Choosing a bike for a touring exp

[Tri Girl]

What if you rode the road bike but pulled all your gear in a trailer? It would allow you to carry your gear and not put a strain on the bike. I wouldn't put a rack and panniers on your road bike unless it's meant for carrying a load (my bestie did that with her nice road bike when we took our first tour and it did some damage to the bike because it didn't have all the eyelets for racks, not to mention the 2 flats we had on the first day- one from the weight, the other from the rack that started sagging and rubbed a hole in the tire).

It might not be so bad on the hybrid. Can you put skinnier tires on it and maybe some bar ends to give you some alternate hand positions (I'm assuming it's a flat bar bike)?