Long distance multiple day road touring bike suggestions.

Jakess1971

Toying with the idea of getting a specific bike for long distance road based touring, thinking triple, disc brakes, light n fast as possible but durable to handle the distance and a little luggage over the back wheel, maybe titanium is the way to go, don't really need fat tyres which touring bikes seem to have as I'll be sticking to roads.

I'm playing with adding some fixings to one of my Giant carbon TCRs for a bike rack as an option, one thing I'm finding is that after 300 miles on it, it tends to need a good tuning up, bit of lube, grease, gear alignment, clean etc but this may well be the case for most bikes anyway. Just considering if it might be best to get a bike specifically for long multiple day distances but not sure which way to swing.

Suggestions most welcome.

Budget btw is on the cycle to work scheme so £1000 however some places like Evans allow you to add on top on that which I'll be looking at the £1500 mark.

TheBigYin

couple of questions...

1) how much luggage do you envisage? A saddlebag/Racktop Bag - or Rear Panniers - Rear Panniers and Front Lowriders, or the full "round the world camping" kit...

2) UK (and other developed areas) riding or "far flung locations" - no point in trying to get a a Ti frame in some armpit back-country blacksmiths shop - that's where plain old cro-mo steel (not even the lighter 531 or modern variants) comes in... Also, good luck in getting your shimano/sram disk brake pads replaced or someone who can assist with bleeding the hydraulics/has spares.

3) Road Triple or MTB derived gearing... the MTB 44,32,22 chainsets come into their own when lugging 30kg of kit and camping equipment up an alpine / himalayan pass but if ridden unladen, you'll seldom get off the big ring - especially on a 11-34t sprocket.

4) 28mm tyres really are a sensible minimum for luggage laden bikes - and get heavy, puncture resistant ones at that... you REALLY don't want to be upending the bike and all the luggage to get at the wheels and mend a puncture on a touring beastie...

If you're looking for something that's more of a "light tourer" - say up to a week at a time, staying at B&B's and not carrying much more than a couple of panniers and a handlebar bag of luggage, AND if you're set on something with disk brakes (which I would recommend as a "developed areas" kind of tourer - I love them on my CaadX) then perhaps some of the recent "soft-crosser" bikes might actually fit the bill - they may not necessarily have triples - lots will have the 46-36 or a 50-34 compact at the front - but a road triple isn't a particularly difficult upgrade - one bar shifter, (sometimes) one front mech and a new chainset.

maybe something like

http://www.focus-bikes.com/gb/en/bikes/2015/cyclocross-1/mares-ax-1/mares-ax-40-disc.html

or

http://www.cannondale.com/uk_gb/2015/bikes/road/cyclocross/caadx/caadx-disc-5-105

or maybe something like the Genesis Croix de Fer ranges for something in a steel frame...

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/adventure/b-road/croix-de-fer-20


Personally though, I think I'd be giving a call to somewhere that specialised in touring bikes (like say, Spa Cycles in Harrogate) and discuss what I wanted from a bike with them...

Actually, they do some very interesting Ti Framed tourers / light tourers / Audax mounts, but they're all rim-braked ones - but their Ti Tourer - http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p2554 - if only it had disks would be the PERFECT replacement for my poor old Dawes Super Galaxy...

Jakess1971

Cracking reply Mark.

Pretty light really, A saddlebag/Racktop Bag would be enough I recon, think week long with stops in B&Bs, tour of Wales, Scotland, Ireland etc, possible nice week tours in France, Germany, Italy etc.

May get more adventurous as I go on but this is what I'm thinking over the next few years anyway.

Liking the cadx n focus but funnily enough I was looking at the Spa Ti Tourer and thinking exactly the same, if only it was disc brakes. Still very tempted though and does look like the perfect touring bike for my needs, I hadn't considered the disk brake issues you mentioned and rim brakes may well be the more practical option for on-the-road maintenance.

Sadly the Spa don't use the cycle to work scheme though.

