Recommendation for touring bike

[pwa]

Spa have just built me some lovely touring wheels for my bike with 130mm dropouts.

The same bike that's managed numerous fully loaded European tours , 4 panniers, camping kit etc.Bloody thing even has carbon forks supporting Tubus low riders. I've thought about getting a dedicated ' touring bike ' but I couldn't justify the expense when this keeps doing a job.

I'll just pop over and stand in the naughty corner.

If it does the job it does the job.

...and that's ultimately the thing, isn't it, albeit we all have thoughts, opinions & preferences.

Yes. We are dealing with two different questions here. One is, "Will this bike I already have make a good enough tourer with a few changes?", to which the answer will often be "yes". But the other question is "With this £750 in my pocket, what is the best straight bar tourer I can get?". With our enthusiasm for bikes we have taken the second question and gone off topic a little by musing on bikes a little over budget. Good fun and no harm done.

[Bonefishblues]

If it does the job it does the job.

...and that's ultimately the thing, isn't it, albeit we all have thoughts, opinions & preferences.

Yes. We are dealing with two different questions here. One is, "Will this bike I already have make a good enough tourer with a few changes?", to which the answer will often be "yes". But the other question is "With this £750 in my pocket, what is the best straight bar tourer I can get?". With our enthusiasm for bikes we have taken the second question and gone off topic a little by musing on bikes a little over budget. Good fun and no harm done.

Although the Spa is a conspicuous bargain, as we've also been saying, before wandering around in the undergrowth awhile

[pwa]

...and that's ultimately the thing, isn't it, albeit we all have thoughts, opinions & preferences.

Yes. We are dealing with two different questions here. One is, "Will this bike I already have make a good enough tourer with a few changes?", to which the answer will often be "yes". But the other question is "With this £750 in my pocket, what is the best straight bar tourer I can get?". With our enthusiasm for bikes we have taken the second question and gone off topic a little by musing on bikes a little over budget. Good fun and no harm done.

Although the Spa is a conspicuous bargain, as we've also been saying, before wandering around in the undergrowth awhile

The Spa was on budget and the right sort of spec, so that was very much On Topic.

[ElaineB]

Actually one of the reasons I bought my first Cinelli hobo was because it had a short wheelbase (1001cm) and was described as having Cyclecross geometry but it also had very little toe overlap, which as you folk may know is usually a real problem with small bikes. My previous ‘touring bikes’ were, Roberts, Thorn, Cannondale and a Van Nicholas which had such bad toe overlap I fell off in a car park when a small dog ran out in front of me. I now consider any bike with rack eyes will do as a ‘tourer’ for me, I am very light and even with lightweight camping gear I probably only weigh 80k all up, the weight of most average men. If the op is a heavy man and wants to expedition tour then his choice of bike is another story compared to mine. I have had a spoke break but I just taped it to the next one until it could be replaced. One can’t cover for every eventuality that may happen when touring but with common sense and a positive attitude most things can be overcome! Nobody should be put off touring because they think they don’t have the ‘right’ bike with the ‘right’ geometry. Ok my Tern aluminium 20in folding bike was a tad harsh for distance riding I must admit, but it had the advantage of making trains and ferries so much easier, I just did a different type of ‘touring’.

[Bonefishblues]

Good effort to break a spoke on 26s with your lack of weight. Fire the Italian wheelbuilder, pronto! assuming it was the Cinelli, that is.

[ElaineB]

No it wasn’t on ‘that’ bike, those wheels are bomb proof, I hope!

[slowster]

On the subject of Cinelli's and italian designed touring frames I intially found the Hobootleg Geo when I googled Cinelli Hobootleg. It's very much in the style of a Genesis Vagabond or Salsa Fargo, and ticks a lot of my boxes. Except that like ElaineB I want eyelets on my tourers to take a rack, and that includes off road tourers.

Doubtless it's a good bike for touring with soft bikepacking luggage, but what on earth was the designer thinking when they added the eyelets for a rack?

