Use Road Bike for Camping?

[Tri Girl]

Eventually I would like to ride down the coast (from Seattle to San Diego) and ultimately across the United States and then there is always CANADA and ALASKA I like to set big goals!

I'd love to do the Pacific Coast one day, and I dream of doing cross country, but doubt that will happen unless I save up and do it with a group tour. DH loves to ride, but not tour, so I'd have to go it alone for months (not something I do well- the alone thing).
Kudos to you for getting out there and exploring by bike. I wish I were brave enough to do more solo tours (or that DH wouldn't worry as much when I did).

I wish we had trailer and xtracycle rentals here. I think I belong on the West coast for more than a few reasons. It seems like everyone there has many of the same views on things as I do (be it environmental, political, or otherwise).

[applegum]

I've been using my road bike (all aluminum except for the fork, so not exactly built for the weight) this fall for touring and it's been working beautifully. Thanks to a nicely timed run-in with a car I got a beautiful new rear wheel made specifically for touring which makes me a little more confident with loading up the bike. Maybe try that if you're really concerned? The top of the line Mavic touring rims are only about $75 or so, and I got a fully built wheel with a tiagara hub for about $200 (in extremely overpriced Toronto).

[Dog]

Hi Applegum, thanks for the feedback. Did you use panniers and how much and what type of gear have you carried?

Tri Girl, my DH doesn't plan on touring with me either (a century ride is the max for him). And, he won't let me tour alone, so I'm trying to talk some of my friends into trying a weekend tour.

[applegum]

I did use panniers. Got them cheap from when I worked at Performance (alright for discounts!) and the 40lb rack from there as well. It was interesting getting one of the supports to bend properly to join up on the seatstay around my brake caliper, but it was stable since I didn't put too much weight on it, max about 30lb. All of that goes on the rear rack though and it held up really well. I was surprised by how fast I could go with everything loaded up. We still managed to average around 15.5-16mph, up to 21mph when we were in a paceline because we had to catch up to another group or sprint to the train station. Granted it was only about 75 miles of riding the first day, 50 the second. We did a trip last year and I was on an upright and it was MISERABLE. Well, actually a lot of fun. But the bike itself-pretty miserable.

[NadiaMac]

I did a 500 mile loaded tour on my bianchi eros donna road bike equipped with panniers. I found a rack that could be mounted through the quick release and onto my caliper brake mounts for the rear (axiom) and a front rack that mounted through the quick release and braced onto my carbon front fork (Old Man Mountain). My wheels were sturdy ksyriums and I had no problems with the wheels (but carried extra spokes and truing equipment just in case). My load was about 55-60 pounds.

A note on gearing. I had a standard road triple on this bike (30-27 largest gearing), and it was a bit of the grind on the steeper climbs we encountered (we had sustained portions of 8 and 10 percent grade, and even up to 12% grade. This was a bit of a grind for me. I powered through it but my friends with touring bikes (and thus more mountain bike gearing) spun up those climbs with greater comfort and less overall fatigue. This may not be an issue for you depending on the terrain you encounter, your strength, daily mileage etc.

I ran into folks with trailers on the tour and this seems like a decent option as well. I'm not sure how easy it is to travel with the trailer though. It was pretty easy to remove the pannier racks for boxing and shipping. Something to consider.