New to Touring - Any Advice?

catbaier

Morning.

I'm in the process of selling my MTB (it's on here actually) and getting a touring bike.

Maybe I'm getting older, or just fancy a change, but the idea of a slightly slower (cleaner) and more dignified approach kind of appeals! Not to mention the idea of jumping on a ferry, landing on the continent and cycling... well... wherever the hell I like.

The last bit is the one that really gets me excited.

I'm hoping to spend about £500 on a second-hand bike just to get me started. But I know very little and I'm not too sure what the main points I should be aiming for are. I'm happy with something not too light, after all it's easier just to not pack something than to replace everything with carbon fibre and Ti! I'm also happy with fewer than 27gears, I've only just got shot of my single speed MTB (actually some pikey nicked it), so even having 5 gears would feel like luxury!

I guess I want steel, well made, non to delicate, with a low centre of gravity and a reasonably long stance and wheel base? Shoulf I have drop or straight bars? Most tourers have canti-brakes, why (it is an easy maintenance thing)? Tyres; 26" or 700cc?

Your thoughts please. And advice/encouragement/abuse.

I'm also after some idea of good UK and continental rides.

My fitness level is pretty high (lots of MTbing, mountaineering and running). I can happily walk for 12-14hrs a day for 3-4 days over very nasty terrain, covering 30-40miles off road isn't too troublesome (though it does hurt my arse!) and I ski tour quite a bit in winter. However I suspect touring will work entirely different muscles...

Cheers

Tom

Special K

You've come to the right place! Welcome. Wherever you go on your travels hope you enjoy and meet interesting people. Anticipation and planning is half the fun (for me) so I complete sympathise with your enthusiasm!

I am sure you get a lot of advise here, there's plenty already in previous posts. I would caution against getting too hung up on equipment but would consider the following themes that seem to come up often

Don't take too much stuff! - there's lots of posts where people have shared and reviewed kit lists. Generally speaking you can't and hopefully wouldn't want to take the contents of Blacks and Evans on holiday with you. You see some people carrying what looks like their entire home on their bike and others with just a small saddle pack.

Bike!
- Whatever bike you use, make sure your gears are low enough for a comfortable haul up hills with loaded panniers. No prizes for macho gears. For ratios, the average 27 speed mountain bike has a decent range.
- Handlebars are really a question of preference like so many other touring bike choices. Ask yourself what you feel comfortable with for many hours at a time, day in day out. I have drop handlebars on my "fast" bike and flats on my "slow" bike.
- Wheels - convention suggests 26" wheels on the basis of availability of spares across the world.
- There are so many suggestions here, but a cracking place to start might be a second hand or last year's model Dawes galaxy. Ticks all the boxes.

Routes
- For France I cannot recommend highly enough the IGM 1;100,000 range of maps (blue top).
- Again repeating themes and advise from others on this same site: choose the places you want to see and join the dots. Avoid big towns as they can be tricky to negotiate.
- There are a few companies who offer support for "self-guided" holidays as well as people like bike-express who cna take you to France and pick you up further down their route (check out their website).
- Crazyguyonabike.com and other bike blogs are an interesting resource to help inspire or make you more realistic as appropriate!
- Rest days - probably a good idea to take one day every week of touring when you're off the bike or not cycling far. If only to give the buttocks a rest.

Top tip
Buy and use Sudocrem or similar in your cycling shorts.

garyspain

We have a cyclist B&B in las Alpujarras mountains in southern Spain, the roads are fab and the scenery is stunning, just another option if you want to go further afield than France
We've got a small selection of our routes with profiles on the website.
Wherever you go, enjoy yourself!

peterbayliss

I'm planning to do my first cycle tour with a friend this summer in France so I'm not expert but I have been reading up on this and tell you what I have learnt so far.

What kind of touring will you be doing, camping, B&B or organised tours? Also how far and fast do you want to travel?
These affect what kind of bike is most suitable.
You can get fast tourers/aduax for all day riding that are lighter and most like road bikes being designed not to carry heavy loads. This is good is you pack light and stay in B&B or have an organised tour where they transport luggage for you.

You can get what tourers with drop bars and more relaxed frame geometry that will also have stronger frames and be able to carry more weight, such as camping.
Then flat bars that are like the above but have an even more relax riding position.

Cantilever brakes are used because they give clearance for fatter tyres and mudguards, they are also simple to maintain with little to go wrong. My bike has a pair with big pads and the braking performance is good.

As said make sure you think about the gearing as it won't be good for your legs to struggle up step hills as thats when you notice the extra weight of the load. On the flat you don't notice the extra weight as much, more the extra air resistance of panniers.