Good touring bike?

I'd look at a flatbar, which is basically a roadbike without drops. That way you get the lightweight road bike, with the comfort of an upright, hybrid style.

Something like the Trek Pilot 1.2 Flatbar. It has a triple chainring (27 gears), will be very light, but also nice and comfortable.
bicyclestore.com.auTrek Pilot 1.2 Flat Bar pr 21096.htmlOpen ↗

Giant has their CRX range, which vary in cost. The CRX 3 has a triple chainring. giant-bicycles.com030.000.000.aspOpen ↗

The other option is a woman specific design. These are getting much more common now. Trek have a WSD range, there's also SUB (Sarah Ulmer Brand)
which are a purely womens bike manufacturer.

sarahulmerbrand.comsub bike five.aspOpen ↗

Ooops forgot to mention - I dont want those skinny wheels LOL. And I dont
want mountain bike tyres either! Skinny wheels west of here with narrow
roads and road trains would just be asking for fall offs, punctures etc.

just us said:

Ooops forgot to mention - I dont want those skinny wheels LOL. And I dont
want mountain bike tyres either! Skinny wheels west of here with narrow
roads and road trains would just be asking for fall offs, punctures etc.

Kona Dew or similar. 27" wheels with clearance for ~40mm tyres, upright
position, road triple. Not as low gearing as a true MTB, but with a 30ish
cluster you should be able to get up most roads. I think the Avanti Blade
is a similar kind of bike, possibly with skinnnier wheels.

The other option is a mid range hardtail MTB with 1.5" slicks. You don't
lose that much time to a pure roadie, and you've got a lot more options
about what surfaces can be comfortably traversed. Just check it has rack
mounts, since 1500km will be a lot more comfy with the weight on the bike.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and
cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing
the same thing to them at funerals.

just us said:

Ooops forgot to mention - I dont want those skinny wheels LOL. And I dont
want mountain bike tyres either! Skinny wheels west of here with narrow
roads and road trains would just be asking for fall offs, punctures etc.

You don't have to have the thin tyres. Road bike tyres are 23mm, but you could put 28mm tires on which are a nice touring width. Depends on what terrain you'll be riding, but the rims on those bikes should be able to fit up to 32mm tires, but that would be a question for the shop.

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow. I am going to go with another lady and we are looking at new
hybrids. Specifically we DONT want drop bars as both of us have shoulder
issues and feel comfortable in the more upright position.

Drop bars have nothing to do with upright or forward riding position.
If you look at a lot of "serious" touring bikes, you'll see that they
have drop bars. This is for a *reason* and it's not because long
distance touring requires a racing position.

If you're looking at those sorts of distances etc, I'd consider a
Cannondale T800 or T2000, or a Trek 520. Both are kitted out for
touring with racks, relaxed geometry and ... yes... drop bars. Fuji
also make a half decent tourer. The Trek is steel, the Cracknfail is
aluminium alloy. Both are bombproof.

If the bike is set up for you, the design of the bars is mostly
irrelevant to the angle of your back and weight on your shoulders, but
drop bars give you much more comfortable hand placement choices, which
on a long ride, is very important. Bar ends on flat bars don't give
you as much choice.

The other option is those funky "touring bars" you can get - I've
fitted a few of these to some bikes and they may be an option if you
just can't get your head out of the "drop bars bad" myth.

Have a look here :

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/deakins/handlebars.html

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow. I am going to go with another lady and we are looking at new
hybrids. Specifically we DONT want drop bars as both of us have shoulder
issues and feel comfortable in the more upright position. So this new bike
needs to have 27 speeds (went for a 100kms ride on my husbands mountain bike
and the gears were absolutely terrific on the hills, but position was
horrendous) be light weight (wow hubbys bike is sooooo light compared with
my Hybrid). Any suggestions of what I need to look for? I live 100kms from
Cairns and really they all open catalogues and I am just not wanting to buy
from a catalogue! I want more suggestions so that I can go in armed with
some "knowledge".
Any advice would be helpful thanks
Kathy.

Take a look at
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/

They are expensive but ....

I had an XTC with drops, beautiful bike but I needed to go flat bars
(don't ask) so I lashed out and bought another XTC. I would love to get
a Raven. The guy who bought my first one is wrapped.
I rode a Canondale T1000 for years thought it was great but having gone
to a steel frame would never go back.

