refurbishing Raleigh pioneer as tourer

Fatbiker

Hi all,

I am following up on a previous statement on doing up a Raleigh Pioneer metro for touring. My queries are;
1. The bike has 28 inch wheels and I often read that 26 inch is best for touring regarding ease of replacement. I have brand new 26 inch tyres on a Raleigh MTB not being used. Is it possible or practical to swap them?
2. The bike has revoshift gear changing, I.e. the changing is via the twist grip. Is this a reliable gear mechanisms for touring?

Thanks in advance,FB

Tonyandthewhale

You can't put 26 inch wheels on a frame designed for 28 wheels unless it's a disc-brake specific frame (which AFAIK the raleigh pioneer isn't) unless you don't mind not having brakes.
26inch wheels are recommended for touring because tyres for 700c/28inch wheels can be difficult to find in Africa/parts of Asia/South America. If you're not going to be crossing the Bosphorus or the Rio Grande they're not really necessary.

Gripshift gear levers are mostly cheap shite in my experience.

Fatbiker

Tonyandthewhale wrote: »

You can't put 26 inch wheels on a frame designed for 28 wheels- thanks, I suspected as much.

Gripshift gear levers are mostly cheap shite in my experien
Is it difficult to convert them trigger shift?.

cdaly_

I replaced a broken gripshift on one of the kid's bikes with a lever shifter. No bother at all, just run new cable inner through new lever and bolt onto the bars.