Touring Bike Advice

Vélo

A friend of mine is looking at getting a new bike. He'll be using the bike for commuting but will be doing a small bit of touring.
He's cycling Wales with me next month.

He did want to spend about €500 - €600 on the bike. I told him about the ctw scheme and his employers do it, so now he'll probably spend around €900.

I've found this for him, it gets some decent reviews but if anyone knows of anything else, I'd appreciate the advice.

dayshah

I'm going to buy a tourer too (eventually).

I'm giving this serious consideration.

A raleigh royal.

It doesn't have the worlds fancied components, but there is no point in spending hundreds of Euros to save a kilo weight on a touring bike, if you'll be carrying about 10 to 20kg anyway.

It has gotten very good reviews too.

TinyExplosions

Also worth looking at the Kona Sutra and Dawes Karakum.

Or stretch the budget a little and get a Long Haul Trucker

tomasrojo

I got the Dawes Horizon, which is pretty good, I think. I haven't actually used it for touring, but I've carried a lot of luggage on it. Only modification I needed to do was put Kool Stop BMX brake pads on it, as the cantilever brakes didn't perform well with the pads that were supplied. I also added mudflaps, as the mudguards were a little short for my liking.

I was also looking at the Raleigh Royal, but there were none in stock in any of the shops I checked in Dublin.

dayshah

tomasrojo wrote: »

I got the Dawes Horizon, which is pretty good, I think. I haven't actually used it for touring, but I've carried a lot of luggage on it. Only modification I needed to do was put Kool Stop BMX brake pads on it, as the cantilever brakes didn't perform well with the pads that were supplied. I also added mudflaps, as the mudguards were a little short for my liking.

Which shop did you get it in? How were the people to deal with?

ciarsciars

I bought a super galaxy from these guys:
http://www.discovercycling.com/bikes/bikes-touring/dawes-galaxy-gents-touring-bike-1.html

All in it was €1350, I haggled a little on the postage, which was a pretty good deal as i had been quoted €2000 for the same bike from two different shops in ireland.

tomasrojo

dayshah wrote: »

Which shop did you get it in? How were the people to deal with?

Little Sport, Fairview. Very nice people. Price was maybe a little high (€999), but I kind of expect that when dealing with brick-and-mortar stores.

feck sake lads

Thorn club tour fantastic all round bike from sjs cycles.;)

Tonyandthewhale

Dayshah, don't get the raleight royal, I've got one but only because it was gift.

The sora 8 speed shifters are decent but dated and the altus rear mech is begging to be tossed in the bin. I sort of like the wheels as they are very heavily built and have lasted well for several thousand heavily loaded kilometres and the stock kenda tyres lasted a surprisingly long time but both were possibly too heavy, even for a tourer.
The brakes are tektro oryx which are the absolute pits. I've used cantilever brakes before and I know not to expect braking to be as good as with v-brakes or discs but these are just terrible and a bitch to adjust compared to other canti's I've encountered.
The frame again is disappointing, it's incredibly heavy and the paint scratches all too easily resulting in unsightly rust spots. Also, the rear cantilever mounts on my frame are not entirely level which is a tad ridiculous and indicative of poor standards and poor quality control.

Having said that, it's quite a comfortable ride when you're fully loaded and not in too much of a hurry, however, there are a lot of bikes that are quite comfortable as well as being properly built.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, one of the braze ons also came loose on my frame after a few months which again is not the sort of quality issue you want to be worrying about on a long tour.

tomasrojo

The Dawes Horizon also has Tektro Oryx brakes. As I said above, fitting Kool Stop BMX brake pads improved the stopping times very noticeably. I did find the braking a bit hair-raising before that.