Advice on Touring Bike for Newbie Please

[mamalovesmambo]

Hi,
I'm a total touring newbie, but I'm off to Italy for a month this summer and want to get a new bike for the trip.
I'm looking for a Bike and have been researching it a bit.
There seems to be alot of 'city' 'street' and 'short-trip' hybrid bikes,
but not alot of solid long-trip Touring Bikes.

I want the bike to be as light as possible, but very reliable, so I don't want new fangled bits that'll be hard to fix or replace on route. I also need a good "granny gear" as I need all the help I can get uphill!
I'm looking for mountain-bike sized wheels, mountain-bike style-gears, lock-off-able front suspension, front and rear pannier facility.
What would you recommend that would fit this description?

Would you recommend getting a women's bike?
What are the reasons for getting one and the advantages or disadvantages?
I don't want to get a dropped bar just so it's easier to mount the bike, as I've heared that weakens the frame. But if the geometry would fit me better I'd be interested in a women's frame.
I am 5'5". If I measure my leg-length how do I relate that to frame size?
What distance from saddle to handle bars should I be looking for in relation to my arm length?

Any help and advice greatly appreciated!

[CorsairMac]

Denise would probably be one of the best people to answer this for you mama. And she will probably recommend a Bike Friday which - from what I've seen - seems to be one of the best touring bikes around!

Welcome to the board by the way. If you get a chance there's a thread under open titled "getting to know you". Gives you a couple of hours to laugh while you're getting to know us, and - if you're so inclined - tell us something about you!

[emily_in_nc]

I'll jump right in first and recommend a Bike Friday as a touring bike, especially since you're going across the pond. You can fold it and pack it into a rolling suitcase and check it like normal luggage. No extra fees! And they're fabulous bikes too. My husband and I both got one last year specifically for touring.

You can read my review of my Pocket Crusoe here:
Emily's Pocket Crusoe Review and if you're interested, you can read about our tour in upstate NY (or just check out the pictures to see how nicely the bikes carried the full panniers) here.

Bike Fridays are custom made so the womens/mens distinction is not important; it will be made for your measurements. For lots of information and discussion on womens' bikes, do a search for WSD in this forum; the pros and cons of these bikes have been discussed many times before.

Also, check out this articles on girlbike.com:
Ten Tips for Buying a New Bike

Good luck!

Emily

[spazzdog]

Simplicity being my middle name... well, sometimes it is; I's say if the trip is coming up soon and it's not technically a cycling vacation (i.e. you just want to be able to tool around every so often) I'd rent a bike in Italy rather than rushing to buy one then hassling with the airport.

Then when you get back and are thoroughly hooked go shopping for that perfect bike... for which we at TE will be more than happy to provide research, reviews, etc.

spazz-symplicity-dog

[DeniseGoldberg]

Oops! Sorry for the delay in responding, I was out riding!

I'm actually the happy owner of two touring bikes, both of which were custom-made for me. Corsair and Emily are right - I highly recommend a Bike Friday. I have an Air Glide set up for touring, and a Pocket Rocket set up as a road bike. And my other touring bike is a diamond-frame bike custom-built by Peter Mooney. I believe there are more touring bikes out there than there were when I bought my Peter Mooney bike, so it should be possible to find one - but to be honest if you're planning trips to Europe, it's much easier to fly with the Bike Fridays. As Emily said, they fold into their own suitcase, and then the suitcase converts to a trailer for cycling. And hey - you can even see a picture of me with my Air Glide on the Bike Friday web site in the What do you do on a Friday? page!

Bike Fridays are made to order, and the timeframe for delivery (obviously) is dependent on their current order level. There is another option there though, and that is to ask what used bikes they have available. As a bike manufacturer who likes to keep their customer base happy, Bike Friday will let owners who want a different BF (as opposed to an additional BF) use their current bike as a trade-in toward the purchase of a new bike. They do refurbish the bikes, so I would be very comfortable picking up a used bike from them.

Is there some reason you are leaning toward a mountain bike? You can get the gearing you want without going with a mountain bike by mixing components. Both of my touring bikes have a mixture of Ultegra (road) components (front derailleur & cranks) and XT or XTR (mountain) components (cogset and rear derailleur). I prefer drop bars, and I have Ultegra shifters. The reason I mixed the road and mountain components was to get the low gearing that I wanted - and that's quite a common thing to find on a touring bike. Unless you're planning off-road touring I would stay away from mountain bike tires - a smooth (but not skinny) tire works for touring. My favorites are Conti Top Touring tires - I've had many successful miles of touring on them.

If you want to do more reading, I have journals about all of my solo bike tours up on crazyguyonabike.com. You can get directly to the list of my journals at denisegoldberg.crazyguyonabike.com.

