The set up for the SON on the Santos looks nice, but personally I don’t think there’s a lot in that and a spade connector to unplug (as Tout Terrain does). It is a tiny bit easier, I guess – probably most useful for people who are regularly storing their bike in the back of the car or some other place that they have to take the front wheel off.

Lest I sound like I’m plugging Tout Terrain, in my humble opinion they have (serious) issues with wheel shimmy that they’re not acknowledging, deriving from using narrow rims for a bike offered with wide tyres.

first of all I enjoy your blog! You collect a lot of useful information, even if I’m not a bike traveller but a year-round commuter. With this article although I disagree.

Did you actually test ride a Santos bike before?

I did two years ago when I was looking for a new bike. This is my experience with Santos bikes:

I liked the concept of the Santos RaceLite and did a test ride. I also had the Santos TravelMaster for a week recently as a replacement from my bike shop. Two different bikes, but similar conclusions – the bikes are too expensive for the quality you get.

Things that surprised me:

– the aluminum frames are of mediocre quality, the welds did not look smooth on both bikes (certainly for the ~5k€ price tag) and they were relatively heavy

– some details are not designed to last, e.g.:
–> no sealed cables from end-to-end for the Rohloff hub. Especially along the seat stay they use open cabling which collect a lot of sand/mud.
–> the Santos low-rider rack (Santos own design) I used on my custom build was the first part I had to replace, plastic mounts broke and the rack started to rust quickly during the winter.

In the end I got a custom made bike from PilotCycles.com – titanium frame of high quality, disk brakes, fully sealed cabling and more with the same component specs like the Santos RaceLite for a comparable price.

So I’m not sure I would call Santos the most innovative bike brand. Idworx, Tout Terrain, Pilot Cycles and some others are innovative brands for me.

Best regards,
Matthias