Touring Bike Recommendation

[KatfromCal]

I am in the process of looking for a touring bike and was wondering if anyone could give me some recommendations. I bought a road bike (Specialized Ruby Comp) last October and love riding so much that I decided that I would love to go on longer rides, even some overnighters. Plus, I just might commute to work which is about 25 miles or so. I am so jazzed about riding and getting in shape. Any thoughts out there?

[Blueberry]

Welcome! You are correct that a bike for touring will serve you well for a long commute (is that 25 round trip, or each way??). There are LOTS of good options out there. I'll throw some out, and if you have questions, we can (try to) answer them:

Surly Cross Check (cross bike, but takes racks)
Surly Long Haul Trucker
Jamis Aurora
Novara Randonee
Rivendell Atlantis
Trek 520
Specialized Tricross
Bike Friday (particularly the crusoe and new world tourist)
Bruce Gordon BLT

In the (way more) expensive category:
Seven has custom touring bikes
Co Motion Americano
Custom Rivendell
Independent Fabrications (independence or club racer)

Good luck!!

CA

[F8th637]

I've got the Kona Sutra and love it. I have a 15-mile (one direction) commute and it is definitely the way to go. I also love the disc brakes. It's not the lightest bike in the world but it's steel and so comfy.

[KatfromCal]

The commute is 25 one way. Thanks for all of the suggestions. Now I can do some additional research and check things out. If I have any questions, I will be sure to ask them. Thanks again. :)

[Blueberry]

Wow! That's a LONG commute. One of our bike shop guys does one of similar length.

F8th637 - out of curiosity, do you have disk brakes on your Sutra? I've heard (from said shop guy) that disk brakes and racks are tough.

CA

[KnottedYet]

I saw a disc-brake specific Delta rack at a bike shop today.

[bikerHen]

Gotta put a good word in for a Surly Long Haul Trucker. Perfect for commuting and touring. I got mine last August and rode it daily through all but the deepest snows this winter. It is heavier and slower than my carbon road bike but more comfortable for a long ride. Studded tires, single digit weather, fenders, lights allover it, never ending rain this spring and roads full of huge potholes. The LHT can handle it all.
I've done one, kinda tour with the LHT pulling a fully load BOB trailer too. It and I did great. Can't wait for our next tour the end of the month. :D bikerHen

[F8th637]

Wow! That's a LONG commute. One of our bike shop guys does one of similar length.

F8th637 - out of curiosity, do you have disk brakes on your Sutra? I've heard (from said shop guy) that disk brakes and racks are tough.

CA

Yup, I sure do! I actually have had luck with two racks now. I had one that I had to attach to the seatpost since it didn't have the right arms to hit my eyelets and I have a new rack that has the right arms now. There's a picture and some info about the new rack on the commuter thread:
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=22857&page=9. The only complaint I guess I have is that I have no where to attach an underseat saddle bag now but I have managed to put it in a spare cage. I really haven't had any issues finding a rack that works. Why does the LBS guy say it's tough? My bike has the proper eyelets. You can see it in the picture.

[withm]

There is a very good article in Adventure Cycling Magazine on touring bikes and covers a listing from 20 or more manufacturers, and describes some of the more desirable features to look for in a touring bike. Either the May or June issue. They also have quite a few articles archived on their website, but nothing has been added since Dec 07, so this particular article is not yet online. However if you search for touring bikes you get a list of probably 30 or so articles in prior years that you might find helpful.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/index.cfm

[tpb]

You may also want to look at the Bianchi Volpe. I commute about 16 miles (each direction) on one and it's a very comfortable, solid bike. It has the braze-ons for racks on back and (I think) on the front. I've loaded mine down with a laptop, clothes and lunch and it was still very stable.

BTW, I upgraded the derailluers to 105 and XT (it comes with Tiagra and Deore).

Enjoy!
tpb

[Blueberry]

F8th637 - I'm not sure why the LBS said that. DH has been (sort of) looking for a new bike, and kicking around options. They were steering him away from anything with disk brakes because he wants to be able to put on racks and tour.

CA

[F8th637]

F8th637 - I'm not sure why the LBS said that. DH has been (sort of) looking for a new bike, and kicking around options. They were steering him away from anything with disk brakes because he wants to be able to put on racks and tour.