Jack Russell

--
Remove norubbish to reply

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow. I am going to go with another lady and we are looking at new
hybrids.

What kind of touring are you doing? Credit-card? Camping?
Fully-self-supported 40kg of water across unwatered outback? This
leads to the next series of choices:

Credit-card:
Something like a road-bike set up to your needs, or a hard-tail light
mtb, or a cyclo-cross bike (like a roadbike that goes offroad).

Camping / Fully ss outback:
You want a touring bike frame or a cyclocross frame with plenty of
front/rear mount points.

Quoted message said:

Specifically we DONT want drop bars as both of us have shoulder
issues and feel comfortable in the more upright position.

Uhhh. nope. You don't want drop bars in a *racing* position. Imagine
drop bars, but raised up much higher than on a racing bike. These
provide many hand positions in a comfortable set up. Wide bars with a
very shallow drop.

Or: you want European style touring bars. These look a bit like a
butterfly. They have a "top" position which is like a raised flat bar,
then angle down and in to the "normal" riding position which is like a
normal flat bar. The section between the top and normal position
allows for a "side" position like using bull-horn bars on a MTB. These
are *v* comfortable and I found them more to my liking when setting up
a self-supported tourer. They're also easier to adjust to if you've
been riding flat bars.

You *dont* want a flat bar road bike bar. When riding more than an
hour you need to change hand positions. Flats, even with bar ends,
don't offer enough positions and body-stretches. So its Eurobars or
Drops (with the drops set high enough that you're comfortable riding on
the drops).

Quoted message said:

So this new bike
needs to have 27 speeds (went for a 100kms ride on my husbands mountain bike
and the gears were absolutely terrific on the hills, but position was
horrendous) be light weight (wow hubbys bike is sooooo light compared with
my Hybrid).

Nice! You know your gear requirements. Count the teeth on the lowest
gear on hubbies bike and take it to Sheldon Brown's gear calculator.
Use this calculator to compare to the lowest gear on the bike people
are trying to sell you. If you're riding self-supported, have you
ridden hubby's bike with the load you want to carry up the biggest
hills you climb? If not, do so immediately to determine if it can
carry the load you need! I'm looking at 15" as my lowest gear on my
tourer, merely because I want three-four useable gears on long big
hills with heavy loads.

Quoted message said:

Any suggestions of what I need to look for? I live 100kms from
Cairns and really they all open catalogues and I am just not wanting to buy
from a catalogue! I want more suggestions so that I can go in armed with
some "knowledge".

Look at the touring bike list on phreds, they're very supportive.
Cheeky Monkey Sydney also sells a bunch of touring bikes. I don't
recomment the Trek 520 set-up for non-CC touring, the gears are too
high.

Also, how big are you? Touring bike design faces tyre-size and frame
compromise issues. If you are "big" you can ride 700C wheels. If you
are small you can ride 26" wheels. Look to see if the frame you're
interested in offers different wheel size to frame size set-ups. If
the frame you're looking at is 650B, then its probably fine, 650B
doesn't compromise the frame in smaller sizes for touring.

Can I recommend you consider the Surly long haul trucker as a frame to
build up if you're going camping-touring and want to build a bike
rather than buy pre-packaged?

If buying a pre-packaged bike the big issues are bars and gears (as
above).

You also want mudguards unless you're a racing-bike cyclist going cc
touring. You also want racks which will carry more than the most
weight you anticipate.

hope this helps some, and can I really recommend Eurobars if you are
adverse to drops even after riding on a bike with drops raised up
really really really high?

yours,
Sam R.

1) What sort/type of touring do you want to do?

Touring varies from "credit card" to fully self contained.

At one end, you just need wallet and probably handlebar bag (tool kit
strongly recommended) At the other end, you start off with front and
rear racks and four good panniers, plus handlebar and maybe bum bag,
then add tent, sleeping mat, sleeping bag,,,,,,,,,,,,

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow.

err, touring bikes are heavier because you carry more junk^h^h^h^hstuff.

Have you considered just replacing the handlebars to flat, or other
designs. Might need to change headstem, plus brake and gear levers (and
cables).

The butterfly style looks very interesting for the various postions.

