Buying a bike

felixj500
felixj500 Posts: 24
edited April 2010 in Tour & expedition
Hi,

I am planning bike from lands end to john O'Groats (970 km) and i dont know what type of bike to buy.

Should i buy a touring bike or a road bike? I have been looking at the Giant range (defy 4, 4.5, 3 and 3.5) and also the SCR 2 for road bikes. I dont know what i really need...

Any help would be much appreciated!

Many thanks

Comments

  • trickyplayer
    trickyplayer Posts: 65
    You will need to be able to mount panniers as carrying a rucksack for that distance will be very painful (unless you have a car following you :-) ). Hence this means the bike needs mount points.

    From experience cheaper aluminium frames are really uncomfortable as they transmit all road vibrations (I made a mistake of buying a Trek 1.5 that was really uncomfortable).

    My personal choice would be to use a titanium bike - I use an Enigma and it is really comfortable and convenient as I can mount panniers, mudguards etc. I've also tried friends' Van Nicholas bikes and they are very good for longer distances. There are also a lot of great steel frame bikes available. I'll leave it to others to recommend carbon frames as my carbon bike is not for touring.

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