Recommendations for a small touring bike

[emily_in_nc]

There's a Bike Friday New World Tourist (size Small) for sale on this forum that might work for you. We used our Bike Friday Pocket Crusoes for a long unsupported tour in 2004 and have since used them for many utility rides to the markets. You're not that short at 5'4", so I am not sure that you need to go custom.

Here's a link to our bike tour report if you want to see Bike Fridays in action on an unsupported, fully loaded tour:

http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/n...tour-2004.html

Good luck!

[happyscientist]

Well, there is a difference between need and want. I have fallen in love with the idea of a custom made bike.

[emily_in_nc]

Well, there is a difference between need and want. I have fallen in love with the idea of a custom made bike.

Fine, if you have the money...go for it! Custom is out of reach financially for many folks, and usually only those with somewhat odd body proportions, or very short or very tall, actually need to go custom.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[happyscientist]

Fine, if you have the money...go for it! Custom is out of reach financially for many folks, and usually only those with somewhat odd body proportions, or very short or very tall, actually need to go custom.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

So back to my question--do the people with custom made touring bikes have experience with either IF or Seven?

[eofelis]

So back to my question--do the people with custom made touring bikes have experience with either IF or Seven?

Some friends of mine have 2 custom Seven bikes each. They are quite "custom" with steep sloping top tubes. They have steel road bikes with couplers and ti cross type bikes with couplers. They are really happy with them but I'm sure they paid a bundle. They pack them in cases and go to Europe and NZ with them.

My bf recently for an IF Steel Crown Jewel custom. He's very happy with it but it wasn't cheap.

I don't know what your money situation is but a custom bike is usually not cheap and touring is a very hard life for a bike. They are in all sorts of weather and road conditions, get leaned on everything, fall over, maybe even get stolen. I'm happy to have a cheap and easily replaceable bike for touring (like my LHT), and have a more expensive custom bike for road riding where it never leaves my hands when I have it out.

[eofelis]

I don't know what your money situation is but a custom bike is usually not cheap and touring is a very hard life for a bike. They are in all sorts of weather and road conditions, get leaned on everything, fall over, maybe even get stolen. I'm happy to have a cheap and easily replaceable bike for touring (like my LHT), and have a more expensive custom bike for road riding where it never leaves my hands when I have it out.

When I say custom bike I guess I really meant custom frame. If you can find a stock frame to fit you it's pretty easy to put the components that have the gears you want on it. My LHT frame has a full Shimano XT mtn bike drive train on it. Low gear is a 22-34. I live in Colorado and have pedaled it fully loaded up some big passes just fine. I've also done 60 mile (unloaded) road rides in flat terrain on it just fine with that same gearing. I just used the 44-12 gears that day

[murielalex]

I have a custom Gunnar Sport, which is a steel bike made by Waterford, which I bought for the same goal as you. For a touring bike, I didn't want to necessarily have the most expensive as I'm sure it's going to get beat up. Right now, I have it set up strictly as a road bike, without fenders and low-profile aero wheels. In the Spring, I'm breaking out the racks and wider tires (takes up to 32s or 28s with fenders) and doing a six-day tour. It's definitely one of the more affordable, quality custom frames, though they have stock frames for even better prices. I'm very happy. If I were choosing again, I would seriously look at Carl Strong's bikes, a one-man builder of excellent reputation out of Montana: really nice frames made for each rider by purpose, weight, etc. with personal attention you just can't get with the bigger operations. You can get SS coupled, etc. and the price is impressively low for what you get. I'm currently on a waiting list for a custom Kirk Framework's bike that's going to be my everyday and stay-in-Florida speedy bike. Unless I had no money concerns (wouldn't that be nice...), I wouldn't drop the big bucks on a touring bike and feel my heart sink with very ding, scratch and potential traveling mishap that comes. On the other hand, I strongly believe you should get exactly what you want regardless of what anyone else says and love it every time you're on it. My friends and family think I'm a fool for spending what I have and am about to on bikes when there are perfectly good less expensive options available, but I'm the happiest, healthiest fool I know, and there's no price on that. I love my bikes.

[indysteel]

So back to my question--do the people with custom made touring bikes have experience with either IF or Seven?

They're both reputable builders, but out of curiosity, why did you settle on those two builders? There are plenty of good builders out there, some of whom offer less expensive options. Are you leaning toward Ti for any given reason? Do you know enough about how you want the bike to fit and ride to articulate that to a builder?

[happyscientist]

They're both reputable builders, but out of curiosity, why did you settle on those two builders? There are plenty of good builders out there, some of whom offer less expensive options. Are you leaning toward Ti for any given reason? Do you know enough about how you want the bike to fit and ride to articulate that to a builder?

I have gone around to several bike shops in the area (100 mile radius), and the ones that they have the most experience with. One of the shops deals with a variety of builders, including a local guy, but said the quality control was better with these two. One of the issues I have run into with premade bikes is that here in the Appalachians, the mountains just aren't that big, and the bikes are geared accordingly. However, I want to be able to ship the bike out to my family in WY and CO and ride in the Rockies, which would require different gearing.

I am still very early in the process. I would be thinking of buying in 2014 after doing some longer, supported tours. At this time, I have only done a couple overnighters. I also need to thoroughly pick the brains of the people I know who bike tour. By then, I should be able to fully articulate to the builder what I want.

[indysteel]

I have no bone to pick with wanting a custom bike, especially if you're finding it difficult to find a touring body for somebody your size, but I would mention that changing out the gearing on an off-the-rack bike isn't all that complicated and would be far cheaper than a custom bike. So, if gearing is the major sticking point, I think that issue is easily solved. Fit, however, is a stickier wicket.