would this be suitable as a tourer

feel

TREK SOHO it is marketed as an urban bike but what do you think it would be like for touring - roads only and fairly light loading ie B&B touring not camping. Any opinions welcome.

cycladelic

I guess you'd have to ride it for a few days to really find out if it's comfortable etc.
But if you plan to go touring, why not buy a proven tourer?

xilios

Hi, my wife uses the Trek 7.2fx. If you havn't bought the Soho yet I'd consider a bike from the fx line. Light weight, geometry close to the Trek 520 and it has 24 gears which can be replaced for lower ones. Wife has 42-32-22 up front and 11/32 8 sp rear.
More details on our page.
cheers

andymiller

Well you could, but I'd be wary of that one: belt drives are very much new tech for bikes. I'm no die-in-the-wool traditionalist, but I'd give it a year or so to see how they fare in real world use. Spare belt drives could also be difficult to find if you ever broke one.

xilios' advice is sensible though you might also want to look at the bikes on offer from touring bikes of offer from Revolution and Dawes or a decent good-quality MTB.

feel

Must admit to being quite attracted to the new/different technology but accept the valid point that if the belt snaps and you are possibly stumped whereas a chain is repairable.
Anyone any views on the alfine hub and what about the roller brakes? - good in the wet i think, but are they compromised by carrying extra weight?
I suppose i really need to talk to someone who has done 5000 miles on one and get their views - unfortunately it's a new model

GyatsoLa

I can't comment from experience, but I know Rohloff have been experimenting with belt drives and I think they are reliable as while they are new for bikes, the basic technology is tried and tested. There are some pics of Rohloffs new set up here:

http://otbiking.wordpress.com/2008/02/1 ... bike-show/

Another thing in favour of belt drives is they are so light you could take a spare and the total of the two would be the same as one chain.

Roller brakes have been around for a long time and are very reliable. So far as I know the only real issue with them is that when they fail, they tend to fail without warning, and also there may be heating issues on big downhills.

I think the Nexus is pretty reliable, so it would be fine for touring.

In general I would say that a dedicated touring bike will always be better than an adopted bike, but I think that bike would be pretty decent for general touring - I'd just have doubts about taking it into some serious terrain.

andymiller

GyatsoLa wrote:

I can't comment from experience, but I know Rohloff have been experimenting with belt drives and I think they are reliable as while they are new for bikes, the basic technology is tried and tested. There are some pics of Rohloffs new set up here:

I think the Nexus is pretty reliable, so it would be fine for touring.

I can remember belt drives being touted for motorbikes 30 years ago - they never caught on. Maybe for a reason? The humble bike chain has been doing it's job perfectly well for over a hundred years. A beld drive may be new but will it really be better? If it ain't broke don't fix it. (Or at least let someone else try to fix it first, and if they succeed copy them).

Actually Nexus gears are not that reliable (I speak from experience). Alfine may be better but the jury is out. If they fail you can't fix them yourself, and you'll be very lucky if you find a bike shop with a mechanic with the skills to deal with them (again I speak from bitter experience). The only solution is a new hub and a wheel rebuild. It would be wonderful if the Alfine turns put to be the poor man's Rohloff but I'd let someone else be the beta tester.

New technology is great. But the place to try it out is close to home - not hundreds of miles away from home and on holiday.