Road Bike to Audax?

runningrob
runningrob Posts: 6
edited June 2012 in Tour & expedition
Hi,

I have a 10 year old road bike that is still going strong (Giant OCR1). I aam considering doing the end to end and brought a touring bike. I have a bad back and the set of my road bike means it is very comfortable for me, I could not get use to the touring bike and am trying to sell it (see my other posts).

I am planning on being self supported, and do it in under 10 days. I have alot of light wieght camping stuff to camp out if I need to. Last year I ran across the sahara desert (well 155 miles of it) carrying all my kit, so it needed to be light. I can get all my kit, including tent an 5 days worth of food to about 12kg, so I would be looking at the bike carrying that wieght plus me and water. I plan on carrying all my kit in bak panniers, I already have a vaude bag set.

My question is can I turn my Road Bike into something that can do the end to end, if so what kit should I be looking at changing? The bike has no lugs or screws for panniers so can I fit panniers without these? I have removeable mudguards on the bike already. The wheels are the cheapest Shimano road ones I could find, I changed them a while ago when the old ones got dinted rims from a crash. They are surprisingly strong.

I think if I can transform the bike for the end to end it would be quite fitting as I have really enjoyed riding it and I would not feel too bad about retiring it then....

Any comments would be useful, or better still I bike shop who knows a thing or to about touring would be great. I am West Sussex /Hampshire border based.

Cheers

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