touring bike purchase help!

[SadieKate]

BikerZ, what was the name of the bay area shop Joe recommended? Bike Montano or something like that? He thought they could do good fittings.

[bikerz]

I believe this is the one Joe recommended:

Montano Velo
4266 Piedmont Ave.
Oakland
510-654-8356

[maillotpois]

I've got to go into Bicycle Odyssey tomorrow to get a seat post. Tony's got a lot of amazing stuff in there and I will ask him if he does any specific touring bikes. He's a jedi master.

[Rai Sue]

More on touring with older bikes:

Bubba's info was great--

I'm also gonna add that i've been riding with old suntour bar end friction shifters, and i almost like them better than my integrated Shimano 105 indexed shifters. First, much easier to adjust, and also if they ever break, they'll be either fixable or cheap to replace. Also, unlike some old high-end road bikes with down-tube shifters, you don't have to take your hands off the bar to shift. This is especially great when going up steep hills, i've found.

Also, every bike mechanic i've talked to has no problem with working on friction shifting.

Also, in terms of how many speeds, isn't the gear range more important than the number of gears? I might be wrong, but would be curious. I was looking at my friends' Kona, which has a bajillian speeds. Her special "granny gear" in the back was the same as mine. So, she had a lot more gears, but not a larger range. Then, I put an 8-speed casette on a different bike, but it was more speed oriented, and i have a much harder time going up hills, even tho i have more gears.

I guess i'm just curious about if having more gears really helps you out, or if the actual gear ration is more important.

[Rai Sue]

More on touring with older bikes:

Bubba's info was great--

I'm also gonna add that i've been riding with old suntour bar end friction shifters, and i almost like them better than my integrated Shimano 105 indexed shifters. First, much easier to adjust, and also if they ever break, they'll be either fixable or cheap to replace. Also, unlike some old high-end road bikes with down-tube shifters, you don't have to take your hands off the bar to shift. This is especially great when going up steep hills, i've found.

Also, every bike mechanic i've talked to has no problem with working on friction shifting.

Also, in terms of how many speeds, isn't the gear range more important than the number of gears? I might be wrong, but would be curious. I was looking at my friends' Kona, which has a bajillian speeds. Her special "granny gear" in the back was the same as mine. So, she had a lot more gears, but not a larger range. Then, I put an 8-speed casette on a different bike, but it was more speed oriented, and i have a much harder time going up hills, even tho i have more gears.

I guess i'm just curious about if having more gears really helps you out, or if the actual gear ration is more important.

[Rai Sue]

More on touring with older bikes:

Bubba's info was great--

I'm also gonna add that i've been riding with old suntour bar end friction shifters, and i almost like them better than my integrated Shimano 105 indexed shifters. First, much easier to adjust, and also if they ever break, they'll be either fixable or cheap to replace. Also, unlike some old high-end road bikes with down-tube shifters, you don't have to take your hands off the bar to shift. This is especially great when going up steep hills, i've found.

Also, every bike mechanic i've talked to has no problem with working on friction shifting.

Also, in terms of how many speeds, isn't the gear range more important than the number of gears? I might be wrong, but would be curious. I was looking at my friends' Kona, which has a bajillian speeds. Her special "granny gear" in the back was the same as mine. So, she had a lot more gears, but not a larger range. Then, I put an 8-speed casette on a different bike, but it was more speed oriented, and i have a much harder time going up hills, even tho i have more gears.

I guess i'm just curious about if having more gears really helps you out, or if the actual gear ration is more important.