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Touring on a Trek 1200

  • 02-03-2010 3:02pm
    #1
    dave.obrien
    Closed Accounts Posts: 573 ✭✭✭


    Hello all, looking for a bit of wizened advice!

    Myself and a couple of friends are looking at doing a couple of weeks touring through France after the Etape Hibernia this year. Now, I have a Trek 1200, which I'd like to do it on, but am wondering about attaching a pannier rack to it. It has a carbon seatpost, is it alright to attach it to that, or will I need a new alu seatpost?

    Any advice would be much appreciated, including good websites, good places to stay, routes, etc. We've got 2-3 weeks, and if we go for the longer option, hope to get to Marseille. If we take the shorter one, it might be a Cherbourg-Amiens-Brugge-Calais-London home type of thing.

    Thanks, in advance!


Comments

  • #2
    blorg
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,995 ✭✭✭✭blorg


    Put a proper rack on it, not one that attaches to the seatpost. It may even have standard holes on the frame for a rack, the 1000 certainly does. If it doesn't, get a rack that mounts on the rear wheel axle.

    Keep it light and put on wider tyres. It would not be designed for a lot of weight.

    If you can keep it REALLY light you could use a saddlebag but for 2-3 weeks this might be pushing it.


  • #3
    dave.obrien
    Closed Accounts Posts: 573 ✭✭✭dave.obrien


    It would have to be a HUGE saddlebag, wouldn't it? Keep in mind we won't have support, so our tent will have to be carried by us too...


  • #4
    blorg
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,995 ✭✭✭✭blorg


    Yes, well a proper rack is advisable in that case. The wheels might be the weak point, they would not really be designed for loaded touring and if they are paired spoke there could be a risk if one did break... having said that I used them myself and they were always fine. If you keep your load under 10kg I imagine the bike would be fine.


  • #5
    dave.obrien
    Closed Accounts Posts: 573 ✭✭✭dave.obrien


    Oh yeah, I reckon the load will be about 5kg, and then every few days the 2.5kg of the tent. I read something about carbon forks not being ideal, should I consider anything there? Also, any good sources of advice about routes, stopping points, etc?


  • #6
    blorg
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,995 ✭✭✭✭blorg


    Carbon forks are fine, they don't take any load, I have carbon forks on my own dedicated touring bike.

    With regard to the load you would be doing very well to get it that light. A tip is to lay it all out before you pack it and ask yourself again for each item whether you really need it.

    As for routes I have only really cycled in the mid-south and around the Alps and Pyrenees.


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  • #7
    IM0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,390 ✭✭✭IM0


    I did a great route last year (actually it was so good that it was the same route I did about 5-6 years before that in reverse!)

    from Carcassonne (near pyrenees) to Arles, details are in the LP Cycling France book, for the first chunk of it.


  • #8
    dave.obrien
    Closed Accounts Posts: 573 ✭✭✭dave.obrien


    I'll have to get that LP book alright...


  • #9
    IM0
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,390 ✭✭✭IM0


    dave.obrien wrote: »
    I'll have to get that LP book alright...

    yeah its a good one, but I think its out of print a while now (they are making a new one for the last year or two :rolleyes:) so Id start looking NOW!

    Edit: its already been released, though no idea what the routes are like, same or altered.


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