New bike for touring and trails

Berton

Hi

I've been riding a hybrid for about a year and I've enjoyed it but now want to get a mountain bike to try some trails and do some off-road (mostly) touring.

I'll probably want to stick panniers on occasionally and want to make sure the bike is able to take on all but the most mountainous terrain. I totally new to MBing but from what I've read a steel hardtail (with eyelets) seems to fit the bill but wondered if this is correct and if so which one? Budget is up to £1k and at the moment I'm thinking of going for an Orange P7 S, maybe the 2009 model.

Any comments gratefully appreciated, particularly as I'm worried the bike shops will try to steer me to what they want to sell!

Thanks

B

bomberesque

up to you but my experience is touring offroad with panniers is painful. However, choose the paths well (farm tracks rather than singletrack punctuated by styles) and I can see the attraction.

Depending on how tall you are, I'd have a look at Singular cycles, they have a range of bikes, mostly 29ers (like your hybrid) but more offroady geometry and at, least on the perregrine, rack eyelets. Otherwise I believe the On-one inbred has rack eyelets and cleverly placed rear brake caliper to avoid clashes with rack stays. cheap too.

if you're really going to be keeping to unpaved roads rather than fully offroad, then a CX bike might be the thing. Have a look at Surly cycles Crosscheck.

Berton

That's great - thanks for the advice.

Would those bikes cope ok on rough trails...I need something which is ok (though not necessarily perfect) for a bit of rough touring but that also manages trails no problem..

I wondered if this would mean that a travel distance of say 130mm would be too much..although with lockout presumably this doesn't matter too much?

biff55

if your considering riding off-road tracks and trails that are rough enough to require
a bike with 130mm suspension then give up the idea of taking panniers , shopping baskets , luggage or any other crap
seriously.

dave_hill

On One Inbred with 100mm forks.

bomberesque

dave_hill wrote:

On One Inbred with 100mm forks.

depends what you really mean by "rough trails" but that will handle anything (including being chucked down an alp or two, if you have the stones/skill

the other thing I just thought of is the Salsa Fargo, but again, I wouldn't ride it round ... say .. a trail centre in wales (not that it's impossible but I don't think I'd have the skill to enjoy it)