CA

CA, if he does want a disc brake touring bike he should check out the Kona Sutra. I have the '06. I believe the '08 already comes with racks on the front and the back. It's not the lightest bike in the world but it is steel and incredibly smooth and stable with a load. It's not impossible to have a touring bike with disc brakes and racks. If it has the proper eyelets I don't see why he can't put a rack on a bike with disc brakes.

[Blueberry]

CA, if he does want a disc brake touring bike he should check out the Kona Sutra. I have the '06. I believe the '08 already comes with racks on the front and the back. It's not the lightest bike in the world but it is steel and incredibly smooth and stable with a load. It's not impossible to have a touring bike with disc brakes and racks. If it has the proper eyelets I don't see why he can't put a rack on a bike with disc brakes.

I think he's a long way fmrom deciding what he wants. Actually, I think what he wants doesn't necessarily exist. He wants something fast enough to do club rides on (and to hang with his normal group), and sturdy enough for touring (probably with a trailer). I think the Indy Fab Club Racer is about the only bike that would fit the bill I've seen...

CA

[F8th637]

I think he's a long way fmrom deciding what he wants. Actually, I think what he wants doesn't necessarily exist. He wants something fast enough to do club rides on (and to hang with his normal group), and sturdy enough for touring (probably with a trailer). I think the Indy Fab Club Racer is about the only bike that would fit the bill I've seen...

CA

Well, the Sutra has an adjustable wheelbase to make it a bit more responsive and fast or longer and stable but it sounds like it may not be as fast and responsive as he would like. The Club Racer looks like a dream. Good luck in his search!

[JaneE]

Gotta put a good word in for a Surly Long Haul Trucker. Perfect for commuting and touring...The LHT can handle it all.
I've done one, kinda tour with the LHT pulling a fully load BOB trailer too. It and I did great. Can't wait for our next tour the end of the month. :D bikerHen

This is what I love to hear! :)

DH and I have two LHTs on order from our local shop. Should be getting them this week. Yippee!! We're anxious to do some tour-camping (we're old hands at camping...it's the *touring* part that's new and exciting ;) ).

We did lots of on-line research on what was out there; none of our LBSs actually stock any touring bikes, unfortunately. We learned that the Trek 520 is on backorder until SEPTEMBER?? Seemed odd that they wouldn't have any to ship during the main touring season but what do I know? If money was no object we'd definitely be going for Co-Motion Americanos with custom paint jobs. Mouth-watering! ;) Since money IS an object, however, we decided that a pair of Surly LHTs would be a great choice and our favorite bike tech helped us immeasurably in determining what size we needed, etc.

Now we're in the process of gearing up and at the moment are trying to decide on panniers. There's certainly never any shortage of ways to spend money, is there? lol!

Anyway, good luck, KatfromCal. Hope you do some great touring!

Jane

[Skierchickie]

There's certainly never any shortage of ways to spend money, is there? lol!

You ain't kiddin'! (Apologies to any Grammar Grinches). When I got my 520 last September, the fun had only just begun! I still need fenders to replace the crummy ones the LBS threw in (DH knows what I want, and our anniversary is next Monday), rain covers, hmmm, I'm sure there is more.

Let's see, there was the pump, the side-access bottle cages, the headlight, the mount for the headlight, the rear panniers (Christmas), the front panniers, the handlebar bag, the seat bag/tool kit that is too big for the space between the saddle & the rack, the front rack (a hand-me-down), ...

Then I got sick and couldn't go on my first real tour. :mad:

Anyway, I LOVE my 520. I have used the rear panniers for commuting to work, but have yet to fully load it down. It rides really nice under no load/light load. I hope to find out soon about how it handles with everything piled on. It feels really smooth (even though it is an absolute tank to lift, compared with my road bike) and stable. It is really comfortable.

Have fun on your search!

[KatfromCal]

You are all awesome!!! Thanks for all of the valuable information. What a great forum. I have learned so much. :)

[ilima]

Another option is Terry's Isis Sport, which comes with a road triple up front and a mountain cassette and derailleur in the back. I believe there are rack mounts, which you'd need for commuting.

[withm]

There is a very good article in Adventure Cycling Magazine on touring bikes and covers a listing from 20 or more manufacturers, and describes some of the more desirable features to look for in a touring bike. Either the May or June issue. They also have quite a few articles archived on their website, but nothing has been added since Dec 07, so this particular article is not yet online. However if you search for touring bikes you get a list of probably 30 or so articles in prior years that you might find helpful.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/index.cfm


CORRECTION: It is the APRIL issue of Adventure Cycling that has this article.

