New Bikepacking/ Touring Bike Advice

[Ivor Tingting]

Ivor Tingting
I think the minimalist touring isn't anything new,some tourists have always preferred to travel that way and are happy to do so,Nick Crane's book Journey to the centre of the earth is a classic example of how minimalist one can travel on a bicycle.
The current bikepacking trend is an offshoot of MTB road touring where tours upto a week are involved getting to places most cycle tourists don't.Travelling light has it's merits,traveling light off road needs careful thinking about kit,what's needed and what can be dispensed with.
I don't agree with the lazy comment you make especially if the opposite of that is to gruel it out with a pile of unnecessary kit and 'evening wear' that eats into your enjoyment and daily mileage.How one tours on a bike is a personal thing.

LoL. Speak for your own lazy presumptions! How do you know where most cycle tourists get to or what evening wear is packed? Source for your claims? A full tux and ball gown for the missus! Bike packing has come about from guys who ride endurance races with cycle cross/gravel bikes typically off road, forests and moderate hills. They don't want to carry traditional panniers as they don't want the volume or weight. But this is now pushed on all cycle tourists as being the way to cycle tour and traditional cycle tourers riding traditional touring bikes or expedition bikes with full panniers have fallen out of fashion. Each to their own. As I say not my sort of thing. Carry on with your presumptions.

[reohn2]

LoL. Speak for your own lazy presumptions! How do you know where most cycle tourists get to or what evening wear is packed? Source for your claims? A full tux and ball gown for the missus! Bike packing has come about from guys who ride endurance races with cycle cross/gravel bikes typically off road, forests and moderate hills. They don't want to carry traditional panniers as they don't want the volume or weight. But this is now pushed on all cycle tourists as being the way to cycle tour and traditional cycle tourers riding traditional touring bikes or expedition bikes with full panniers have fallen out of fashion. Each to their own. As I say not my sort of thing. Carry on with your presumptions.

No lazy presumptions on my part,I've seen cycletourists away for a week end carrying enough stuff to last a couple of months on the road.
Cycle touring is what you want it to be tux or ballgown included if you like,but to label people as "lazy" because they don't like carrying a lot of kit is derogatory to say the least.
As for any kind of cycle touring style be it lightweight bikepacking,four full panniers or anywhere inbetween being pushed on anyone is mistaken and misplaced,as you say and I agree with you "to each their own" and may it remain so.
BTW It was 'fashionable' in days past to tour with everything packed into a Carradice longflap and not much more,true bikepacking?

[thelawnet]

There's not really any question that bikepacking is being pushed and that it's a fashion. We don't really have to look much further than this group, formerly the Cyclists Touring Club, now, er, not.

Selling lots & lots of kit to young men is easier when you make a conscious effort to differentiate from the kit used by old men, or that there is something new and novel in all of this.

[thelawnet]

Edit, these came out recently, the new design Triban, £750 with 105 STIs, rack mounts front and rear https://www.decathlon.co.uk/triban-rc-5 ... 54421.html there's a review on road CC https://road.cc/content/review/252475-t ... -road-bike

Shame they saved a few quid with the hybrid brakes IMO, over full hydraulic ones.

[pwa]

There's not really any question that bikepacking is being pushed and that it's a fashion. We don't really have to look much further than this group, formerly the Cyclists Touring Club, now, er, not.

Selling lots & lots of kit to young men is easier when you make a conscious effort to differentiate from the kit used by old men, or that there is something new and novel in all of this.

And touring is a game that people play for pleasure, tailoring it to their own imagined image of what it should be. If that image is stripped down, bare essentials stuff, why not? That's one way to do it, and with a bit of thought I expect it works. Not my bag, but nobody is forcing me to do it. If the OP can manage to have fun on a lighter bike with minimal kit, that's great.

[Vorpal]

And when I was a teenager, I'd never even heard of touring bikes, but my brother and I certainly went touring. Me on a road bike, and him on a Schwinn 10 speed. We just put stuff on our bikes however we could carry it. No fancy kit. And fairly minimalist. We didn't have that much to take with! The hardest part was keeping our sleeping bags dry. That usually meant wrapped up in several layers of bin bags!



