Do I need a specific touring bike ?

pajosjunkbox

Hi everyone ,

I'm heading to the Yorkshire Dales for a 9 day cycling holiday. Going to do about 80 km a day and staying in hostels. I have a giant defy 4 which just served me well on the ring of kerry cycle this year. Would it be sufficient to just put panniers and mudguards on this bike or should I buy a specific touring bike through cycle to work scheme.
I have a mountain bike but it's carbon fibre !
All opinions welcome !
Thanks

CramCycle

What are you planning to carry? It should be more than doable on the Defy 4, particularly if you are in a hostel and not camping but it might be easier to say how suitable it is with more info on the trip. Do you have a list of what you are carrying?

quozl

If you're comfortable for the ring of kerry, then you should be comfortable for 80km a day on the bike.

You might want to consider a cassette with an easier gear if you'll be carrying much extra weight in the panniers and doing much uphill. Depends on the route, the weight you plan on carrying and how easy you'd find it with the current lowest gear.

Captain Havoc

Very douable, just carry the bare minimal. I did a couple of tours on a racer.

pajosjunkbox

My defy 4 has 3 front chain rings so I think it should be ok. Don't intent to carry too much but would like to tour and camp down the line . Maybe next year .

pajosjunkbox

Any ideas what I need to pimp my defy into a touring bike ?

Type of rack
Which panniers
Mudguards etc

CramCycle

pajosjunkbox wrote: »

Type of rack

You could use p-clips to attach a normal rack but for convenience I imagine the best option is a seat post mounted rack, Topeak do decent ones, again depends on the vlume you will carry but if you pack smart this will more than suffice.

Which panniers

The topeak ones have clips for easy release to take off when needed but if it is one of the ones with side rail, pretty much any pannier bag will do, even a bungee cord with a suitably sized bag if you don't need to search the bag while moving.

lennymc

does the defy 4 not have mounting points for a rack or mudguards? I had a defy 5 and had mudguards and a rack on it, and iirc there was one set of mounting points. I used that for the rack and had to use p clips for the mudguards. The mudguards didnt fit too good tbh, so i would probably look at the giant own brand defy specific ones. (i'm assuming they exist). The rack was a standard topeak one. Altura panniers.

edit - giant own brand mudguards

Chips Lovell

I've done both. If you're staying in hostels, you won't need to carry that much and will get away with rear panniers if you can mount them on your bike.

One thing to look out for when adapting a bike for touring is the extra stress the load will put on your wheels. I broke a few spokes on a rear wheel in France a couple of years ago and it wasn't much fun trying to find a shop to do repairs.

Ole Rodrigo

+1 on the Defy. You can get away with just rack and panniers and leave out the mudguards.

Changing the cassette to a 12/28 should give you enough gears on a compact if your luggage isn't too heavy.

I'm selling a rack and pannier setup, coincidentally :pac:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=88362621