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Advice on Bike for Touring

post #1 of 8
8/20/09 at 8:00am
Thread Starter 
I am planning to do a bike tour from London to Rome next year, and am pretty new to bike touring.

Currently I have a road bike and am thinking of converting it to a touring bike. Would like to ask if that is a good idea, or should I just invest in a new touring bike?
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post #2 of 8
8/20/09 at 1:09pm

Re: Advice on Bike for Touring

Apologies but I'm not very knowledgeable about bicycle touring but I can recommend asking Bicycle Touring Pro Bicycle Touring Pro - Cycle Touring, World Travel And Lifestyle Design.
Hope the bike tour goes well
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post #3 of 8
8/20/09 at 8:10pm

Re: Advice on Bike for Touring

Quote:
Originally Posted by tortoisenme View Post
I am planning to do a bike tour from London to Rome next year, and am pretty new to bike touring.

Currently I have a road bike and am thinking of converting it to a touring bike. Would like to ask if that is a good idea, or should I just invest in a new touring bike?
Get a new touring bike.
You need to be able to mount panniers and road bikes have short chain stays so your heels will hit the panniers. Shift the panniers to far back over the rear wheel and the balance of the bike changes. Touring bikes typically have a lower bottom bracket to improve handling as well.
You will need some low gearing. if you want the good scenery then that means riding hills and in Tuscany they might be up to 25%.
Have you worked out a route yet? Are you going to be cooking? camping?
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post #4 of 8
8/22/09 at 10:04am

Re: Advice on Bike for Touring

There are really nice touring bikes on sale but it all comes down to the money question, doesn't it? I once converted a mountain bike into a touring bike and did thousands of kilometers like that. In the end it was OK. On the one hand I was able to go off road whenever I felt like doing so but on the other hand wider wheels cost me quite some extra effort. Would I do it again? Probably not! If you intend to use it for this tour and maybe another and have the extra cash, go and get yourself the perfect bike for the trip - it's worth it.


Bike Tours around the world
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post #5 of 8
8/25/09 at 6:31am

Re: Advice on Bike for Touring

You could just get a hybrid bike and tour with that. For my first tour I got one and it has worked out great and still use it for touring.
Check out our link below for more details and pictures.
cheers
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post #6 of 8
8/25/09 at 11:38pm

Re: Advice on Bike for Touring

Quote:
Originally Posted by tortoisenme View Post
I am planning to do a bike tour from London to Rome next year, and am pretty new to bike touring.

Currently I have a road bike and am thinking of converting it to a touring bike. Would like to ask if that is a good idea, or should I just invest in a new touring bike?
First off there are several ways to tour,loaded,credit card or supported.

If you plan on taking all your camping gear with you a road bike will probably not have the right geometry or the right wheels to get you very far.
If however you plan on just taking a couple of pairs of clothes then you could get by with your road bike.Carradice makes some nice bags for this type of touring.

Now if you are camping and plan on loading up and taking all your food and stuff with you then you will be best off with a true touring bike.Hybrids can get you you by but for the best performance a touring bike is the way to go.
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post #7 of 8
9/2/09 at 10:36pm

Re: Advice on Bike for Touring

Touring bikes and equipment are discussed here.

My advice would be to get a touring bike, if budget allows. "Racing-style" bikes are particularly unsuited to touring.
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post #8 of 8
9/3/09 at 11:59am

Re: Advice on Bike for Touring

If you want to check out cycling tours for all grades of cycling I can highly recommend Exodus, who I work for. They run cycling tours in a huge variety of destinations, from the Atlas Mountains to The Cape and also go to Italy!
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