you build solid wheels on heavy duty rims to avoid problems with broken spokes, etc. My wheels Rigidia Sputniks are still going strong. If you want a more disc specific rim, you could go for one of the big Sun Rhyno rims (like MTX33). Other than these two, I was very happy with everything else on this bike.

Have fun!
Lars

Thank you for the very helpful post re building your touring bike. This has inspired me to also have a go at putting together my own rig, and im quite excited to start building!

With hindsight, what would you have changed about your setup? You mentioned the disk brake rotor sizes, anything else?

Thanks,

Niel