Converting a road bike to a touring bike

Scrabble007

**odd alert**

I'd like to convert my boardman road bike (carbon, lovely skinny stiff wheels) into a tourer for a three week jaunt across Europe. Does anyone have any experience of securing pannier racks onto a bike without pannier eyelets? I only plan to carry stuff on the back wheels and don't want to drill any holes in the frame.

I'm assuming it'll be easier to get hold of some more suitable wheels. Anything else I should be thinking about? Not quite sure of expected terrain yet, but general idea is on roads, even if they are a bit rough and ready in some places.

Or is this a daft idea and should I bite the bullet and get something more obviously suitable? (And what?)

MichaelW

Are you camping? What kind of load?
Light loads can be carried on Carradice saddlebags or seatpost clamp racks, using a barbag and possibly a frame bag.
If your load is light, your wheels should be strong enough. Thats not to say they wont break and if they do, can they be fixed. Most tourers favour std spoked wheels for fixability.

Scrabble007

That's helpful - thank you. Camping still tbc but load would be large enough to be reasonably self sufficient though with a ruthless attitude to what is necessary. (I realise that doesn't tell you much...). But the racks you mention seem to be usable on bikes without eyelets, which is the main thing. I definitely plan to get some more robust wheels and tyres, depending on what I can find that fits.

cougie

I think you'd be better off buying a bike designed for it.
Then you get another bike !

If you google though - the guy who has the round the world record did it on a carbon fibre planet x cross bike.
He travelled pretty light and without panniers.

http://m.bikeradar.com/road/news/articl ... ker-34239/

Scrabble007

Mega trip, but we are only going a fraction of the distance and with a high premium put on the odd glass of wine :-) i'd love a new bike - but it seems unreasonable for girl to have three bikes...

unixnerd

Don't change the wheels. Just get a few spare spokes and carry them with you.

mercia_man

You can fit a carrier to a bike without eyelets by using plastic-coated P-clips on the seatstays. I did that years ago to fit a standard Blackburn alloy four-point fixing carrier to an early mountain bike. That would enable you to carry panniers. That should give you enough carrying capacity for camping. You could also add a bar bag.

However, the geometry of your bike is wrong for touring so you will need to get used to riding it loaded and you'll have to take extra care. I suspect it would be quite twitchy and you would have to be cautious when descending to avoid the risk of speed wobbles. Having said that, I've met European cyclists happily riding the pilgrim's route to Santiago de Compostela on road race bikes loaded up with gear. Wobbly descents, broken rear spokes and punctured or split racing tyres are potential issues, however.

A great system for lighter loads is a Carradice saddlebag (such as Camper Longflap) with a Bagman support that attaches to saddle rails. That's only suitable for really lightweight camping with expensive minimalist equipment. But great for hotel touring.

I don't know what your wheels are like but it would be worth fitting 25mm or even better 28mm tyres for comfort and durability if you have the frame clearance. Lightweight touring or training tyres like Conti Gatorskins, Panaracer Paselas or Vittoria Randonneurs would be the sort to consider. For peace of mind, if you have the money, a set of handbuilt traditional 32 or even 36 spoked wheels would be best, but not essential.

Monty Dog

Don't use p-clips to secure a rack to a carbon frame as they'll probably fret their way through your chainstays. Tubus do a lightweight rear rack that fits over your wheel QR - obviously will not take the weight of a heavier rack. Fit bigger, heavier tyres to. Handlebar bag and frame bag should see you sorted - if you need to carry more, then time to look for a more suitable bike - touring frames have geometry adjusted to handle heavier loads. Depending on terrain, you may need to consider smaller gears too.

Scrabble007

Thanks for all this advice. Lots of stuff on wheels, tyres and bags - and a useful reminder that a laden road bike will be a bit of a handful on the hills/ corners. Scope for more adventure than we are planning! But very useful to have specific wheel and tyre suggestions that I can try for size.

First step is to decide whether or not we are camping. (And, if we are, presumably I can talk myself into a sturdier bike on the basis of reduced accommodation cost?) The next question: any recommendations for a perfectly adequate tourer (inc racks etc) within the £400 mark? (Secondhand is fine)

infopete

My wife used the Tubus Airy once on her Condor. The Airy can be used with the Tubus fittings to fit on the QR spindle.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/tubus-adapte ... prod13340/

I used a normal brake fitting bolted to the Tubus to fix the top to the frame.

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/rear-rack-st ... -prod4440/

But she prefers her Carradice limpets.

If you choose limpets they do scratch carbon forks so remember to apply electrical tape to your forks first.

mercia_man

Monty's right to warn about P-clips and carbon frames although properly fitted plastic-coated clips shouldn't move about or put any crushing pressure on the tubes. Mine didn't even mark the paint. But carbon stays aren't normally the round shape suited to P-clips anyway. My preference for your bike would definitely be a Carradice saddlebag and Bagman support plus 28mm tyres. You could do that for about £140. You might want to add a bar bag for extra carrying capacity.

Your gearing, even with a compact chainset, would be too high. You could always get a bigger range cassette if your biggest sprocket isn't a 28. Just depends how much you want to spend. You can always get off and walk on the steepest hills.

Personally, I'd go with the saddlebag, bar bag, 28mm tyres option and then decide whether to take up touring more seriously once you've tried it out.

A proper British-style touring bike with drop bars is the best way to travel quickly and comfortably with a load. Touring bikes are a niche market and pretty thin on the ground. Economies of scale and the fact they have extra equipment like racks and mudguards mean they are more expensive than an equivalent road bike.

Probably the best proper cheap touring bike around is the CTC-recommended Revolution Country Traveller, currently on offer with a £100 discount by Edinburgh Cycles at £399.99 complete with racks and mudguards. I know a woman rider who has one and it's an excellent buy for the money. Another cheap alternative is to buy a flat-barred hybrid bike and kit it out with carrier etc. But not as good as the Revolution.

Going up in price to around the £1,000 mark, you have things like the Dawes Galaxy or the disc-braked Kona Sutra. Even better still, but more expensive, are bikes with handbuilt wheels and your choice of components from specialists like Spa Cycles, SJS and Paul Hewitt.

unixnerd

Probably the best proper cheap touring bike around is the CTC-recommended Revolution Country Traveller,

I've done 10,000 miles on mine, great bike.

The wheels and tyres are designed for heavy duty touring. For every day use a lighter set transform the bike.

Scrabble007

unixnerd wrote:

Probably the best proper cheap touring bike around is the CTC-recommended Revolution Country Traveller,

I've done 10,000 miles on mine, great bike.

And you may just have talked me into it. Though, predictably, I think I need one a touch bigger than the small (and a touch smaller than the large) on sale at the Ecc.

Thanks!

IrishMac

Is there anywhere local where you could hire a bike? If it's just the three weeks I'm sure you could live with flat bars I've a steel hybrid, not a fancy one either €300 brand new I think it was, and it's more than capable of going on a long tour. Bike weight isn't overly important when touring either

nawty

Scrabble007 wrote:

unixnerd wrote:

Probably the best proper cheap touring bike around is the CTC-recommended Revolution Country Traveller,

I've done 10,000 miles on mine, great bike.

And you may just have talked me into it. Though, predictably, I think I need one a touch bigger than the small (and a touch smaller than the large) on sale at the Ecc.

Thanks!

If you read the review on road cc it says that the fit is actually quite long and buying a size down from your normal might be sensible.

http://road.cc/content/review/19389-rev ... y-explorer