But I don't think that what the OP has in mind

[foxyrider]

Bikepacking - touring without the convenience of racks and/or sensible bags

[reohn2]

Bikepacking - touring without the convenience of racks and/or sensible bags

Like the majority of chaps and chapesses in these photos:- https://www.instagram.com/rsfarchive/

[Bonefishblues]

Bikepacking - touring without the convenience of racks and/or sensible bags

Like the majority of chaps and chapesses in these photos:- https://www.instagram.com/rsfarchive/

Looks up at sun.

Looks down.

Finds nothing new thereunder, despite the protestations of the oft-bearded ones

[reohn2]

Bikepacking - touring without the convenience of racks and/or sensible bags

Like the majority of chaps and chapesses in these photos:- https://www.instagram.com/rsfarchive/

Looks up at sun.

Looks down.

Finds nothing new thereunder, despite the protestations of the oft-bearded ones

[Oldjohnw]

Apart from waterproof protection you have to wonder sometimes if we have simply succumbed to advertising of fancy kit.

[Bonefishblues]

Apart from waterproof protection you have to wonder sometimes if we have simply succumbed to advertising of fancy kit.

People have been burned at the stake for such heresies you know.

[reohn2]

Apart from waterproof protection you have to wonder sometimes if we have simply succumbed to advertising of fancy kit.

People have been burned at the stake for such heresies you know.

Pass the matches

[alasdairjg]

There's no reason for the gears to be unreliable, it's worth working out why and finding out to fix it, otherwise at some point you're likely to have the same problem on the next bike.
Likewise the brakes - I hope not to reignite the rim V's disc debate - but folks were touring on rim brakes for decades without issues and many still are.
Why is the bike so heavy? My steel tourer is 12 kg ready to ride and I haven't gone overboard looking for the lightest of anything (Hewitt Cheviot SE in the largest size) I'm sure you'll be able to find something lighter, but if you save 5kg it'll mostly be on components rather than the frame. Might be worth making the best of what you have before looking for a replacement. Really comfortable is a great starting point on a touring bike, it's impossible to quantify what that's worth in terms of speed and endurance but sacrificing any of that comfort for weight may make you slower or inclined to ride shorter days.

I can see your point about the brakes and to a point I agree that the brakes are better than nothing. However saying that people have used them for a long time doesn't mean that they are just as good as newer technology. I had the same brakes on my first road bike so I know that they can work, but I have also compared the stopping power on newer bikes and there's no way that a center pull can be as good as anything else. I would rather be able to stop quickly.

I should check the gears again an maybe get new cables, but it's never been very good. I also don't like the shifting on Sora compared to Tiagra- it's so clunky. Having shifter cables in the way of my handlebar bag/ lights is also not good.

I have considered upgrading the touring bike to save money but I can't figure out how to get what I want without a new frame or new shifters/ gears. It just sounds like a new bike.

I think the bike is actually about 14.5Kg not 15Kg but it's still heavier than some steel bikes. I can only assume that the bike is heavy because it was the cheapest Dawes available at the time so there's no weight saving from the aluminium frame or it could be the big steel rack on the back or maybe the wheels. I'm not exactly sure why it's so heavy. Interestingly, the new Dawes galaxy is exactly the same bike as my old Galaxy AL which used to be the cheapest one available. It looks like Dawes have moved towards the budget market recently and are just spinning the Galaxy name.

[Ontherivet77]

For me the most effective weight saving would be to replace the tyres and wheels. For instance a set of Continental Gatorskins would give you a 600g weight saving over a set Continental Tour rides. A set of lightweight touring wheels would probably improve the feel of the bike no end. Also, the choice of saddle, my Brooks Flyer is about 460g heavier than a similarly comfortable Specialized Sonoma. Get rid of the pannier rack and that's probably another 1kg in weight lost. So, you could probably lose 2kg from the bike without too much effort.