Similarly, you could also just upgrade your gearing, although I would
personally prefer lesser gears as 27 gears as a weak rear axle in my
books (but your probably don't tour where I did).

Quoted message said:

I am going to go with another lady and we are looking at new
hybrids. Specifically we DONT want drop bars as both of us have shoulder
issues and feel comfortable in the more upright position.

Quoted message said:

So this new bike needs to have 27 speeds

There is something tobe said for walking up hills and using a different
set of muscles, plus it ensures maximum chances to look at the scenery.

Quoted message said:

Any suggestions of what I need to look for? I live 100kms from
Cairns and really they all open catalogues and I am just not wanting to buy
from a catalogue! I want more suggestions so that I can go in armed with
some "knowledge".

What knowledge do you have on bicycles?
Any bicycle can be a touring bike. It just depends on your style of
touring (as mentioned above) and where you want to go.

If 1.25" tyres (standard in my jargon) are too narrow because they cause
too many punctures, then first consider upgrading to thornproof tubes
(thicker, but heavier, but stay away from rain forest vines)

Otherwise, you need a frame designed to take the wider rims and tyres.
MTB tyres vary from up to 2.5" (standard) and yes I am ignoring the
Pugsley bike with 4" tyres. I've seen 1.5", 1.75", 1.9", 2.0, 2.125" and
2.5" on mtb style frames.

Quoted message said:

Any advice would be helpful thanks

Is Lenore simpson still riding around Cairns?
If you know her, I'd suggest having a talk to her.

--
Do the maths for a reply, i.e. no spam(s)

In aus.bicycle on 10 Jul 2006 19:24:17 -0700

Quoted message said:

Look at the touring bike list on phreds, they're very supportive.
Cheeky Monkey Sydney also sells a bunch of touring bikes. I don't
recomment the Trek 520 set-up for non-CC touring, the gears are too
high.

CM have the euro bars, touring frames, things like that.
www.cheekymonkey.com.au - select the transport section.

I'd suggest you might want to take a trip to Brisbane or Sydney to try
bikes out and look at them.

Consider also if you want to take a trailer. If you are camping or
plan to have a base and range out from it, then a trailer might be
good for carting stuff that you leave at a campground.

Zebee

Thanks for some great replies - they all got me thinking.
I am 48, been riding for a few years. At first I had a MTB but then after
doing a 800kms ride on a tandem and seeing people with Hybrids I ditched the
MTB and bought my current Hybrid which was a mid range bike, 21 speed, and I
have travelled well over 3000kms on it. Probably average about 150kms each
week and can go off for a day or two of 100+kms/day.
I weigh 70kgs (well someone did ask!) and also do a lot of bushwalking in
the mountains around here so am in good shape.
I had to look up "credit card" touring LOLLLLL nooooo!
We are planning to do a ride from the Atherton Tablelands down the middle to
Moura. Both of us are experienced bushwalkers so have all the light weight
gear and plan to only carry around 10kgs each of camp gear. We will need to
carry water, yes and also some bike bits. Any food we take will be light
weight but we wont carry too much as know how much we need between shops.
I already have the panniers etc.
The "trekking" bars from http://www.sheldonbrown.com/deakins/handlebars.html
look very appealing. Thanks Bleve. Previous attempts at drop bars brought
back numb fingers, frozen shoulders, and pain pain pain that lasted weeks. I
have read that the lower bars give you more power, so will have to keep
researching that.
I basically would love to just get a lighter bike, better gearing,
comfortable, that was able to carry camp gear etc. I would also ride it each
day to work etc.
Keep them coming and thank you!
Kathy

In article <[email hidden]>,

Quoted message said:

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow. I am going to go with another lady and we are looking at new
hybrids.

(snip)

Quoted message said:

Or: you want European style touring bars. These look a bit like a
butterfly. They have a "top" position which is like a raised flat bar,
then angle down and in to the "normal" riding position which is like a
normal flat bar. The section between the top and normal position
allows for a "side" position like using bull-horn bars on a MTB. These
are *v* comfortable and I found them more to my liking when setting up
a self-supported tourer. They're also easier to adjust to if you've
been riding flat bars.

You *dont* want a flat bar road bike bar. When riding more than an
hour you need to change hand positions. Flats, even with bar ends,
don't offer enough positions and body-stretches. So its Eurobars or
Drops (with the drops set high enough that you're comfortable riding on
the drops).

