Mountain biking around europe, need some advice.

BigBazz

Need some advice here, but not sure where to start. anyway.


Me and a friend of mine have decided we are going to do a bike ride around europe in april next year for charity. Leaving from Paris we will be going down through France to Spain, then accross the way of Camino De Santiago to the wast coast of Spain, then down through to Madrid (roughly 3 weeks by this point) and then possibly back up through France stopping in at Monaco and then down to Rome, I believe it is around a 2500mile journey and we plan to complete it in roughly 5 weeks total, giving room for rest days.

So first up, my friend needs a bike, obviously we will be doing a lot of road riding but some of the journey (the Camino De Santiago - St James pilgrimage way) will involve a lot of offroad and so we plan to be doing it on mountain bikes.

We looked at a few models and I'l be honest we are clueless, it has been years since either of us has been remotely into the equipment of biking and I dont think we have ridden since around 2006-2007. He wants to spend around £500-700 tops so a last years model type thing is probably more realistic. I will be doing it on a 2006 Giant XTC SX. Upgrading parts later is a possibility, but we definitely need something in that range now in order to start training.

Anybody got any ideas about where would be a good place to start in terms of choosing a bike in the price range? Obviously something lightweight would be ideal, nothing with big suspension travel and absolutely a hardtail.

There is also the question of tyres, whether we take 2 sets of tyres, one for the road and one for the offroad bits, or to just run one hybrid type of tyre that will do well for both? Anyway, we begin training in 2 weeks which gives us just under 8 months to get into reasonable shape, and we will need the bike before then.


Thanks!

MountainMonster

Have a check in the classifieds here, there are often very good bikes popping up for around 600. Something along the lines of Boardman hardtail would be probably fit the bill perfectly as they are often discounted. Enjoy the trip, it sounds amazing!

paul.skibum

I think the biggest issue you need to address is how you carry everything you take with you.

Pannier rack mounts on mountain bikes have become a bit of a thing of a past on modern mountain bike frames - there are various options out there to deal with disc brake mounts and the lack of upper mounts but they are hit and miss depending on the frame and brakes.

One bike worth looking at in that respect is an on one inbred which does have rack mounts and maybe something you will find second hand and inexpensive - the downside being that they are not ideally proportioned for touring in my opinion.

As for tyres - depends on what you expect terrain to be like for off road sections. A semi slick might be an option but if the going gets loose or steep they will struggle, tend to be best used on gentle terrain and hardpack. Carry two sets of tyres on the other hand sounds crazy heavy when you will be wanting to pack as light as possible and carry minimum weight.

BigBazz

The original plan is to get a front and rear rack type mount to carry the stuff and just use a camelback on our persons for water and bike maintainence bits, haven't really thought about the issues you suggest with actually mounting the racks, but it's something I will look at. Asking around, I've been told we can get lightweight foldable tyres which would be easy to carry. Around 500 miles of the journey (through the pyrenees) will have a lot of offroad, gravel footpaths and heavier dirtier paths.

Google Images example

But once we have reached the west coast of Spain, at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela I would expect most of the riding from there on to be roads.


We come into this knowing we can do it, but the biking market has changed so much in just the last couple of years, Neither of us had even heard of 29ers before now, is it worth looking into the 29inch wheel side of things or stick to the good old 26inch? I'l be riding on my current bike so its a no brainer for me, but my buddy is buying new.

paul.skibum

29er would probably make the miles roll by faster - on road or off - basically a 29er is the same (approximately) size as a road bike wheel has its benefits and negatives but for mile munching and easy off road it would probably be a good choice.

However if yu have a 26er you wont want your mate on a 29er!

Light weight folding tyres = an extra kilo plus that you dont want on the bike and enough bulk to be an annoyance. My suggestion would be to go with semi slicks or if you need harder core xc tyres then buy them at the point you need them and ditch them when you dont.

I would seriously look into bike options and rack mounting options at a better bike shop as I think this will be key to your success out there. I toured sometime back on my old Raleigh which for the tow path and roads we covered slicks were fine and it was sturdy enough to carry everythign I took with no mechanicals - for the most part you don't need a bells and whistles high end mountain bike to tour and I am pretty sure I have heard people doing the pilgrims trail on hybrids so it would be a good idea to look at the many bike options out there.

As another point, go in the road forum and look in the touring/explorign (cant remember which) and ask the question there - those guys are super helpful!