26inch Expedition bike

[Cheeky Munkey]

Hi Folks,
I have come back to the cycling fold after a couple of years out of the saddle and am getting some enthusiasm for touring again. Now then, I fancy a change from the 27inch Raleigh Royal that I have presently, so am looking at either an expedition bike or building my own using a good MTB frame for a bit of "outward bounds" cycling.
I have checked out the St John's, Orbit and Hewitt bikes but may also like to look at a steel MTB frame to build myself. Have you guys got any thoughts about either option, ie type & make of MTB frame or best expedition bike. Any interesting experiances or help greatly appreciated.

Cheers, David

[Catullus]

Try to find a Dawes Sardar - a lot of bike for relatively little money. Mine has been superb value for money - paid £459 for it a couple of years ago.

[Cheeky Munkey]

Hi Catullus
Can you tell me where you bought your Sardar from?

[Catullus]

Halesowen Cycles - very good to do business with, bike perfectly set up straight out of the box. You might have to do a bit of digging to find a sub-£500 Sardar at the moment. Spa Cycles did have them at one time as did Evans. Good luck.

[jelly_trader]

Hi David,

I have a Sardar for sale. Excellent condition with many upgrades.

Let me know if you are interested and I'll mail a full spec.

[TimH]

Hi David

I found an early 90s Kona rigid MTB frame on eBay, had it resprayed by Argos, and rebuilt it as an MTB/expedition tourer. It worked so well that I've had a Mercian Canyon frame built to spec. - they don't only do traditional. It's not built up yet so can't report on the ride but it looks good. The frame is comparatively pricey, but if you shop around and avoid extravagent components you can still put a bike together at a reasonable price.

Tim

[reohn2]

Not wanting to start WW3 but why 26in wheels,unless going to the back of beyond?

[Si]

For me: I use mine on various tracks and BWs as well as roads, I find that the tyre choice is better in 26 for this sort of riding, plus 26inch wheel frames tend to have more clearance than 700c, so wider tyres possible. And also, designing a stronger frame seems to be a byproduct of designing for 26inch wheels in many cases.

26inch wheels ought to be stronger on average too: that is, you can use rims that are meant for offroading. Plus the shorter spokes ought to make it a little stronger, although the differences are so little that I don't really count this as a reason.

And, to me, 26inch wheeled, semi compact framed bikes feel a little more, erm, 'tighter' to me. This is a totally subjective thing and, no doubt, totally untestable scientifically, but the way that you feel about your bike is part of what makes you enjoy it, thus I can often feel a lot more secure/at one with/connected to my One Down than my over 700c, level TT touring bikes.

[parkedtiger]

I totally agree with your final point there - the most 'stable feeling' bikes I've ever had were the BMX's I rode as a teenager. Although the frames were much smaller in comparison to my mountain bikes today, I'm sure that feeling of security was due in no small part to their smaller 20 inch wheels.

[PW]

As Si said it's subjective. I do most of my mileage on a hack MTB at present but I much prefer a 700C drop bar lightweight, and of those if I'm not loadcarrying I prefer the light tourer to the camping iron, though the weight difference won't be that huge. It's the fun factor of a fast handling bike on twisty roads, especially the 4 1/2 mile drop home off the moors!

[reohn2]

I agree with Si's analogy but unless the bike is being used mostly on tracks and not tarmac I find the lack of tyre choice and size(section) limited.

Off road, Third World, expedition touring I would agree but Europian travel on all but the roughest of tracks I think I would prefere 700c if only for the choice of tyres, section sizes and availability.

I can't say I've toured on a 26in wheeled solo (only the tandem)bike so can't say about the 'tight' feel.I own a 10year old Dawes 531ST Horizon(same frame as the Galaxy/SG at the time) with a good wheelset (XT hubs Alesa Sputnik rims DB spokes)build by Spa cycles, I have found the combination faultless and it will take 37mm tyrs with reasonable clearances for roadwork.

The tandems are a different thing (one Thorn Discovery 26in wheels,40mm marathons,the other Santana Arriva 700c,32mm marathons)both bikes are very stiff and comfortable.The Thorn handles rough roads better but I put that down to the wider section tyres which at the same time I find frustrating because I'm limited to section size in that there isn't much choice if I want to go narrower, quite a bit of choice for wider section though.

The reason I asked was to find out if the original poster had thought the 26in wheel thing through,or assumed that was the way to go for a hard nosed tourer.As we don't know his/her touring experience,which could be greater than any of us or could be limited,so I was wondering on what basis his/her choice was.

[marko]

If there is a chance of going off road in the future or further afield surely it is always best to go 26.

I toured on 700c in Greece, popped a spoke (yes I know I should have had a spare) luckly the bloke at the motorbike shop had a friend who had a 700c bike and stole a spoke! - and how many thousand 26 wheelers were there about.

[Cunobelin]

Also depends on other bikes......

I have two recumbents with 26" wheels and also an old MTB and two of my wife's bikes.

All have Marathon Plus so I keep one spare tyre for emergency replacement.

As a result when we wanted touring bikes , the Thorn 26" wheels were ideal as although they run XRs at the moment they will change to the M+ either eventually or sooner if there is a failure.

[hamster]

Tyre availability is excellent there days too, in spite of some other people's remarks. You can get down as thin as 25mm readily.