I'd like to go on a bike tour in august

[shootingstar]

I would never want to go on a bike tour and ride for several hrs. every day for a week @ 50-120 km. each day with a backpack of weighted stuff on my back.

Front panniers make sense when you also have rear panniers so that you're more balanced on the bike. It takes minor adjustment for first few spins on bike to have weight on your front. It's not a big deal. Your trip sounds short enough that your total required weight for whole trip is not like cycle touring for several months where one may need to cycle with more belongings/gear.

[Becky]

The Serfas Urbana is one of the widest 650c tires I've seen. It could be an option if there's enough clearance in your bike.

[goldfinch]

The Serfas Urbana is one of the widest 650c tires I've seen. It could be an option if there's enough clearance in your bike.

Terry also sells a 650c x 28. I have never found or heard of anything any wider. I owned a Terry Symmetry for a while and it had the 650 x 28's on it.

[shootingstar]

Let us know how your trip goes. I'm sure you'll have a great trip. Usually with friends it always is.

[Sky King]

Here is what I ride - 650B X 42 Grand Bois Hetre You would be hard pressed to convince me of a better touring tire. I have about 2,000 miles on my set.
Just got home from our 2nd annual Owyhee Scenic Byway ride - 104 miles on dirt & gravel roads on a fully loaded bike, they perform like a champ. One of our fellow riders commented that
he thinks he should trade out his Schwalbe Marathon Mondials as I was rolling faster than he was (nah, I just have stronger legs, hee hee) Anyway I would certainly recommend them
if they will fit your fork and brakes. I do run them with a "Mr Tuffy" style liner as we have so many goathead thorns here but I don't notice that slowing me down.

[shootingstar]

That's great these tires work for you.

No, most of our cycle touring trips have been on paved highways, roads and paths.

Marathon Schwable (there are different types) is what I've been using for past 3 years. My partner uses them also. He is more of a solo, full-loading bike touring pro than I....he has done bike trips over 3,000 km. across the Canadian western provinces and U.S. (Montana, Idaho, Washington State, Oregon, California (Santa Barbara) and back north to Vancouver, BC....in 1 trip last year over 2.5 months). I go very much by his experience because he also rode in France and Spain 2 yrs. ago on his own.

This is someone who has cycled across Canada ...twice. 4,000 km. from Vancouver to Toronto. That's how much I trust his bike touring experience..at least for paved surface cycling. I dislike cycling on gravel roads with heavy loaded panniers and if I have front loaded panniers, I dislike it even more because of the need stay balanced with the weight.

I don't hear much from him complaining about a need for speed..it's very dependent on a person's strength, stamina and mental fitness also. One isn't worrying so much about speed vs. just planning well /enough so that one has enough energy and strength for each daily destination especially if one is not familiar with terrain, nature of destinations, available services along the way and dealing with unexpected heavy headwinds, etc.

So one does need to "train" before embarking on longer trips with significantly heavier pannier weight.

[Sky King]

Amyp,
Back to the bike... Have you researched if you can mount racks? I only looked at your bike on the Terry site and it looked like putting racks on may be a challenge. I know Arkel sells a light touring rack that attaches to the seat post and nitto makes a front rack that uses clamps to attach to the fork. Personally I don't like a front handlebar bag that attaches to the handlebars as it affects how the bike handles so I use a front rack that the weight of the bag rests on. Perhaps taking the bike to the LBS that carry's touring gear is in order. Best of luck. The trip sounds like a great time and as there will be tons of towns you won't need to carry much in the food department so the Arkel or a Revelate bag would fit the bill. (look at the Pika)