Recommendations For A Touring Bike

Mafarka

Good afternoon all,

Put shortly, for a few years now a dream of mine has been to give up everything and go touring for a year or two and my new years resolution is to quit my job and do this. Unfortunately, whilst I know a bit I'm no cycling expert, and after conversations with friends and other cyclist it would appear that everything I thought I knew is wrong.

Whilst I will more than likely be buying the bike in shop, I am just here to see if people have any advice on what to look for in a touring bike? Or if indeed which brand of touring bike people recommend and how much people recommend spending/ what sort of kit I need etc.?

All help is welcome, I guess what I'm looking for more than anything is bicycle recommendations for tour riding.

Many thanks and all replies are appreciated

clanton

There are at least two highly thought of UK companies that make touring bikes - Roberts and Thorn. Have a look at their websites too.
Also read crazyguyonabike for inspiration!

Mafarka

Also read crazyguyonabike for inspiration!

Already way up on the inspiration - its the organisation I'm somewhat lacking!

Cheers for the sites, its my mothers birthday tonight so I'll have a proper read through them tomorrow morning and in all honesty probably be back here with more dumb questions pretty quickly! Many thanks so far

Toonraid

It really depends on how much you want to spend, how much you want to carry and your personal preferences on fit and riding position. Here is some questions that you need to answer;

Type of frame - steel (more durable & comfortable) or aluminium (lighter and cheaper)
Type of handlebar - drops or str8 (same as hybrid/mtb)
Load carrying capacity - rear panniers only or front and rear
Type of lights - dynamo or battery type

Another important factor is the reliability and it makes sense to pick up quality durable items which although expensive should save youa few headaches and unknown costs out on your tour.

TorugartTim

Read through:
This guide
then check out some mid-range tourers
here
and some top of the range expedition bikes
here
Cheers
Tim

andymiller

Toonraid wrote:

It really depends on how much you want to spend, how much you want to carry and your personal preferences on fit and riding position. Here is some questions that you need to answer;

Type of frame - steel (more durable & comfortable) or aluminium (lighter and cheaper)
Type of handlebar - drops or str8 (same as hybrid/mtb)
Load carrying capacity - rear panniers only or front and rear
Type of lights - dynamo or battery type

Another important factor is the reliability and it makes sense to pick up quality durable items which although expensive should save youa few headaches and unknown costs out on your tour.

Good list. I'd add to that:

- type of touring - off-road - rough road or tarmac? (affects width of tyre and potentially the frame);
- Europe or worldwide (affects wheel size - 700c is very common in Europe but less so elsewhere);
- type of riding - lots of mountains? - affects type of gearing you might get;
- front suspension? (only worth considering if you are going off-road and even then there are arguments against);
- type of brakes, in particular v-brakes or discs. Arguably (and I don't want to start an argument here) Avid cable discs now offer a viable fixable alternative to vs.

I agree with Toonraid about investing in good- quality components. But I also think there's a lot to be said for getting stuff that's reasonably easy to fix if it goes wrong. Some high-end components are designed to be 'fit and forget' (or at least 'fit and forget' is part of the marketing hype) but if they do fail they have to be replaced completely, while a cheaper product which possibly requires more frequent maintenance may actually be easier to fix. I'm thinking in particular of components that use bearings - sealed bearings are definitely low maintenance, but old-fashioned ball-bearings are a heck of a lot easier to service and replace.For similar reasons some people go for 7-speed gearing rather than 9 (thicker longer-wearing chain) and barend shifters (which you can conver to 'thumbies') because there's less to go wrong.

Sorry if this is information overload. I'd say take your time and do the research about where you want to go before you make final decisions about the bike.

another jacko

Any bike can be used for touring, it depends on what you want from your holiday.

The best bike touring article I've read was one in C+ a few years ago when the chap went to India and visited a bike factory (Hero), then bought one of the bikes to go touring India on. They look like the ones people ride past the camera to give a period feel to Edwardian costume dramas and cost less to buy than the baggage charge for flying a bike one-way. It sounded wonderful, riding along slowly with the locals enjoying the creaks and groans of the bike and the sounds, sights and smells of the streets. Then he sold the bike on a street corner at the end and got most of his money back.

