Buying light tourer - advice please

Jay dubbleU

I have a budget of 750.00BP from the Cycle to Work scheme and have been looking for something which I can use to commute but also take touring - looked at the Claud Butler Regent and Dalesman, Ridgeback Voyager, Kona Sutra, Dawes Horizon and Edinburgh Cycles Revolution Country Traveller and Explorer - they all seem to be about the same sort of spec - some steel some ali framed - any advice would be welcome

dang100

you could also look at Audax bikes. Ribble's is said to be good value. I went down the cyclocross route with a specialized tricross. It's not light, though.

andymiller

I don't know the specs of all the models you list but the factors I'd consider are:

- disc brakes? You don't need disc brakes for a touring bike. V-brakes do the job very well, so ultimately its a matter of personal preference. I wouldn't buy a road touring bike solely because it had disc brakes but equally I wouldn't reject it because it had disc brakes. Personally if I were descending a long steep mountain road, heavily-loaded in the rain I'd rather be riding with disc brakes. Cable disc brakes are mechanically pretty simple and easy to adjust and set up. The only/main disadvantage is that you need to carry spare discs pads if you are planning on venturing away from major centres (but they don't weigh much);

- steel or alloy? Again there are different opinions on this: most people, including me, think that steel is better at absorbing vibration and bumps than alloy, and for this reason a lot of touring bikes have steel frames. But equally a lot of people will say there's no difference, and there are some perfectly reasonable alloy-framed bikes, about and if you ride with decent width tyres you won't die or suffer horrible consequences;

- component spec. I don't think there's anything inherently better about having more gears: a 21-speed bike will do as good a job as a 27-speed. If you are choosing between bikes with the same number of gears then look at the component spec. Shimano Deore (or its road equivalent which I think is 105) is a good baseline - if the bike comes with XT (or Ultegra) then that's a bit better value. Also look for a decent set of tyres rather than eEl Cheapos;

- gearing. Some bikes come with a smaller chainset (48 or 48 teeth on the largest chainring) while some come with more road bike oriented gearing (eg 52T chainring). It's expensive to change over, so its worth considering which you prefer at the outset;

- fit and geometry. You'll probably find that there's very little difference between the bikes, but if say you have a short torso and/or short arms then you'd want to go for a bike with a shorter top tube. If you already have a bike you get on well with then take that as a benchmark.

Sorry I know you probably want someone to tell you get X not Y but there you go. Also excuse me if a lot of this is stuff you already know.

Jay dubbleU

Thanks Andy - appreciate the advice - some things I had considered but some I hadn't thought of - not sure about disc brakes as they might clash with the rear rack and I would want to keep things simple - not sold on the Tricross as it has carbon front forks and the words catastrophic failure spring to mind - I'm thinking also that a Nexxis hub might be less prone to problems than a derailier

alfablue

I would avoid an Alfine, Nexus or any hub gear other than a (hugely expensive) Rohloff hub on a touring bike, they do go wrong and a fix or replacement may be impossible out on tour, and you would have no options to fit rear mech and cassette and shifters (well, maybe you would, but you would need a new wheel too, and the frame may not be set up to take a mech). If a rear mech is damaged they are often easy to fix, and they can be bought anywhere that has a bike shop.

andymiller

Jay dubbleU wrote:

not sure about disc brakes as they might clash with the rear rack and I would want to keep things simple -

The advantage of the Kona Sutra is that Kona have done the worrying for you: so it should all work out of the box. The earlier models had a slightly weird arrangement for the racks but I think the current models have the rack mounts down near the hub.

Not that I'm trying to persuade you one way or the other...

geordieindevon

Just done the West Country Way (over 24 miles in 4 1/2 days) on a Claude Butler Dalesman...since I bought the bike I have done over 800 miles on it and its been great...worked well for me...deore gearing, v brakes, 631 steel, good rack, took two panniers of gear with no problems....only downside got three punctures (with Schwalbe Marathon tyres) on the trek but that could happen to anyone ( I guess).
Great bike.

jjojjas

I have the revolution, the Edinburgh cycles one.
Basically I bought one about 3 years ago, use it every day to commute, done a few week long tours with the usual crossing the pennines stuff in the UK. I can't really fault it.
I wouldn't call it light weight particuarly, but I can't compare it with your others in all honesty. I tried the Dawes back to back with it and the dawes just didn't fit me as well (and no, it wasn't the same frame as many people try to point out).
Only thing I changed was the tyres to puncture proof ones and the chain as a service item. I don't have the disc model, I wanted to keep it simple so I can pick up brake blocks anywhere. They stop just fine even fully loaded with one of my kids in a bike seat on the rear.
Recently I have changed it to a flat bar - simply because I have a knackered back from another injury.
The service is good. This is actually the second one I have had, the first one had a hairline split in the frame that was an unheard of manufacturing fault. They provided me with a new bike as it has a lifetime warranty on the frame.
Try it. Its worth a look.
Jas

BE1

Jay

If you are looking for a Kona Sutra for £750 then Evans on their website only has a 58 cm left. Ther may be a few smaller ones in shops around country: I've just grabbed the last 56 cm 08 model from the Brighton store. do not ask for a logical reason why i got it, I went in to see if they had a Dahon Cadenza 8 saw the Sutra and walked out with it.javascript:emoticon(':o')