Touring/communting...

Hermione

I'm not exactly a 'road beginner', I've been cycling around the city on old second hand bangers for years. But I've recently got into the idea of using my bike to travel further than just to work, and taking it out of the city for some fun weekend adventures.

Having just arrived back from a few years living in Vancouver, it is also time to buy myself a new set of wheels. Now, a proper touring bike seems to be the most appropriate, being fast and equipt not only for the long trips but also for the day to day commuting. However, my budget is pretty low (£200 - £400) and I'm really struggling. I 'm happy to go 2nd hand if it looks reliable enough, but all I've been able to find are more racers than tourers. (I really want thedrop handlebars...)

So, my questions are:
1. any leads on where to find a 2nd hand tourer?
2. If I get a 2nd hand road bike and simply add racks etc to it, will that not do the trick?

Any help much appreciated!

Hermione

thedaffodilfish

With regards to second bikes, where are you based? I imagine most areas will have their own hotspots for a secondhand market. You could always try Gumtree etc.

Otherwise, this should be in you budget:
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLq ... 155c002912

Or ask at your LBS.

alfablue

Or The Revolution Country Traveller - got a very good review in C+, it is £49 over budget but comes equipped with rack and mudguards, which would cost you £50 anyway.

ris

with regard option 2 the bike frame should be able to handle the weight but the wheels might struggle with larger loads. if you can find a sturdy second hand bike with good frame and wheels then you should be fine. you may even find second hand tourer type bikes out there that need a bit of tlc (dawes galaxy or something similar).

you may find some tourer-minded bods on the ctc forum.

feel

Dawes do relatively cheap tourers. As regards to converting a road bike it may well not have the threaded eyes in the frame and forks to take muduards and a rack. And as RIS says the wheels might not be designed for loads , although if you aren't heavy that might not be a problem anyway. Any road bike wheel should easily deal with a 14 stone rider (or rider plus load).

avoidingmyphd

+1 for the revolution country traveller (with the "racks and guards bring it within budget proviso!)

I've been using it for exactly what you describe for nearly three years now and I love it.

Hermione

thank you so much for your help... I now feel a lot clearer on what I'm looking for... the revolution looks great. I'm up in Cambridge this week, then shall be living in London, so should have a fair few opportunities to scour around for 2nd handers, but know where to go if that fails me.

Cheers

Hermione

Bugly

fitting panniers to a bike with a 'racing' geometry may not be a good idea bike gets very twitchy. (not that you would do that on a budget)

DanielCoffey

If you can find a second-hand Surly Cross-check frame you should be more than delighted - it has rear-rack and full mudguard eyelets.

alfablue

Some further thoughts: I would recommend getting a dedicated tourer, like the Revolution or a Dawes, or a Surly framed bike as Daniel suggests (it may just be possible to build a bike within budget on a secondhand Surly frame, though new the frames are £350). Some road bikes do surprisingly well as tourers. Cheaper road bikes are more likely to have more relaxed geometry as they are made for the more leisure oriented market (as opposed to racier more competitive riders), and the frames are more likely to come with mudguard and rack eyelets. My girlfriend has recently bought a Trek 1.2 (cost £500 new) and we recently toured and her bike was very solid with about 15kg in the panniers. It handled far better than I would have expected. Trouble is, it is hard to predict how road bike will cope without trying it loaded up, however I think in this case it worked well because of the relatively stiff rear triangle on the alu frame. Of course such a bike cannot take front panniers (carbon fork, no lowrider mounts) though she wouldn't have wanted to carry that much (no need when I was the "beast of burden").

An audax bike may also be worth considering, for example I have a 1997 Dawes Audax, it is a steel framed light tourer, so touring geometry on a comfy and fairly light steel frame. This is extremely comfortable for all day riding, the limitation is that if it is fully loaded (so full on touring with camping gear) the rear triangle flexes quite a bit and it doesn't feel stable. For lighter loads it is fine.

The other option is an older model mtb with rigid forks, many people tour long distances on such bikes (its got to be an older model to have the mudguard and rack fittings, and so it doesn't have a frame with disc mounts - interferes with rack fitting, though there are a few racks that would fit). Of course, these have flat bars, and although conversion would not be impossible it would be costly, and like you, I would really want drop bars, plus such a bike would be a sound load carrier but would lack speed.

So really, if you want ultimate flexibility to do fully loaded touring and faster commuting, a dedicated tourer is the way to go. If you only anticipate light ("credit card") touring then a cheaper road bike or an audax bike would do fine. I often fancy credit card touring but inevitably, the with the places I want to explore accommodation is not always easy to find so I end up taking the camping gear anyway, even if I mix camping with B&B. You may find you get the touring bug and want to take your tent to give you the freedom to explore, and a proper tourer will give you the flexibility, the best tool for the job.