Is my bike suitable for travelling across Europe? (photos included)

Cianos

I was thinking of bringing my bike to France. I dont plan on doing massive long cycles, just taking things easy going from town to town kinda thing. Dyou think my bike would be suitable to rig up with some saddle bag things? I'll be taking a laptop and a small amount of clothes and a few other things.

ba

ya might think of investing in good wheels, you will put a lot of force on the rear and over long distance your wheel will unbalance in the middle of no-where. and the friction caused is a bitch climbing hills.
a triple ring will also make climbs easier, and i dont think that riding position looks comfortable over 100km. but hey, if you like it.

(or)

personally i saw my tour as an excuse to get a new bike (secondhand). trips like these are expensive. the right gear, the right food, and a good bed, even a good bike all adds up the euros. i wouldnt take a chance on that bike. go new.

cycleways will sort the panier racks out even if you dont have brackets for 'em.

Cianos

Thanks for the reply. How much dyou think I'd have to spend to get a good solid bike on the road?

Sean02

If you change anything on the bike test it well before you leave particuarly the pannier rack, personnaly I would not trust any shop mecanic. As Ba says your bike does not have lugs for fixing onto. So you need some duct tape from a builders providers or chinese poundshop. then after you throw away the fixtures you got with the pannier rack buy stainless steel hex nuts and bolts from a engineering supplier making sure you use a extra locking nut at each point. Another water cage might save the bonks in hot weather.

ba

i had same problem on my racer - no panier fixings. so the lads in cyleways sorted it out with metal/rubber clamps. eventually my panier rack could take my 10kg of luggage.

an extra cage would be good idea.

my bike new i think cost (Giant OCR3) 700eur, but i got it second hand 450eur.
it serves me well.

blorg

You can get racks that affix to the seatpost that will take light amounts. You could also add a bar bag which will give you a bit more capacity and balance the load somewhat. If you are going to be cycling up any hills loaded I would also seriously consider getting some lower gears, just back from the Camino de Santiago and grades that I would whizz up unloaded had me down in my bottom gear and wishing I had lower.

Mucco

blorg wrote:

You can get racks that affix to the seatpost that will take light amounts.

I had one of those, and broke it within a week. Shouldn't have used it for shopping I suppose.

Looking at the photos, your riding position seems to be very low, and forward. This is great for speed, zipping around town, but not great for comfortable riding. You could think about a more upright position.

M