Founder Robbert Rutgrink answers the anxious question of faith "Steel or aluminium for my touring bike?": "A Santos aluminium frame won't break." Voluminous aluminium tubes with a load-oriented design, which are connected by smooth welding, inspire confidence and give the large Travelmaster a high level of stability suitable for luggage. Kinks in the top tube and down tube create space for large 2.5-litre bottles in the bottle cage on the down tube. They also allow the installation of a suspension fork. The built-in steel fork rotates at the bottom in an enlarged ball bearing and offers stability in terms of steering precision, lowrider and disc brakes on the one hand, and a little damping flex on the front axle on the other.
A Pinion gearbox with 18 evenly and closely spaced gears operates in the bottom bracket - extremely low-maintenance and robust, with a well-graded primary gear ratio and the low-maintenance CDX belt from Gates. Santos spares itself and the user a complicated, elaborate slider axle bearing and tensions the belt using a tensioning pulley, which is bolted directly to the gearbox housing and only needs to be correctly adjusted once. After that, many carefree kilometres are on the agenda. The smooth-running, easy-to-handle but heavy bike places the rider in a relaxed, sporty position, while the cockpit with its wide, pleasantly angled handlebars can be adjusted in many ways. Everyone should be able to find a comfortable long-distance riding position. Vertically, the frame and thick seat post feel hard, and the 50 mm aluminium tyres can't absorb all the vibrations.
Clever details such as a long headlight bracket, which minimises the shadow cast by the front tyre, the practical direct-contact fork, which simplifies wheel removal at the front, almost ideal and for easy maintenance externally routed shift cables and brake lines and the custom carrier from Tubus, which transports luggage flex-free with full 14 mm stays, show just how much practical feedback there is in the bike. If something does break, Santos supplies spare parts - worldwide.
Conclusion: A pronounced awareness of quality with lots of direct feedback from the global traveller scene lifts the Santos bike into the top league of touring bikes. The smooth-rolling Travelmaster is the perfect, well thought-out and durable world-travelling bike, as long as you are riding on roads and hard tracks. Its relatively high weight translates directly into maximum durability and robustness.