Perhaps I'm naive, but that's the way I would want to do it - in style and supporting local industry, not on an overpriced (and invariably ugly) Thorn, worrying about it getting dirty, damaged or stolen all the time. One day perhaps, when the mortgage is paid off...

At another extreme there's a tale I've read about somewhere on the web about 2 blokes doing Land's End to John O'Groats in 4 days or so. They rode racing bikes and carried nothing, but sent a parcel of clean kit to each of their planned overnight stops and sent home the dirty stuff.

You just need to decide how much you want to carry, where you want to ride and how long, far or fast you want to go. If you know how to maintain a bike (especially wheels) you can be less fussy than if you need something which is guaranteed failure proof. For most purposes a £200 hybrid well set up and serviced is all you need. I've done my touring holidays (in UK and France), including carrying full camping gear, on bikes bought for a fiver from the council tip. Spend the money on your holiday, not on the bike.

xilios

another jacko wrote:

Any bike can be used for touring, it depends on what you want from your holiday.
For most purposes a £200 hybrid well set up and serviced is all you need. Spend the money on your holiday, not on the bike.

I totaly agree with this, my wife and I have been touring on hybrids for a couple of years now without any problems.

andymiller

xilios wrote:

another jacko wrote:

Any bike can be used for touring, it depends on what you want from your holiday.
For most purposes a £200 hybrid well set up and serviced is all you need. Spend the money on your holiday, not on the bike.

I totaly agree with this, my wife and I have been touring on hybrids for a couple of years now without any problems.

Erm if you read the original post he's talking about going touring for a year or two.

xilios

andymiller wrote:

xilios wrote:

another jacko wrote:

Any bike can be used for touring, it depends on what you want from your holiday.
For most purposes a £200 hybrid well set up and serviced is all you need. Spend the money on your holiday, not on the bike.

I totaly agree with this, my wife and I have been touring on hybrids for a couple of years now without any problems.

Erm if you read the original post he's talking about going touring for a year or two.

Besides a hybrid (with proper wheels) he can also get a mountain bike which will be cheap to replace in case of theft or demage and would also be tough enough for some difficult roads. Check out this site http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=r ... 2348&v=2YV there are also a few others.
Or check out http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/ for a proper tourer, but it will cost.
Personaly I would go with the MTB option.
cheers

Mafarka

Thanks for all those who have contributed so far, progress has been slow mainly due to work commitments but I'm currently looking at either a Thorn Sherpa or a Ridgeback Panorama 2008. (Leanining heavily to the Thorn)

These are both within budget and to be honest as its a new trip/new start/new etc, I'm childish enough to want a new bike

Incidentally could someone clear up which type of wheels are preferable for world touring? Given that I have no idea where I could end up from what I've read I should go for 26" wheels as these are available worldwide, whereas the man in my local bike shop seemed to think 700cc were the only way to go.

Thanks for all comments thus far - and the guy in India does sound like he had a great time, just not for me I think!

Wooliferkins

Go see Paul Hewitt in Leyland. With a list of stuff you'd like. Get measured, buy a Cheviot, IMHO you'll never regret it. Great personal service and a dogs danglies bike, had mine Campag fitted. Aaah

TorugartTim

Wheel size. If you are going worlwide, outside of Europe and North America, 26" is the better option. It's not that bigger deal - people have done massive trips on 700c wheels -but 26" are stronger and much more widely available in the back of beyond.
In general, most local bike shops aren't brilliant for advice for long tours, hardly any of the staff are tourers.

geoff_ss

All our touring/camping trips have been on King of Mercia Mercians, custom built with extras braze-ons for front and rear panniers on 700c wheels. These were only fortnight tours in Europe. We've also toured staying in Hotels in Nepal and New Zealand with the CTC.

I wouldn't recommend serious touring on a sit up and beg shopping bike. I've seen Dutch tourists in the Alps and Pyrenees riding bikes so heavily laden and so lacking in suitable gears they have to walk up most of the cols. Even worse, the brakes are so marginal they have to walk down a lot of them too. Obviously it can be done but it seems to make a pain out of what should be a pleasure.

If you're intending to travel in wilder places then a steel frame is best IMO and probably with 26" wheels as they're more widely available than 700c. Keep equipment simple and easy to fix. Perhaps even consider a hub gear as less likely to get damaged than a derailleur.

Geoff