Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
m-gineering
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by m-gineering »

Norman H wrote: 23 Dec 2021, 2:56pm


Nice Baguette though. :D
Lesson #1: enough to eat & drink is way more important than the bike ;)
Marten

Touring advice for NL: www.m-gineering.nl/touringg.htm
Bmblbzzz
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by Bmblbzzz »

simonineaston wrote: 23 Dec 2021, 2:59pm A nice thread that has helped lift my spirits, following a trudge back from the spot where I saw I had a p******* in one of my trusty Marathons - I can't remember the last time I had one - years ago - 2013, maybe !! and so had got out of the habit of always carrying the necessary - I was "only going to the shops", after-all !! That'll teach me!
A walk back from the shops once every eight years won't hurt you. :D
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simonineaston
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by simonineaston »

A walk back from the shops once every eight years won't hurt you.
So true! Tyre unaffected, but look at the inner tube! Never seen that before. Anyone got any idea what's going on there?
that's some hole...
that's some hole...
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
rotavator
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by rotavator »

simonineaston wrote: 23 Dec 2021, 9:17pm Tyre unaffected, but look at the inner tube! Never seen that before. Anyone got any idea what's going on there?IMG_0109.JPG
It looks as if the tube been ripped right across: is that right? If so, it suggests to me that tyre has been moving relative to the rim, dragging the tube with it, with the valve anchoring it at only one point, until the tube snapped. Is the tyre very loose on the rim?

I had a cheap unbranded Chinese bike while working in Copenhagen that was forever wrecking tubes in odd ways like this. Thankfully I no longer have it!
Bmblbzzz
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by Bmblbzzz »

That's weird! Looks as if someone's removed your tyre while you were shopping, cut the tube in two with a blade, then refitted the tyre for you, all before you came out with your shopping! And we doubted the puncture faerie's existence... :shock:
pwa
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by pwa »

What would make a bike inappropriate for touring?

If it were unreliable and prone to breakages.

If it were not maintainable by the user over the course of the tour.

If it did not give the user a decent comfortable position.

If it could not readily carry the clobber that the user requires.

If it could not take its load and still handle nicely.

If it didn't have a gear range that ensured the user would have a minimal amount of forced walking to do.

If it didn't have very effective brakes.

If it didn't have mudguards (except in reliably dry places).

The reason I finish up with dedicated touring bikes is that when I buy bike bits I have these things in mind, and they inevitably lead me to a touring bike. Other bikes, not marketed as touring bikes, can be adapted to become touring bikes. Some more successfully than others.
simonhill
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by simonhill »

PWA wrote: "What would make a bike inappropriate for touring?"

If it was unable to go from A to B. That is the most basic requirement of a touring bike and all other things are just nice to have.

I've seen a few ex backpackers who have bought cheap bikes after getting fed up with the backpacker circus. Not particularly suitable, but with packs strapped to back rack they get on OK.

I once bought a cheap $50 Chinese MTB in Madagascar after getting fed up with the public transport Mafia. It was rubbish and would probably have earned the BSO tag favoured on this forum. I can't stress how rubbish it was - every day it needed something doing. None of the bearings had been greased and the components were the lowest of the low. For example, steel wheels, brake blocks of hard rubber and plastic brake levers which made some of the mountain stuff a real challenge. Nonetheless, I rode about half the length of the island and it was a useful runaround for the final beach stop.
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freiston
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by freiston »

I too would like to say what a nice thread and a nice idea. Unfortunately (or otherwise), I don't have any photos to share on it.

My first cycle-camping trip was done on a 1970s BSA Sirocco - not what anyone would consider a proper touring bike but it did the job nicely. I and a couple of friends cycled from the Lincolnshire Fens down into Norfolk and then up to the north Norfolk coast, so no really low gears required. The bike was a typical 1970s "racer" bike for the mass market/schoolboy commuter - cotter-pinned chainset, suicide levers, the cheapest Huret derailleurs etc. A pair of impractical panniers on the back that were attached to each other; they had horizontal zips on the face of the bags and about 2" from the top of them. The bar bag was a canvas surplus US Army gas mask bag with leather buckled straps to attach it.