If you have more questions - please ask! And ask as many times as you need to! (One word of warning though, I will be somewhat out of touch from June 23rd through June 30th since I'm heading to Maine to go on a bike tour - you can follow along at Red-clad feet on a purple bike.

--- Denise

[emily_in_nc]

Is there some reason you are leaning toward a mountain bike? You can get the gearing you want without going with a mountain bike by mixing components. Both of my touring bikes have a mixture of Ultegra (road) components (front derailleur & cranks) and XT or XTR (mountain) components (cogset and rear derailleur). I prefer drop bars, and I have Ultegra shifters. The reason I mixed the road and mountain components was to get the low gearing that I wanted - and that's quite a common thing to find on a touring bike.

Just to echo what Denise says, I had my Bike Friday Pocket Crusoe built very similarly - mountain gearing in the back and Ultegra in the front. I also have drop bars for the multiple hand positions they provide, but I had bar-end shifters installed instead of STI since it's easier and more basic to repair if it should break down on the road. Bike Fridays are super configurable to your taste, and the folks that work there are super knowledgable and can answer any questions you have (of course, I'll be happy to help too!) They want to help you build your dream bike for your intended uses. I highly recommend the company and their bikes.

That said, I do agree with spazz that if you're just going to be tooling around while in Italy and you need the bike soon, it is probably easiest to rent while over there. Bike Friday does have a lead time...and other manufacturers may as well. You don't want to rush your decision since you want to be happy with your bike for many years. Heck, I changed my mind about which Bike Friday model to get at least 3 times before I placed my order!

Good luck,
Emily

[Cinzia]

Last year we biked around Tuscany. If you are planning on cycling in that area of Italy, and have decided to rent a touring bike instead of bringing your own, a good place to do so is Centro Bici in Siena (www.sienabiking.com). Avio, the owner, is an avid cyclist and will set up the bikes to your liking! Have fun!

[eofelis]

Hi,

There seems to be alot of 'city' 'street' and 'short-trip' hybrid bikes,
but not alot of solid long-trip Touring Bikes.

I want the bike to be as light as possible, but very reliable, so I don't want new fangled bits that'll be hard to fix or replace on route. I also need a good "granny gear" as I need all the help I can get uphill!
I'm looking for mountain-bike sized wheels, mountain-bike style-gears, lock-off-able front suspension, front and rear pannier facility.
What would you recommend that would fit this description?

Would you recommend getting a women's bike?
What are the reasons for getting one and the advantages or disadvantages?
I don't want to get a dropped bar just so it's easier to mount the bike, as I've heared that weakens the frame. But if the geometry would fit me better I'd be interested in a women's frame.


Any help and advice greatly appreciated!

I was touring bike oriented before I was road bike oriented. My bf John is a bike mechanic, so I have learned a lot from him. For a solid long trip touring bike, I chose a Trek 520 (after looking around for a long time) For a stock bike, it's set up quite nice out of the box, with 105 and LX components. I have a 17" Trek 520. We have changed some things on it, like lower gears and down tube shifters (instead of bar end shifters), but it's basically a great bike, with a steel frame. These run about $1000 retail. My bf also has a Trek 520.

Another bike I have tried that more fits your description for a touring bike with mtn bike size tires is the REI Novara Safari. About $800 retail, you can sometimes find them on sale. It's an aluminum frame bike (doesn't ride quite as nice a steel frame bike IMHO). Last I knew it had some pretty good components on it, LX. No front suspension, but takes front and rear pannier racks.

We do lots of looking around at bikes, just because it's fun What you describe wanting you may have to have custom built up. Surly makes a steel frame touring bike called the Long Haul Trucker. The sizes 54cm and down are made to take 26" mtn bike wheels. (I plan on getting one someday! I love Surly bikes). Then you could have a component kit set up any way you want, and have exactly the bike you need. But it costs a lot more. Depending on what you put on it, it could cost $1500-2000. But it would be a very solid bike - a coast to coast bike.

Hope this helps a bit.

[bikerbarb]

Don't buy the touring bike I did. It is a Jamis Aurora. I admit to heavy use, about 3,500 miles in the last 15 months, but none of it even with loaded panniers and it has been one thing after the other with it. Look for an article in the July 2005 Adventure Cyclist on page 34 that includes a lot of my criticisms of the bike.

[susan.wells]

I'll chime in here with Emily & Denise. I purchased a previously owned Bike Friday directly from them as Denise has suggested. I can highly recommend the bike as well as their customer service! I purchased an Air Glide and find I actually prefer riding it over my Airborne WASP!

Susan