Touring on a budget: Advice on bikes and gear?

Seaneh

Right lads, I want to buy a touring bike but I'm not in a position to be buying the likes of a Thorn Sherpa or a Surly LHT.

I want to spend as little as possible but still have a decent bike.

I was looking at the likes of the Revolution Country Traveller or Raleigh Royal.

Both are about €600ish and come with racks and mudgaurds, the Royal is steel and the Revolution is Alu both have Shimano 2300 groupsets and bulky steal wheels.

Any tourers here have any recommendations of a bike in around the same price that might be better?

And what about panniers for touring?
Again, affordable but decent quality.

I'm most likely just going to be doing shortish trips around Ireland, the UK and mainland europe so nothing mental is needed really.

del88

Seen this on donedeal....looks good

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/bicycles/4015149

Hard to beat ortlieb classic..not the cheapest (€104 in cycleways) but worth staying in a few nights and saving up to buy. Your going to pay €60 for an average pair so only another €40.

Also have you looked at a second hand hybrid...lots of people tour on them without any hassles.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/categories/?o=1&category_id=350&doctype=journal

Seaneh

The Pearson's would be a weeeeeee bit too big for me, I'm only 5'9. ha.

That bottom site looks handy for route advice and stuff, cheers!

wendell borton

The Giant defy has eyes for a rack and mudguards, might be worth considering for light touring.

Seaneh

wendell borton wrote: »

The Giant defy has eyes for a rack and mudguards, might be worth considering for light touring.

I'd rather have the option for taking it for longer tours if I wanted.
I'd also rather a more upright position I;d get from a proper tourer.

piston

Consider one of the better early 1990s steel MTB frames, build it up properly (sad fact but many bikes, even high end ones leave the shop with poorly adjusted bearings with barely any grease in them), fit a quality headset like a Stronglight A9, fit decent slick, puncture resistant tyres, play around with bar end/stems to get the riding position you like, fit racks and mudguards.

The older MTBs might be looked down on by the snobs but if built and assembled properly with reasonable quality components, they ride very well, are strong enough to carry a full touring load and unlike the road bikes of the time, they come with sensible gearing.

Tonyandthewhale

I'd stay away from the raleigh royal, I had one and it wasn't great. Admittedly it got me across Europe several times and all around Ireland as well as commuting and some winter training duty but I was never completely happy with it.

The ride quality was nice (you could sit up with no hands on the bars and cruise for miles) and it was comfortable once I replaced the saddle and bartape with something decent (both ****e to begin with).

However it was piggishly heavy and quality control wasn't great. The paint chips very easily so you have to watch out for rust. One of the eyelets for the rear rack also broke very early on (few zip ties sorted that) and the rear canti mounts weren't even level with each other (not so far off that the brakes didn't work, it just wasn't confidence inspiring from a quality control perspective).

The tektro Oryx brakes are also fairly dire even by the standards of cantis.

The revolution country traveller looks like it has a similar spec but might be a bit lighter, I'd be tempted if the quality was there and if it was substantially lighter than the royal. I'd want to see it in the flesh.

Since getting rid of the royal I've got an 80's motobecane frame with a 105 groupset, 28mm tyres and caliper brakes. It's really more of an audax bike but there's a rack on it if I need to take a pannier although at this stage I've paired my touring essentials down to less than a full ortlieb pannier so often I'll head off with just a small frame pack (actually a poncho with stuff rolled up inside it, strapped to the top tube), a largish saddle bag and a bar bag to hold my sleeping bag and maps. I'd be happy enough with that set up touring anywhere in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and most of the more civilised parts of east Asia. It cost me about 100 euro to put this bike together (I had most of the parts already).

Piston's suggestion of converting an old mountain bike is also a good one. I've got an early 90's mountain bike frame that I found in a skip. I'm going to build it up with drop bars, front and rear racks, campag record shifters and front mech, a compact crankset, shimano 8 speed mountain bike cassette and derailleur (provided I can get these to work with the campag shifters, which I've heard is possible, otherwise I'll use bar cons), cantilever brakes and a heavy duty wheelset.
I should end up with a bike that's lighter and cheaper than either the royal or the revolution while still being more rugged and more off-road/rough road capable.
I plan on using this bike for a tour of Africa in the next year or two. It might also be making a visit to Russia this Summer and will hopefully end up in south and east asia at some point in the not too distant future and maybe South America eventually.

EDIT: Panniers for touring are ortliebs by default. You might end up going for something different in the end but I view ortliebs as the benchmark against which everything should be compared. Likewise for saddles, look at brooks.

smacl

SPA cycles have a number of special offers on tourers at the moment, no idea of their quality or the value for money they represent;

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/offers.php

Coronal

What kind of bike do you have at the moment (assuming you have one..)? You can tour on pretty much anything, to be honest. I'm considering a fixie for my next short one, for example. If the tours are short and you're not camping, then it's very easy to get a clip on rack for a seatpost and some stuff sacks for luggage and use bungee cord to secure. Very light, totally waterproof, and very cheap. Ortlieb are well respected pannier brands and I believe you can pick them up second hand for reasonable monies. I have Carradice canvas ones, I really like them.

I'd also say be careful with saddles. I can't cycle long distances on a saddle without a cutout. Brooks don't suit me, but 200 km a day for a week with a Specialized Toupe racing saddle is no problem. I'm a bit odd, though, I will admit. I'd almost recommend to do a first tour with whatever you have to hand and see what you might like. Some people like drop bars, some don't, for example.

Seaneh

Coronal wrote: »

What kind of bike do you have at the moment (assuming you have one..)? You can tour on pretty much anything, to be honest. I'm considering a fixie for my next short one, for example. If the tours are short and you're not camping, then it's very easy to get a clip on rack for a seatpost and some stuff sacks for luggage and use bungee cord to secure. Very light, totally waterproof, and very cheap. Ortlieb are well respected pannier brands and I believe you can pick them up second hand for reasonable monies. I have Carradice canvas ones, I really like them.

I'd also say be careful with saddles. I can't cycle long distances on a saddle without a cutout. Brooks don't suit me, but 200 km a day for a week with a Specialized Toupe racing saddle is no problem. I'm a bit odd, though, I will admit. I'd almost recommend to do a first tour with whatever you have to hand and see what you might like. Some people like drop bars, some don't, for example.

I have a Giant ocr.
It's grand and I have a rear rack on it and would be fine for 2/3 days of touring but I'd like (a) a more upright position, (b) a triple so I could carry more and not have to worry about hills being the death of me and (c) the option of going onfurther/longer tours if I wanted to. It doesn't have clearnece for mud guards and racks at the same time so it's not really suited for more than a few days at a time.

I would be looking to camp while on tours, I already have really good camping gear (REI quater dome tent, 3 season bag, therm-a-rest pad, etc) and I quite enjoy wild camping.


What I am really looking to do would be tours of 1-2 weeks at a time (maybe even longer) where I'd either be staying in municipal camp sites in france/spain/italy/wherever or wild camping.


I'd prefer to buy a full bike, that why I was looking at the likes of the royal and revolution and I'm a heavy lad myself so a triple and wide cassette at the back is something I'd really prefer and I'd really be looking for 700c wheels as I don't plan or trekking through africa/south america on it and would really just be sticking to roads in Europe and maybe north america so 26" wheels would be over kills and slower.