Recommend a touring bike

dmigsy

I'm planning on cycling from Dublin to Rome this summer. Planning on spending 5 or 6 weeks doing it. Going solo so I just have to please myself. I'll travel as light as possible. While I commute to work and college at the moment, I use a cheap ass mountain bike that weighs a ton - good for building fitness but not else!

Anyway, I'll get to the point - I've no idea what type or brand of touring bike to get. Budget is €1000-€1200. I'll head into a few shop like Cycleways and Cyclogical on Monday but I'd love to hear some ideas on what I should be looking for first. Can anyone recomend a bike?

Cheers.

TinyExplosions

I'd suggest looking at a Planet X Kafenback -it's a steel frame so great for touring, pretty light, and totally custom so you can get the bits you want!

It's what I think I'll end up going for myself...

dmigsy

Cool. I reckon a leather saddle is a no-brainer too?

Anyone have any experience of buying prescription cycling sunglasses?

Cheers!

TinyExplosions

It's pretty much a personal preference... people use leather, people use plastic, whatever is most comfy for them... convention says you should use leather, but it's not a hard and fast science!

Persius

What sort of daily distances are you currently cycling? Cycling a few miles in the morning into college and a few miles home again in the evening is very different to averaging, say, 90k a day for five or six days without break, and some days of 120k.

So it's useful if you've got handlebars with a reasonable amount of scope for adjusting the position. Allows you to find what's most comfortable and efficient for long journeys. Look for handlebars with more than one position, so you can change grip if one position becomes tiring.

Also, make sure you've got a decent rack on the bike, and decent paniers to carry your luggage. You don't want to have to be stopping every time you hit a bump cause your luggage has come loose. If the bike doesn't come with a rack, make sure at least that you've got mounting points (and also mounting points for at least two water bottle cages).

And make sure you've got a good range of gears, from a granny wheel of 1:1 (or even less) to about 4:1 at the top end.

Try to avoid fancy stuff like hydraulic brakes or disk brakes that can be troublesome to fix. Think about mudguards (personal preference whether you want these). For Europe, 27 inch wheels are probably the best - the smaller 26 inch wheels are more suitable outside "the west" where the larger wheels are harder to find. Also probably best to avoid suspension - except maybe seatpost suspension.

Dawes Karakum might be an option. But at the end of the day, make a checklist of features you want/need and start from there.

And do make sure to do some long journeys locally with all your luggage before you set out. And make sure to take on the steepest mountains you can find in Ireland when training. You won't be able to avoid the Alps if you want to get to Rome.

Good luck with it.

dmigsy

Thanks Persius. Currently not doing enough miles on the bike. Planning on starting into training this week. I've a reasonable level of fitness (marathons and soccer) which I hope will translate to the bike.

I've a couple of weeks off in March and I'll do a full week in Ireland on the bike I buy for the trip. I'll do some long runs (sounds like good advice on the mountains too, I'll try to find some!). This should help the fitness and familiarise me with the bike along with toughening up the backside.

The most suitable bike I've checked online so far (to my inexperienced eye) is the Cannondale Touring

Pricey, but I might be able to strech to it. Gonna check out the Dawes Karakum now.

blorg

Get drop bars, definately. The extra hand positions are great, as is your options if it is at all windy. €1,000-1,200 will be tough if that is to include all the extras but potentially doable.

I have a Brooks B17 which is very comfortable for extended touring. Didn't need much breaking in. You will NEED padded lycra shorts for a brooks saddle, don't even think of using one without them. I found break-in to be minimal, it was more comfortable than the saddle it replaced from day one.

That Cannondale could be a good bet, I have seen them around and they look like good bikes. They come with a B17 saddle. Note that most of these types of touring bikes weigh a ton though.

Drop-bar 105 Kaffenback at £699 could be a good option, would probably be lighter than the Cannondale and the frame being steel _might_ be more comfortable.

#1 thing you are going to have to work on will be bringing less than you think you need. Set it all out two weeks in advance and start dropping anything you don't need. Aim for well under 10kg of luggage presuming you are not camping.

dmigsy

Cheers Blorg. Checked out a couple of bikes today : the Cannondale (€1699) and a Specialized Tricross (€1050) the guy in Cycleways recommended as an option. The tricross would the need racks, mudguards etc. It felt a bit flimsy compared to the cannondale. The Cannondale is the favourite at the moment. Didn't feel heavy at all. Budget busted already!

Know of any bricks and mortar shops that stock Kaffenback? Buying something like this, I feel more comfortable getting my mitts on the merchandise.

Good advice on the weight. I'll finalise my absolute needs on my practice trip in March.

blorg

AFAIK the Kaffenback is online only, direct from the manufacturer (Planet X) but you should also consider the Dawes Galaxy series which you should be able to find easily enough around Dublin and would start a bit cheaper than the Cannondale (Joe Daly's in Dundrum do them, and are an excellent shop.) Specialized Tricross (a cyclocross bike) would be an option and I have seen them with racks- probably would be a fair bit faster unloaded than the Cannondale but I would wonder about the handling with panniers (and you might lack low gears for loaded climbing of hills.)

emact

If you're going to spend €1699 on that Cannondale (btw cycleways website shows it for €1599), it would be worth considering the Thorn Raven with the famous Rohloff hub. It's around £1300 so similar price to the Cannondale. Check out www.thorncycles.co.uk

dmigsy

I've gone for the Cannondale Touring Classic. Will have it in a week. Thanks all for your advice. Much appreciated.

Now to get into shape...

Diarmuid

How abot the Specialized Roubaix?
Google links

blorg

Roubaix is a nice bike but it is a (more comfortable) road bike, not suitable for loaded touring.

Freddy687

You asked about prescription glasses.
I never found ordinary glasses any good on a bike. You ned the wrap arounds for the wind. Alas you cannot get a wrap around in a prescription, but you can get wrap arounds that take an insert.
The web page below is a good example from the UK.
http://www.rxsport.co.uk/RX/Pages/selectcategory.aspx?categoryName=Cycling&categoryType=Sports


Last autum in a fishing shop in Westport,came across a set called "EYE LEVEL". These were wrap around and had three changeable lens, Gold, Brown, Grey.
You take out the insert and get your prescription make for them, clip it back in and your sorted.

They can fog up at times but only in very bad weather I have found.

Here's a link from a fishing web site.
http://www.anglersworld.ie/prodtype.asp?CAT_ID=118&strPageHistory=category

Planet X

Thorn is, apparently, you're only man for tours.
As mentioned above. Would like one myself and would love to cycle down France someday.
I'll have to put up with two weeks in the Loire Valley this summer :D for the moment.