Road Bike or Touring Bike?

john11

I am looking at getting a new bike as I have recently had surgery on my knees and want to take up cycling. My question is what type of bike do you recommend I get?

I want to go on a bike holiday next year, would a road bike or a touring bike be best? I will only really use my bike on the weekends as work is too far away and do not have showers.

Cycle Community

Dear John,

Perhaps you will find my article helpful?

http://www.cyclecommunity.co.uk/?p=264

Kind regards,

http://www.cyclecommunity.co.uk

Hoopdriver

Cycle Community wrote:

Dear John,

Perhaps you will find my article helpful?

http://www.cyclecommunity.co.uk/?p=264

Kind regards,

http://www.cyclecommunity.co.uk

So you reckon bicycles of any sort don't have a range of greater than 12-15 miles? Did I read that correctly?

Cycle Community

You didn't read it correctly - the post is for beginners, and sugests that 15mph on a road bike is a decent starting speed. On the premise that a beginner commuter probably won't do more than an hour commute (each way) the distance guides are on that basis.

Clearly you could commute 200 miles a day if you wanted to, just not sure a beginner is likely

http://www.cyclecomunity.co.uk

styxd

What do you mean when you say a "bike holiday"?

If you're going to jump on a plane with your bike, fly to France, stay in a chalet and ride the roads out there then Id say a road bike.

If you want to travel to France on your bike then make sure its a tourer (probably, although you could do it on a roadie and stop at B&B's on the way)

Hoopdriver

Cycle Community wrote:

You didn't read it correctly - the post is for beginners, and sugests that 15mph on a road bike is a decent starting speed. On the premise that a beginner commuter probably won't do more than an hour commute (each way) the distance guides are on that basis.

Clearly you could commute 200 miles a day if you wanted to, just not sure a beginner is likely

http://www.cyclecomunity.co.uk

I did read it correctly; I just looked again. The word you used was 'range', not 'speed'. It just seemed odd.

spen666

Cycle Community wrote:

You didn't read it correctly - the post is for beginners, and sugests that 15mph on a road bike is a decent starting speed. On the premise that a beginner commuter probably won't do more than an hour commute (each way) the distance guides are on that basis.

Clearly you could commute 200 miles a day if you wanted to, just not sure a beginner is likely

http://www.cyclecomunity.co.uk

Post talks of RANGE not speed

beverick

It depends what you mean touring bike. The traditional definition of a touring bike is, typically, for a metal frame (steel/titanium/alu/alloy) with sufficient clearance for mudguards and pannier bosses. My road bike is one of these:

http://www.orbit-cycles.co.uk/fast-tour.htm

... and it's just as much at home 'solo' as a fast road bike as it is loaded with 25k in the paniers.

However, more recently you're looking at something like this:

http://www.cube.eu/en/tour/travel/kathmandu/

which is more akin to a hybrid or even:

http://www.cube.eu/en/tour/travel/travel/

which is a x-bike/29er MTB style.

I'd say you need to understand where the compromise is - speed and distance against load lugging and flexibility.

My Harrier is used as for 'fast' transport and sunday morning spins' and spends most of its time during the week with at least one pannier on board - and invariably 2 - it fits my needs. If you're more likely to want something that could be used for a bit of occaisional touring, but will usually be used for social and weekend runs go for something like a Giant Defy - one of the few remaining genuine road bikes with pannier mounts. Alternatively, if you're more likley to need something that'll climb hills, ford streams and cross deserts, all with loaded panniers front and back, something like the Cube travel would be good.

Also, having had a number of knee operations, the road-bike oriented frames of the Orbit or Giant mean that your knee angle is less acute and, invariably, is more comfortable. I'd also suggest a triple over a compact. You have more ratios to use, the mid-range "double" changes (ie down at the front and up at the back together) aren't required and both high and low gears beat the compact. For example, I run a 53-42-34 chainset with a 11-28 cassette (which means a 40mph+ top end and the ability to climb the side of buildings if needed!). A compact is typically something like 50-36 with a 12-28.

Hope this helps.

Bob

negativelycra

Cycle Community wrote:

http://www.cyclecomunity.co.uk

2 issues with your site:

1 - The plural of photo is photos. There is no excuse for the use of spurious "'"s.
2 - Supporting some daft bint that damages a builders car just because he parked badly is daft. Just because she is a cyclist does not make her right - and a potential chief of police knows exactly just how legal it is to damage someone's property and leg it.

manglier

Negativelycra wrote:

Cycle Community wrote:

http://www.cyclecomunity.co.uk

2 issues with your site:

1 - The plural of photo is photos. There is no excuse for the use of spurious "'"s.
2 - Supporting some daft bint that damages a builders car just because he parked badly is daft. Just because she is a cyclist does not make her right - and a potential chief of police knows exactly just how legal it is to damage someone's property and leg it.

In fact the plural of photo is indeed photo's, since the apostrophe denotes excluded letters (in this case graph).
English grammar 101.

styxd

The plural of photo is actually photoes.

keef66

I don't think so.

I favour photos. The word photograph has already been shortened in common usage to photo, so I find the plural of photos to be acceptable to my inner pedant. Photo's suggests it's a contraction of photographs.