[twin]

I ride my LHT all over the place and just put racks on the front and rear. i am sure that it would do anything that i could put it through. It is not as light as my carbon fiber and I second that the LHT is very comfortable. I am amazed what this bike can do. I am very found of this bike.

[MuttNut]

Sorry I'm jumping into this discussion a bit late, but if you're still looking for opinions I just got back from a month-long tour of Nova Scotia on a Trek 520. Overall I LOVE the bike, but I do have 2 complaints. One is that the top tube on that bike is pretty long. I had to swap out to a shorter/higher stem to bring my handlebars closer. That might just be me, but I have the typical female build of short torso/long leg. The second thing is the gearing. I had heard before going on the tour that the stock gearing on the Trek 520 was pretty high for loaded touring, but opted not to pay for lower gearing. That was a mistake- I had to walk up a few hills b/c the gearing was just too high.
Besides those things though- both of them fixable- I think the Trek 520 is an awesome bike. Good luck!

[JaneE]

We've had our LHTs for a little while now and love them. :)

We took to heart what we had read somewhere: on a touring bike you will rarely or never wish you had higher gears but you'll frequently find yourself wishing you had lower gears. We had the Surly stock rings (48-36-26) swapped out for 46-34-24 (which our LBS did for free during the build and set-up).

We love our bikes! The ride is very smooth and solid. Won't be breaking any land-speed records, though. ;)

I don't think you can go wrong with this bike.

[tulip]

I really like Jamis bikes. I don't have the Aurora, but I do have the Coda and would love to put drop bars on it and make it into a touring bike. But that's not going to happen.

I've done light touring on my Bike Friday and it's been great. They make models specifically for loaded touring (mine is not but it's wonderful for light touring). It's also very handy to be able to put it in a suitcase for traveling.

You might also want to consider getting a frame with couplers to facilitate traveling to touring places. Waterford and many other framebuilders will do this.

CA- I had trouble with my Dahon Matrix (sold it) that had disk brakes. It was a commuting bike and getting a rack on was not easy. I ended up using alot of duct tape.

[mtkitchn]

Sorry I'm jumping into this discussion a bit late, but if you're still looking for opinions I just got back from a month-long tour of Nova Scotia on a Trek 520. Overall I LOVE the bike, but I do have 2 complaints. One is that the top tube on that bike is pretty long. I had to swap out to a shorter/higher stem to bring my handlebars closer. That might just be me, but I have the typical female build of short torso/long leg. The second thing is the gearing. I had heard before going on the tour that the stock gearing on the Trek 520 was pretty high for loaded touring, but opted not to pay for lower gearing. That was a mistake- I had to walk up a few hills b/c the gearing was just too high.
Besides those things though- both of them fixable- I think the Trek 520 is an awesome bike. Good luck!


I'm looking for a touring bike and the long top tube thing concerns me. Are there touring bikes made specifically for women that aren't too spendy? Or is it easy enough to find a stem to fix the problem on most bikes?

[NadiaMac]

Old Man Mountain and Axiom make racks for mounting to bike lacking eyelets and other mounting hardware. For my recent loaded tour on a road bike with no mounting hardware (no eyelets, etc.), I put an OMM front rack on my carbon fork -- in mounted onto the quickrelease and braced onto the carbon form. Used an axiom rear rack that mounted through the quick release and caliper brake mount. For folks with disc brakes, OMM has quite a few racks for mounting onto bikes with disc brakes. The mounting systems are very clever, and OMM was very helpful through email in helping me select and mount the proper rack.

[mudmucker]

none of our LBSs actually stock any touring bikes, unfortunately.

I am finding this too. Especially for LHT.


our favorite bike tech helped us immeasurably in determining what size we needed, etc.
I am interested in what went in to determining size. Did they take specific measurements? If so, which ones? Or did you/they take the general specs off of a bike that already fit you, and made the translation to what fit within the Surly dimensions...

I might be interested in getting a frame.

What rims, hubs, and tires do you have on it?

[Dog]

Hi KatCal,
I too have a road bike and love riding. I'm also to the point where I think I want to do some light touring. I get jealous everytime I see a bike loaded with panniers or a trailer - I always where they are riding from and where they are riding to? I love road trips and would love to try it on my bike. I'm trying to figure out if I can set up my Bianchi (road bike) to handle some light touring. I'm getting some great advice from this forum (check under touring).
Anyway, let us know if you decided on a touring bike. Good luck!

[Dog]

Oops...these posts are under touring. Sorry!:o