Road / Light Touring

sporting wood

I need a new bike, I've currently got a Boardman road bike but it's a tad too big and is getting destroyed by my commute and the rubbish roads near me.

In the future I plan to do some light touring, the kind where I'll only need rear panniers and I'll continue to do a fair bit of road riding, I'm not bothered about doing a Tri or anything like that but will do a few 100 milers and will regularly ride 50 odd miles at the weekend.

For comfort I've thought of a steel bike and I intend to keep the bike for a while so have thought of a good steel frame that I'll then slowly upgrade.

So far I've thought of the following, does anyone have experience of any of these frames and / or can comment on their suitability?

Bob Jackson - Audax End to End or World Tour
Thorn - Audax (maybe a bit lightweight)
Salsa Casseroll Double - would it be up to laden rear panniers?

All suggestions and comments are welcome!

andymiller

A lot of people really rate the Surly Long Haul Trucker. Also the Condor Fratello and Heritage. And there's also Paul Hewitt and the Planet-X Kaffenback.

The important thing to check is the chainstay length you will probably be looking in the range 410mm-420mm - even if right now you don't think you want to fit more than say 25C tyres, in future you might change your mind, so a little bit of extra flexibility is worth having.

I wouldn't obsess too much about small differences in frame weight. Relative to the weight of the fully-built bike (never mind bike, plus you, plus kit) these will be pretty small.

sporting wood

I've looked at the LHT but it seems a bit industrial for my needs. I love the look of the Condor, I should've mentioned that one in my list, it's definitely in contention.

Good point on the Chainstay, I'm looking at ones that'll handle up to a 700*28, don't think I'll need more than that, may start ruling bikes out though that'll only handle a 700*25.

alfablue

I have a Condor Heritage - very comfy and rock solid when loaded. The Fratello may be getter for all-round use, but the rear triangle is not so sturdy so may limit the loads you can comfortably carry. You may not plan on fully loaded tours right now so an Audax type bike may seem ideal, but my Dawes Audax sways at the back when fully loaded, thats why I bought the Heritage.

sporting wood

For the moment, I'm not planning anything too heavy, I'm likely to do tours that don't require me to carry too much camping equipment and the majority of the riding I do will be normal weekend road rides so a Fratello is tempting, I really love the look of the Bob Jackson frames, think the Audax maybe too lightweight though.