Quoted message said:

So this new bike
needs to have 27 speeds (went for a 100kms ride on my husbands mountain bike
and the gears were absolutely terrific on the hills, but position was
horrendous) be light weight (wow hubbys bike is sooooo light compared with
my Hybrid).

Nice! You know your gear requirements. Count the teeth on the lowest
gear on hubbies bike and take it to Sheldon Brown's gear calculator.
Use this calculator to compare to the lowest gear on the bike people
are trying to sell you. If you're riding self-supported, have you
ridden hubby's bike with the load you want to carry up the biggest
hills you climb? If not, do so immediately to determine if it can
carry the load you need! I'm looking at 15" as my lowest gear on my
tourer, merely because I want three-four useable gears on long big
hills with heavy loads.

Quoted message said:

Any suggestions of what I need to look for? I live 100kms from
Cairns and really they all open catalogues and I am just not wanting to buy
from a catalogue! I want more suggestions so that I can go in armed with
some "knowledge".

Look at the touring bike list on phreds, they're very supportive.
Cheeky Monkey Sydney also sells a bunch of touring bikes. I don't
recomment the Trek 520 set-up for non-CC touring, the gears are too
high.

Also, how big are you? Touring bike design faces tyre-size and frame
compromise issues. If you are "big" you can ride 700C wheels. If you
are small you can ride 26" wheels. Look to see if the frame you're
interested in offers different wheel size to frame size set-ups. If
the frame you're looking at is 650B, then its probably fine, 650B
doesn't compromise the frame in smaller sizes for touring.

Can I recommend you consider the Surly long haul trucker as a frame to
build up if you're going camping-touring and want to build a bike
rather than buy pre-packaged?

If buying a pre-packaged bike the big issues are bars and gears (as
above).

You also want mudguards unless you're a racing-bike cyclist going cc
touring. You also want racks which will carry more than the most
weight you anticipate.

hope this helps some, and can I really recommend Eurobars if you are
adverse to drops even after riding on a bike with drops raised up
really really really high?

yours,
Sam R.

Kathy,

It would be great if you keep us informed about this project as it
evolves.

As Sam has said, the Surly bikes are very nice. I just happened to be in
Cheeky Monkey (Sydney CBD) the other day and saw the long-haul trucker
set up for touring. I did not look at the price.

The PDF from the Surly website is here:
<http://www.surlybikes.com/files/SURLYLongHaul.pdf>

I am going into the city again on Thursday and Friday so could take some
photos and email them to you if you like (and get any other details you
would like). Unfortunately the Cheeky Monkey website is 'basic'.

regards,
Darryl

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow.

Pick up the latest copy of Australian Cyclist if you can, a lot of touring articles in that issue. Should give you some ideas. I'm with Bleve on the drop bars thing, set them up for touring as opposed to racing and they're very comfortable. Won't catch me using flat bars for anything except off-road.

Have a look at downtheroad.orgdowntheroad.orgOpen ↗ Those bikes look seriously tasty.

----- Original Message -----
From: <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Look at the touring bike list on phreds, they're very supportive.
Cheeky Monkey Sydney also sells a bunch of touring bikes. I don't
recomment the Trek 520 set-up for non-CC touring, the gears are too
high.

You can put a 26 front ring/30 or 32 rear cog (or maybe a 24/34?) on a
Trek which gives a pretty low granny for touring. The 52/11 top gear is a
bit excessive, but good for blasting down hills, but if you could find
something smaller which fits (which my LBS couldnt), like a 49 or something,
you end up overlapping the middle chain ring ratios, so no point changing
it. I did change the middle front ring to a smaller size, to give a lower
gear before having to slip into granny. This was sometimes a bit difficult
as it was a big drop from 42 to 26.

A mate just bought a road bike and modified it to take a 34 rear, a sort of
sheep in wolfs clothing?

As for handlebars, a lot of touring riders get extenders added to the
headset to get a higher position for drop bars. Or there are stems with
tiltable extensions to give a bit more height. A bit naff but they seem to
work.

fb in sunny sinney

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow.

Too heavy and slow eh? There are some nice bikes out there which are a
lot of fun.