One of our party had a similar bike but badly maintained and worn out. If I recall correctly, we ended up replacing both tyres, front and rear wheel axle nuts (he had cheap wing nuts but the wings had snapped off long before), brake and gear cables - all on day two.

As long as the bike is well maintained and looked after, comfortable in both riding position and gearing, and can take the luggage, then it is usually approximating appropriate. And generally speaking, bikes have enough adjustment in them to be made a comfortable fit.

My personal experience is that I feel that it is me rather than my bike which gets closer to "inappropriate" for touring - especially when I have been over-optimistic about my fitness and ability - but that really only becomes an issue when one has a strict schedule or needs to be somewhere by a certain time, otherwise it is a change of plan (or a fluidity of plan) and part of the fun and adventure.
Disclaimer: Treat what I say with caution and if possible, wait for someone with more knowledge and experience to contribute. ;)
pwa
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by pwa »

There are inappropriate touring bikes, and they are inappropriate because they are rubbish and do a bad job. I rode LEJOG on one in the late 1980s, and I was visiting bike shops up the length of the country to get broken spokes replaced. It also had a narrow gear range that had me walking on too many hills. To look at, from a distance, it was roughly like a touring bike, but it was just a collection of cheap and nasty components, each of which was waiting its turn to cause trouble. I can say one good thing for that bike. It made me realise that it is worth paying a bit more for something that works better.
francovendee
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by francovendee »

Where's MickF with photos of his Raleigh Chopper with trailer?
pwa
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by pwa »

francovendee wrote: 25 Dec 2021, 7:55am Where's MickF with photos of his Raleigh Chopper with trailer?
But did Mick F select that particular bike exactly because it was inappropriate and would present an extra challenge? Which made it appropriate, I suppose, in that it fitted his very specialised brief.
tatanab
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by tatanab »

I have toured on many machines that people would deem unsuitable for various reasons.

1. Fixed wheel. In my 20s and 30s the fixed was my usual tourer. Central Wales, no problem, same for Normandy and Brittany. This is youth hostel type touring, Now, 40 years older, I know I could not do that in those regions.
2. Tricycle. My preferred touring machine. Inappropriate because of the number of parts that are specific and cannot be found in Decathlon for example. The only trike specific part that I have broken on tour was a rear hub where the flange split across 4 spoke holes. That was about 2010. I was heading for home anyway, and it was only another 300 miles across France so I just rode cautiously. That was a camping trip.
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speedsixdave
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by speedsixdave »

francovendee wrote: 25 Dec 2021, 7:55am Where's MickF with photos of his Raleigh Chopper with trailer?
On page one of this thread!
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speedsixdave
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by speedsixdave »

My first tours in the 1980s (supported, so saddlebags only) were on a Raleigh Weekender, which was much as Freiston and pwa have already suggested. In its favour it had a triple, which was great, and a Huret Duopar Eco, which was occasionally great and then uniquely awful. Apart from that it was steel rims, Weinmann 730 brakes with suicide levers, bendy-axled Normandy (?) hubs, foam bar tape and all the other general horrors of the time.

I would baulk at the idea of riding far on such a bike now, but that was the bike that got me hooked. 35 years later, cycle touring is still about my favourite thing, so it can't have scarred me too badly.

Image
Big wheels good, small wheels better.
Two saddles best!
pq
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Re: Show us photos of your inappropriate touring bike

Post by pq »

In 1996 I did a long, rough tour on a very slightly converted high end Rossin of 1980s vintage. I started in Islamabad, crossed the karakoram Highway into China, then exited over the rough Torugart Pass into Kyrgyzstan, over more rough passes, then finished in Kazakhstan. For the trip I had mudguard eyes brazed on the back to fit a pannier carrier and used a triple chainset, but with super tight clearances, twitchy handling and tyres far too narrow it wasn't the best tool for the job. I rode it because I had no money to get something more suitable - and I did manage to complete the tour. No photos to hand unfortunately.
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