Mountain bike with trailer or tourer with panniers?

elinfoot

Hi Everybody!!

I was wondering what would be better a Mountain bike with trailer or a tourer with panniers
I wonder how good carrying heavy loads via panniers is for the bike,would it damage the wheels etc.Plus I'd like not to be restricted to unbumpy roads. Anyone here got a trailler and what do you think of them?
Cheers
Eric

ddraver

I ve done it with panniers and i really like the idea of a trailer

although i ve never used one for a proper tour, if you want to do bumpy roads, get a trailer,

Philip Davis

Impossible question to answer without knowing what sort of trip you intend doing, how much kit you like to carry, what your budget is.

For mainly touring, you can't really beat a properly set up touring bike with panniers. If going off road a lot, then something really tough like the Thorn Raven or Roberts Roughstuff will do the job perfectly. Both those bikes have fairly tight geometries so you can even do a trail riding without kit if you like.

If you are short on space and want one 'do all' bike, then I'd advice a fairly relaxed geometry short travel mtb, with capacity for panniers and a trailer, depending on the type of trip you want to do. I have an On One Inbred with a Rohloff hub gear. I've used it for mountain biking, I've toured light (using a rear www.oldmanmountain.com rack), and I've pulled a Bob Ibis trailer. Its done a good job with all of those, but obviously it will never be as good as a purpose built bike for any of those tasks.