road bike/touring bike

aidanki

hi all,

newbie to the whole cycling thing.

Going to be buying a road bike under bike to work scheme soon as I want to do the ring of kerry cycle this year, I guess I need to spend ~1500 so cost to me ~750 or thereabouts

anyway just thought I would ask, I might use the bike at some stage for touring, the idea would be remove touring kit while in Ireland and roading and maybe fit it if I ever go touring

anything special I need to look out for on the bike that I buy, or what models shoudl I consider ?

tritium

aidanki wrote: »

hi all,

newbie to the whole cycling thing.

Going to be buying a road bike under bike to work scheme soon as I want to do the ring of kerry cycle this year, I guess I need to spend ~1500 so cost to me ~750 or thereabouts

anyway just thought I would ask, I might use the bike at some stage for touring, the idea would be remove touring kit while in Ireland and roading and maybe fit it if I ever go touring

anything special I need to look out for on the bike that I buy, or what models shoudl I consider ?

Can't give you advise on the road bike but just be aware that the tax break on cycle to work scheme is only for the first €1000 so a 1.5k bike will cost you nearer to 1k on cycle to work

Lots of good details on the separate thread on this forum

Mec-a-nic

Note that many road bikes are not equipped to enable touring - the frames lack the 'braze ons' where carriers and mudguards are attached - and the geometry may be designed to be more agile/twitchy for racing rather than the more relaxed angles for long distance touring. That said, there are so many models around, here's bound to be something in between - pick what fits you best.

I commute on a touring bike and sometimes remove carriers/mudguards for the occasional charity ride, but otherwise I see them as useful equipment and as resistance training.

Lumen

There a few different flavours of touring depending on how self-sufficient you need to be (e.g. camping and cooking).

Credit card touring (hotels and restaurants) is easy on a road bike - you could probably use an Arkel Randonneur and one of their compatible bags (Trail Rider, Sherpack, Switchback). I use a Randonneur for commuting and it works great.

http://www.arkel-od.com/en/arkel-randonneur-rack.html

Not sure it makes sense of buy a proper touring bike for future theoretical touring, just focus on your current needs.

pajosjunkbox

Hi,
Had the same predicament last year. I did the ring of Kerry last year and also did a 7 day touring holiday in the yorkshire dales. My giant defy 3 served me well for both. It has the mountings for panniers and I just fitted wider and more puncture proof tyres for the touring. Wouldn't obviously handle as well as a touring specific bike but did the job and had no issues with bike.
It all depends how much stuff you are going to bring. My advice would be to bring the bare minimum. There is always stuff that you never use. Keep it light enough and you will be fine ! We credit card toured so no tents !

sbs2010

How about something like this -
http://www.konabikes.co.uk/rove.cfm

tmg

or something eminently sensible

http://www.cube.eu/en/bikes/tour/travel/cube-travel-sl-rf-anthrazit-green-2015/