What to ride for Recreational Cycling
crooks
Posts: 23
Hi all,
I live in the UK and got the cycling bug in my early 40’s. I’d bought a mountain bike a few years earlier but after some initial enthusiasm, it was condemned to the back of the garage. A road bike on the Cycle To Work scheme was the turning point and I’m now a keen, all be it quite unfit, cyclist.
The bike I have is a Specialized Secteur Sport. Most of my rides are in the 20-50 mile region but occasionally (perhaps monthly) an overnight stop or two can push it into the low hundreds. I’ve attached a Tubus Fly rack and use a small set of Ortlieb panniers on these occasions. Most of the cycling is on good tarmac but occasionally a section of cycle path might present a loose surface and some bumps.
My question; is the road bike I’m using suitable for this type of cycling? It seems to handle panniers well enough and so far nothing has snapped or bent on the rougher terrain. I love the way the bike handles and the low rolling resistance that comes with 700x25 tyres but am I expecting too much of it? I have visions of the frame snapping or the wheels buckling!
I’ve read up on touring bikes and Audax bikes but the media portrays these on tours of Africa or timed events. Neither of these seems to fit my requirement. I simply want a good recreational bike that I can use on one or two day trips in our lovely countryside.
I live in the UK and got the cycling bug in my early 40’s. I’d bought a mountain bike a few years earlier but after some initial enthusiasm, it was condemned to the back of the garage. A road bike on the Cycle To Work scheme was the turning point and I’m now a keen, all be it quite unfit, cyclist.
The bike I have is a Specialized Secteur Sport. Most of my rides are in the 20-50 mile region but occasionally (perhaps monthly) an overnight stop or two can push it into the low hundreds. I’ve attached a Tubus Fly rack and use a small set of Ortlieb panniers on these occasions. Most of the cycling is on good tarmac but occasionally a section of cycle path might present a loose surface and some bumps.
My question; is the road bike I’m using suitable for this type of cycling? It seems to handle panniers well enough and so far nothing has snapped or bent on the rougher terrain. I love the way the bike handles and the low rolling resistance that comes with 700x25 tyres but am I expecting too much of it? I have visions of the frame snapping or the wheels buckling!
I’ve read up on touring bikes and Audax bikes but the media portrays these on tours of Africa or timed events. Neither of these seems to fit my requirement. I simply want a good recreational bike that I can use on one or two day trips in our lovely countryside.
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Comments
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That bike's fine for your purposes...although if you're looking for an excuse to buy a new bike you might want to consider a CX bike.Where would you be if you fell down a hole?.. Stuck down a hole... in the fog... Stuck down a hole, in the fog, at night... WITH AN OWL!0
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It'll be fine, just look at the hundreds of fully laden London commuters bouncing in and out of potholes on a daily basis if you'd like proof.
That being said, there are a lot of fast tourers/audax bikes being marketed as cyclocross at the moment which'd make a very nice second bike if that's actually what you are after!2010 Cannondale CAAD9 Tiagra0 -
Sectuer Sport is ideal for recreational riding with light luggage.
Unsurfaced paths are no problem either. The tyres may slip and slide on wet clay or chalk mud but on hardpack, canal towpath etc they will be OK. I have ridden parts of the South Downs way on a road bike.
There are ultralight tourists who take your kind of bike across Asia.0 -
Thanks very much for all these replies. My mind is now at rest that I'm not systematically wrecking my bike. In the past, some have had me believing that a road bike like mine should only be used on glass-like tarmac.
I've no plans to buy a new bike at the moment but when the time does come, I'll certainly be checking out the CX options. There's some excellent reviews of them here on BikeRadar. Oh the temptation! :-)0 -
If its glass like Tarmac you were waiting for, you wouldn't be doing a lot of riding!0