I've seen a few of these on SBS lately, apparently they're quite
popular on the Tour...

http://www2.trekbikes.com.au/catalogue.cgi?rm=product&product_id=162&category_id=3&subcategory_id=27

http://pinarello.com/eng/pariscar_FP_orange_scheda.php

Travis

just us said:

Well I have been sitting looking on the net for a new bike. Have decided to
do a distance ride (1500kms) and just feel that my Avanti 21speed Hybrid is
heavy and slow. I am going to go with another lady and we are looking at new
hybrids. Specifically we DONT want drop bars as both of us have shoulder
issues and feel comfortable in the more upright position. So this new bike
needs to have 27 speeds (went for a 100kms ride on my husbands mountain bike
and the gears were absolutely terrific on the hills, but position was
horrendous) be light weight (wow hubbys bike is sooooo light compared with
my Hybrid). Any suggestions of what I need to look for? I live 100kms from
Cairns and really they all open catalogues and I am just not wanting to buy
from a catalogue! I want more suggestions so that I can go in armed with
some "knowledge".
Any advice would be helpful thanks
Kathy.

All the other posts have contributed alot of very usefull info, it is not a simple question you are asking.

A number of posts have mentioned specialised tourers and if you want to go this way it is worth spending on something that will last you a life time. There are not many framebuilders in Aus specialising is such bike but it may be worth checking on www.velosmith.com.au who have good reputation.

CC

just us said:

Specifically we DONT want drop bars as both of us have shoulder
issues and feel comfortable in the more upright position.

Recognise that the upright sitting position has far more effect on
your speed than anything else. So a new upright bike won't be faster.
Assuming you have a good cadence, and no knobby tyres.

Quoted message said:

So this new bike
needs to have 27 speeds (went for a 100kms ride on my husbands mountain bike

Its the number of teeth, not gears, that counts. The MTB probably has
much smaller chainrings (front cogs) than your hybrid.

Quoted message said:

and the gears were absolutely terrific on the hills, but position was
horrendous)

Horrendous how? e.g. legs pushing into the belly when pedalling?
Were you comfortable coasting?

Quoted message said:

You *dont* want a flat bar road bike bar. When riding more than an
hour you need to change hand positions. Flats, even with bar ends,
don't offer enough positions and body-stretches.

AERO-BARS!
I normally use a flat-bar bike for touring. Plenty of people cope with
just bar-ends, but adding aero-bars is great. I can hold the pads for an
extra-upright position on hill climbs too. Aero bars are much more
comfortable than drop-bars, IMHO, but take some getting used to.
(not good for racing, of course.)

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at 15" as my lowest gear on my
tourer, merely because I want three-four useable gears on long big
hills with heavy loads.

I thought I had the lowest gear :-(
Using 26" (nominal) rims with slicks give a 25" tyre, times 22T:34T
gears gives over 16". How do you get 15"? Got a 20T granny?

OP Didn't state budget. Treks and Cannondales can be expensive!
And they might need the crankset changed to get low gears.

In aus.bicycle on Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:49:11 +0800

Mike said:

just us said:

Specifically we DONT want drop bars as both of us have shoulder
issues and feel comfortable in the more upright position.

Recognise that the upright sitting position has far more effect on
your speed than anything else. So a new upright bike won't be faster.
Assuming you have a good cadence, and no knobby tyres.

<insert plug for recumbents here>

Not that I'd recommend a bent for anyone going offroad, and not that
they are *cheap* or horrifically light.

But for comfort while being aerodynamic, can't beat em.

Zebee

Mike said:

Quoted message said:

hour you need to change hand positions. Flats, even with bar ends,
don't offer enough positions and body-stretches.

AERO-BARS!

I stand corrected. Sounds reasonable for positions!

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I'm looking at 15" as my lowest gear on my
tourer, merely because I want three-four useable gears on long big
hills with heavy loads.

I thought I had the lowest gear :-(
Using 26" (nominal) rims with slicks give a 25" tyre, times 22T:34T
gears gives over 16". How do you get 15"? Got a 20T granny?

20T granny 🙂. Some people say get off and walk, but I hate walking a
load uphill.

Quoted message said:

OP Didn't state budget. Treks and Cannondales can be expensive!
And they might need the crankset changed to get low gears.

That's the big one. Budget lets many other things fall into place.

Sam R.