Comfort set up for touring / long distance road bike... Any advice?

I use these butterfly handlebars up every day, also have tri bars, I just add them before I go on a tour. Best set up for me with multiple positions which is nice on a long day in the saddle. Tri bars are nice on long, open roads.

I never use drops, even the ones on the road bike. If you are going for a drop handlbars set up and are planning on doing long distances I'd still recommend tri bars .

(This isn't my bike, nearest I could find to it off the web)

Arequipa wrote: »

Thanks for the reply mate...
I was planning on drop handlebars...but like you I never go in the drops!

I was planning on getting 105... i am not sure how the shifters will work with those bars!

You can just pop clip on aero bars to regular handlebars unless you want to go bespoke. Consider gearing carefully for long days, with perhaps steep hills and some gear. I think the new ‘gravel’ group set might be better than ‘road’ - it gives lower options more easily (also dependent on fitness etc)

Beware clip on aero bars on carbon handlebars, however.

Consider the RedShift stem with the elastomers in it - it gets good writeups in ridefar.org

Consider a flexible seatpost (either the canyon/ergon split one, or something with a shock absorber in it...these have gotten better in recent years).

Consider, as I am sure you will have, a leather saddle by Brooks, Gilles Berthoud, Spa Cycles, or similar.

My 4 cents...

Hopefully the geometry of your titanium frame is reasonably relaxed. One thing you might consider before buying all the components is having a bike-fit done. Most good fitters could set you up either on your frame or a stock one and, based on your measurements, flexibility and type of cycling, advise you on stems, bars etc. You could later go back for some fine tuning if necessary after building your bike.

Good decision on titanium and 105 is a good choice too for what you have in mind. 28 or 32mm tyres should be pretty comfortable if you ride them at the correct pressures.

If you're not sure just get something cheap as a starting point, and if you need to change things like stems/handlebars etc they're pretty easy. And I'd agree with Merican pro, but might be worth getting a bike fit before hand to get a better idea.

Just in case anyone else finds it useful, but I like the idea of these bits below.

Really expensive, but after reading this review on cyclingtips I'd be tempted by the wave handlebar if I even do another tour again.

Also, these shockstop stems have shock absorbion.

TBH both are overkill (and expenseive!) unless you identify a need, but if I do any other cobbled sportives I might look at the shocktop as an easy mod.