[pwa]

Actually one of the reasons I bought my first Cinelli hobo was because it had a short wheelbase (1001cm) and was described as having Cyclecross geometry but it also had very little toe overlap, which as you folk may know is usually a real problem with small bikes. My previous ‘touring bikes’ were, Roberts, Thorn, Cannondale and a Van Nicholas which had such bad toe overlap I fell off in a car park when a small dog ran out in front of me. I now consider any bike with rack eyes will do as a ‘tourer’ for me, I am very light and even with lightweight camping gear I probably only weigh 80k all up, the weight of most average men. If the op is a heavy man and wants to expedition tour then his choice of bike is another story compared to mine. I have had a spoke break but I just taped it to the next one until it could be replaced. One can’t cover for every eventuality that may happen when touring but with common sense and a positive attitude most things can be overcome! Nobody should be put off touring because they think they don’t have the ‘right’ bike with the ‘right’ geometry. Ok my Tern aluminium 20in folding bike was a tad harsh for distance riding I must admit, but it had the advantage of making trains and ferries so much easier, I just did a different type of ‘touring’.

My wife used to tour with me on a frameset that was basically built for racing but with the ability to take guards and a rack. Reynolds 753. And probably because she was light (still is) and on a small frame with relatively short tubes the frame was easily stiff enough to handle okay with panniers. The same tubes in longer lengths would have given me, with my extra height and weight, very uncertain handling with panniers.

While a variety of bike types can be modified for touring, I would advise anyone to replace their existing wheels with something better suited to the job if their existing wheels aren't particularly suited. It is a bad idea to tour on weak wheels.

A Touring Bike or Tourer is a bike specifically designed for touring, so it should require less mucking about and compromise to get it ready for a tour. But practically any bike can be used for touring, some more easily than others.

[ElaineB]

Yes I agree re wheels for touring but my Hobootleg came with 26” Alex wide rims with 36 spokes, Sora 130mm hubs and 35mm tyres. I asked St John Street cycles to make me a pair of Mavic narrow rims with 32 spokes, Sora hubs and I put on 28mm tyres. I ordered them on a Wednesday and they were delivered on Friday. Lovely wheels that have lightened the bike up and ride extremely well. I guess it’s horses for courses. My point is, touring can be done in so many different ways on so many different bikes that there really can’t be just ‘one’ type of touring bike. The original question from derekn is almost impossible to answer as these posts demonstrate! Personally I would say to him, go for the Spacycles option, it appears to be a cracking buy for the price and yes I do believe in supporting British bike shops, it’s a shame I live down south or I would be in there all the time!

[pwa]

32 spokes per wheel seems to me to be a good choice for a light cyclist like yourself, Elaine. My extra mass demands 36. But as you know, having the wheels put together by skilled person is crucial.

[Bonefishblues]

So what we're agreeing (he dares to suggest...) is touring is what you do, irrespective of what you actually do it on

[ElaineB]

Well yes, I guess that is it! Of course if one is heading off around the globe then a full on touring bike with a long wheelbase etc etc is imperative. If you want to carry a heavy load and be comfortable with few mechanical problems it would make sense. But the rest of us...?

[Bonefishblues]

Indeed - that's what I was referencing when I babbled about 'transcontinentaling', often away from support. Then I'd be speccing a bombproof Expedition-style bike in steel, probably Rohloff mit chain not belt, 26" wheels and so on ad nauseum.

But for touring, then hey, the only thing we've not discussed with the OP is a unicycle, as far as I can see.

Oh, and there's another thread where handbags were unsheathed around the definition of a touring bike. It's almost as if a bunch of aficionados had firm opinions, isn't it?

[ElaineB]

I’m not going there!

[horizon]

thirdcrank's opinion on this (I'll quote him since he's not posting at the moment) is that you can tell what makes a good touring bike from the number of technical questions on this forum regarding lowering gears, raising the handlebars, moving the saddle, the reliability of carbon, fixing panniers to the bike and so on. A lot of them are connected with Land's End to John o'Groats rides which of course involve high daily mileages over several days, carrying luggage and dealing with a variety of weather and road conditions. People who are used to using their bike for a brisk sunny Sunday morning spin with an orange tucked in their jersey pocket are having to adjust their perceptions. Of course, many of these cyclists end up doing a fully supported ride but not everyone has their personal Jeeves available and may indeed prefer to do it under their own steam.

My Tern folder would make a good touring bike now, but it's been heavily tweaked. I think I've noticed though that lots of bike firms now produce some sort of touring bike (even under the gravel bike guise) which they hadn't done in previous years when there was a dearth of touring bikes. So even they think there is a distinct difference between touring bikes and others.