Anyway, wasn't the OP asking about some kind of bicycle?

I have a racelight Tk which has lively geometry but still takes 28mm tyres, full mudguards and a rack. I understand the newer Tk2 and soon to be introduced Tk3 have a slightly taller head tube than mine, which should make them even more suitable as an occasional light tourer.

For more heavily laden touring I'd want a traditional steel audax or something like Bob Jackson's End to End

petemadoc

john11 wrote:

I am looking at getting a new bike as I have recently had surgery on my knees and want to take up cycling. My question is what type of bike do you recommend I get?

I want to go on a bike holiday next year, would a road bike or a touring bike be best? I will only really use my bike on the weekends as work is too far away and do not have showers.

As already said I think you need to give us some more information about the type of riding you intend on doing. Touring bikes are for..... well touring. They have mounts for racks, maybe on the front and back so you can carry everything you need with you, clothes tootbrush etc. A road bike may not be able to take a rack and is usually for leisure rides, fitness, racing.

If you've had surgery on your knees then definitely get a test ride on whatever you're going to buy.

john11

Thanks for all the replies, really appreciate you taking the time to reply.

Plenty of stuff to go off i think, I like the sound of the Giant Defy as I reckon it will be used more for road cycling as cycling holidays will be once or twice a year and even then will most likely be carrying as little as possible.

I will definately pop in to a store though for a chat and see what they say, think there is an Evans Bike store in Birmingham, don't know what they are like?

The harrier looks like a nice bike but probably out of my range as only willing to spend around £700-£800 to begin with.

Hoopdriver

Manglier wrote:

Negativelycra wrote:

Cycle Community wrote:

http://www.cyclecomunity.co.uk

2 issues with your site:

1 - The plural of photo is photos. There is no excuse for the use of spurious "'"s.
2 - Supporting some daft bint that damages a builders car just because he parked badly is daft. Just because she is a cyclist does not make her right - and a potential chief of police knows exactly just how legal it is to damage someone's property and leg it.

In fact the plural of photo is indeed photo's, since the apostrophe denotes excluded letters (in this case graph).
English grammar 101.

I needed a laugh.

And you need a bit of learnin'

d3anharper

Negativelycra wrote:

Cycle Community wrote:

http://www.cyclecomunity.co.uk

2 issues with your site:

1 - The plural of photo is photos. There is no excuse for the use of spurious "'"s.
2 - Supporting some daft bint that damages a builders car just because he parked badly is daft. Just because she is a cyclist does not make her right - and a potential chief of police knows exactly just how legal it is to damage someone's property and leg it.

It seems to me that the website author had issues with the severity of the fine, when compared to other examples. And as the jury determined, she damaged the car by accident.

As for "Photo'sgate", perhaps the website owner didn't particullaly care, given that the website is about cycling, not the vagaries of English grammar.

As for bikes, go with the giant Defy, a great bike. Someone is selling a very nice refurbished one on here at the moment for £350 which would be nice

p1tse

How do the bikes differ

mercsport

As all my other bikes had worn out in one way or another, and stuck for anything else to do LEJoG last year, I managed to contrive to place a rack on the back of my Litespeed 'Ultimate' (a titanium racer of yore) and do the trip. Unwilling to fork-out the pennies and luxuriate in B&B's along the way I carried my house with me and kipped wherever the fancy took me. It turned out to be the best tourer I'd ever had. Furthermore, about this time last year I biked it back from the Pyrenees with the exact same setup.

Now it crosses my mind, didn't that lad from Harrogate who bagged the 'round the world' record this year do it on a bog-standard cheap'o Ribble carbon road/racer bike, and carry his house with him too?

Hoopdriver

Er...no. The round the world record was most definitely not set on a bog standard cheap-0 Ribble tourer.

mercsport

Hoopdriver wrote:

Er...no. The round the world record was most definitely not set on a bog standard cheap-0 Ribble tourer.

Well, don't knock yourself out and allow us the courtesy of what it is that you might know that I couldn't dredge-up in my hastily appended afterthought.

This may help a public perhaps thirsting to know though: http://goo.gl/WZfjU

http://bikehugger.com/images/disc_brake_road_bike.jpg

http://www.on-one.co.uk/files/oo/blogs/original/1JEPDWRU-CBOODDRIVP12.jpg

Hoopdriver

mercsport wrote:

Hoopdriver wrote:

Er...no. The round the world record was most definitely not set on a bog standard cheap-0 Ribble tourer.

Well, don't knock yourself out and allow us the courtesy of what it is that you might know that I couldn't dredge-up in my hastily appended afterthought.

This may help a public perhaps thirsting to know though: http://goo.gl/WZfjU

http://bikehugger.com/images/disc_brake_road_bike.jpg

http://www.on-one.co.uk/files/oo/blogs/original/1JEPDWRU-CBOODDRIVP12.jpg

The round world record was set on a carbon cyclocross frame from thevOn One stable, I believe, complemented with a very finicky selection of components. From what I gave read, Mike Hall put a lot of thought into everything that went on that bike. There were several articles written about his gear after he returned. Quite interesting stuff, too. If you Google it you can find them.