Newbie - but which touring bike?????????????????????

[squeaker]

5 minutes over a 20 minute ride!?

Probably the extra time needed to pump the narrower tyres up to a higher pressure

[ersakus]

Fat tyre doesn't mean slow, especially when the road is not so smooth. On the contrary they may prove to be more comfy and faster than a narrow tyre at the same weight.
I have two bikes one with 42mm (1.6") 650B tyres (GB Hetre) and one with 32mm 700C (pasela). 42mm tyre rolls faster. It takes 20 minutes to arrive at work with thick tyres versus 25min with 32mm paselas.

My new found wisdom is that fat but light tyres are good for touring.

5 minutes over a 20 minute ride!?

Surely the losses in the tyres aren't 25% before you start? Increases the losses by another 25% for the inefficient tyres seems very unlikely to me...
I only get 5 minutes back over my 45 min commute switching from my MTB with nobblies to my tourer (although I never bother riding the 'drops').

5 mins of advantage aside comfort and safety (bike stops much safer in wet for example) is more important to me. It is a win win situation when I use my fat tyred bike.
Ithink the 5 min advantage comes from the fact that I don't have to chose the nice part of the road with this bike and follow a straight path (shorter overall distance) and still ride comfortably. I also tend to ride faster as there is almost no vibration that I feel.
There is also a theory about why fat high performance tyres are faster (below speeds of 25kph) then skinny ones. This is to do with vibration losses.
See Schwalbe technical documents.
In any case I'm happy with light but fat tyres. Just wanted to mention this.

[Colin63]

Swerving back to the matter at hand. ie what is a good entry level tourer, my two pennies worth is that i was looking at a Hewitt this afternoon, and despite my innate Mercian owner prejudice I have to say that it was a beautifully thought out machine and extremely well made. If I wanted a second (well third) bike I'd make the trip to Leyland and buy a Hewitt.

[Shedmeister]

Well i think i have found my bike - amazing price and interest free credit: http://www.damianharriscycles.co.uk/pro ... alaxy-2010

What do you guys think?

[niggle]

Well i think i have found my bike - amazing price and interest free credit: http://www.damianharriscycles.co.uk/pro ... alaxy-2010

What do you guys think?

Looks a very good deal, particularly with interest free credit. One thing just to double to check is that you are getting the spec you want as the Dawes website Galaxy 2010 spec lists bar end shifters, but the Damian Harris spec says something about STIs (though the picture shows bar ends and all the Galaxy's I have seen in recent years have been bar end, so its probably just a typo). Why not print off the web page and see how close your LBS can get to the price? The local shop will be there when you need them, my experience of buying a bike on the net has been less than satisfactory and don't forget the cost of delivery from Damian Harris and if you need to send it back again for any reason, plus time delays.

[Nutsey]

I'm in the same situation as the OP and was steered away from this Galaxy bike by my local bike shop. They said the Surly Crosscheck or Surly Trucker are better value. I will look into these bikes from Layland though as that isn't far from me.

EDIT - the Hewitt is now over £1000 so can't get it on cyclescheme

[hartleymartin]

Get a Fuji Touring bicycle. Remove the following parts:

1.) STI Levers - who the heck uses STI levers on a tour?
2.) Crankset 50/39/30 - way too high for a tourer, unless you plan to go credit-card touring
3.) Front derailleur - you'll need a new one for the new crankset
4.) Rear Carry Rack - basic, but not good for carrying heavy loads.

Sell the above items off to find the purchase of the following items:

Buy:

1.) Quality Aero Levers (I opted for V-brakes, so I got Cane Creek Drop-V levers and a set of Tektro V-brakes)
2.) 44/32/22 MTB Triple (Deore or LX is good, I got an FSA crankset)
3.) Deore or LX front derailleur (SRAM is also good)
4.) Bar-End Shifters (I've opted to simplify my rig with 8-speed gears and diacompe silver friction shifters)
5.) Quality Rear Carry Rack (I got a BETO rack, ex-NSW Police)
6.) Quality Front Carry Rack (low-rider racks are good)
7.) Quality Mudguards (I got a nice set of stainless steel ones)

You might also want to buy an adjustable stem, if you want to go fancy, but it's not essential.

Now, you'll have a good touring bicycle, which will also serve you well as a commuter. I've done the above to a 2008 Fuji Touring Bicycle, and I'm just waiting on my last couple of orders of parts to arrive before final assembly and touring holiday.

[Colin63]

I'm in the same situation as the OP and was steered away from this Galaxy bike by my local bike shop. They said the Surly Crosscheck or Surly Trucker are better value. I will look into these bikes from Layland though as that isn't far from me.

EDIT - the Hewitt is now over £1000 so can't get it on cyclescheme

Surly have a very good reputation in the US. I have lots of Flickr contacts who are keen cyclists over there and there seems to be almost a cult for two brands, Surly and Rivendell. It would be a good choice.

A shame that the cyclescheme won't allow a purchase over a grand. Is there no way that you could make up the difference (just between you and the shop) and then be invoiced separately for the rest?

[Shedmeister]

Thanks so much for your advice everybody. After much delibertation - i finally got the dawes galaxy today. I was constantly flitting between that, the ridgeback panorama and the kona sutra. But i went to Evans, got 0% interest and thought the staff were really good and helpful.

[Nutsey]

Enjoy it

Oh and post pics