TheBigYin

one observation I'd make is that the bike handles "more like a bike" with a pair of small rear panniers than it will with a rack bag... the higher you put a weight on a bike the worse it gets, particularly uphills... I did YEARS of riding with saddlebags on Audax stuff, and got used to it, but for a more relaxed trip with nice steady 6 hours in the saddle a day for a week or two (think LeJog) I was mighty happy I was riding something more relaxed in the geometry (my old Dawes Supergalaxy - 72°parallel, 42" wheelbase and a lower BB height than my faster bikes (1 or 2 degrees steeper, 3" shorter and nearly an Inch higher BB) - all for stability... on the Dawes, I could ride with front and real panniers, plus a tent on the rear rack between the panniers (and a handlebar bag for good measure) - and it'd remain stable "hands free" coming down things like the Kendal Bypass at around 60mph... Try that with a modern twitchy roadbike and a saddlebag and you'll be under a bus!

One thing about the CaadX though - I found that the wheels (or at least the rear wheel) were SHIIITE. After pinging at least 5 spokes in the back, I ended up doing a complete rebuild on it with PROPER DT Swiss spokes rather than the no-name pieces of cheese-string chinese monkey metal crap that it came with out of the factory. Of course, I weigh a fair bit more than you, so you may not quite knock so many bales of shite out of them, BUT good wheels are imperative on a Tourer / Fast Tourer. Nothing sidelines you half as quick as a stream of broken spokes. At least Spa build their own wheels on-site, and pretty much specialise in wheels built "for the purpose"...

Jakess1971

Yeh I can see it feeling a lot different to the TCR but as soon as you add a bit of baggage to any bike the dynamics will feel a lot different, it's really something I need to experiment with.

Quite liked this one until I saw the weight at 30kg which is double the Spas 12.3!! ... seriously is that right??

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/ridgeback/panorama-2014-touring-bike-ec059661

Edit: no it's not right, evans state it as 30kg while it's actually 30.1lbs according to the Ridgeback site

http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/bike/panorama

KitTheRoadie

I definitely don't have as much as experience as Mark but I would just like to recommend a company local to me.

They're 'Thorn' cycles, and they specialise in long distance/audax bikes. I don't don't think you'll find anything Ti, I think they mainly deal in steel but my brother has the Thorn Audax Mk3, and it's a lovely Ultegra equipped bike that is light, fast, responsive, and built equipped to take you anywhere. Don't just take my word for it...

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-thorn-cycles-audax-mk3-11-32143/

Good luck in your search, new bike shopping is always fun! :-)

Jakess1971

Cheers kit, looks a good Audax bike option but not massively different to the TCR I have in design etc.

I am definitely leaving towards this one atm, I can see me riding this one for days without too many issues:



Loving the third bottle cage and baggage holding options, looks built to carry everything including the kitchen sink, very different to what I have right now and would be a nice addition to the fleet

I'll spend the next week or so mulling over options and researching stuff and make a decision.

TheBigYin

KitTheRoadie wrote: »

I definitely don't have as much as experience as Mark but I would just like to recommend a company local to me.

They're 'Thorn' cycles, and they specialise in long distance/audax bikes. I don't don't think you'll find anything Ti, I think they mainly deal in steel but my brother has the Thorn Audax Mk3, and it's a lovely Ultegra equipped bike that is light, fast, responsive, and built equipped to take you anywhere. Don't just take my word for it...

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-thorn-cycles-audax-mk3-11-32143/

Good luck in your search, new bike shopping is always fun! :-)

Thorn make some great bikes - and - IIRC, they do a lovely custom option with the S&S couplers in the frame, where you can basically "break" the frame in two and it'll all pack into a "airline approved" suitcase so you don't get hammered with the "large baggage" charge or all the attendant "check-in" hassles of trying to get a bike-bag past the Sleazyjet Orange Clad Morons.

(Actually, if I was thinking of getting myself a touring bike, i'd be sorely tempted to go for something in Titanium with those Couplers fitted...)

Exegi_Corpus

Short answer - I use a Cube Touring Pro, great price great performance...

https://www.fietsenwinkel.nl/cube-touring-pro-2015-heren?gclid=CjwKEAjwgcipBRDgxK_3ztrBty8SJACRuv4dVAp1nDTwGJ2r19Aipk1OmErKw-rt_mOripxcfc7_xhoCnxTw_wcB

veloman21

Really like the design of the Thorn bikes, they seem to be well liked by the RTW mob so that's pretty good endorsement. The Raven or Nomad with a Rohlhoff hub looks the business.