Advice for a first time tourer.

[CallAnAmbulance]

First, hello everyone! I currently have a hybrid bike that set me back about £250 which I use to get to lectures and things every morning, (About 6 miles a day) Past that I go for the odd recreational cycle through the country side and I really enjoy cycling.
Now, this summer I have decided to do something a little different and challenge myself to see how far I can get on a bike in my massive university holiday (3.5 months)
To do this I was going to replace my bike with something a little more... trustworthy as things seem to come loose and squeak an alarming amount on my cheaper bike. I've got about £800 to spend on the bike and I was looking at taking a trailer instead of panniers,
First things first should I be looking at a road bike or a touring one? They both look to me to be the same bikes, although touring bikes seem to have pannier packs. I'd be looking to do a ride from northern Ireland to the very bottom as a start (about 160 miles) to give you an idea of the distances I'm looking at.
Has anyone cycled with a trailer before? The reason I want one is i've done a lot of walking and feel very confident using a rucksack to live out of, and I could just strap that down to the trailer and be away with it.

Cheers for any responses/ advice. There will be more questions!
Calum

 

[dabac]

..I currently have a hybrid bike ..which I use to get to lectures and things ..I have decided to ..see how far I can get on a bike in my massive university holiday (3.5 months)
To do this I was going to replace my bike with something a little more... trustworthy as things seem to come loose and squeak an alarming amount on my cheaper bike.

How much you have to spend on a bike before it becomes trustworthy is a matter of some debate. Of course you can't have something that breaks down every few miles, but squeaks and rattles are more of maintenance/assembly thing than actual quality. There are hard-core tourers who prefer the lower end of the scale for several reasons:
-ease of mind. It's not about the bike, it's about the ride. With less money invested in it, and no "standard" to maintain finding spares becomes easier both on the mind and on the wallet. It also opens the door for one-way travel. I met a couple in Barcelona once, they'd flewn there, gone out to a big department store and picked up two cheap bikes. They planned on touring the pyrenees and then simply discard the bikes before flying home.
-adjust your expectations. Money can't buy you everything, and even a mid-priced bike is very likely to require some maintenance and upkeep during 3 months of loaded touring. If you want to improve the odds of not getting stranded, some tools and spare parts, or maybe a few scheduled maintenance stops is likely to be better than sinking all that money into a better bike to start with.
-city-to-city, or off the beaten track? With civilization within reach, equipment failure is usually more of a nuisance than an absolute show stopper. Hitch a ride, call a cab, flag down a bus - there are ways to get to someone/somewhere who can fix your bike, or sell you the parts you need to get back on the way.

..I've got about £800 to spend on the bike

Is that bike only, or is it for the whole touring kit? There's more to touring than the bike.

.... I was looking at taking a trailer instead of panniers,

Trailers, specially the one-wheeled kind do have their fans, but mostly among those who are lugging serious amounts of gear.
Basically it's a sliding scale, the more gear you bring, the more it starts being about going places rather than being about riding the bike. With a small rucksack it's still possible to do some sort of technical trail riding, with panniers that quickly becomes only marginally enjoyable. Haven't tried it with trailers, but I'd imagine it'd be even more limiting.

..First things first should I be looking at a road bike or a touring one?

If you plan on carrying significant amounts of gear I'd go with a touring bike, no doubt about it. It can take wider tires, fenders and the fork is probably already prepped for lowriders. A longer wheelbase and a more relaxed steering geometry is probably nice as well.

..I'd be looking to do ...about 160 miles) to give you an idea of the distances I'm looking at.

That's 250 km, give or take. At a really relaxed pace, on roads, that's 5 days of riding. At a modest pace, on roads, it's 3 days. With minimum gear and hard riding it's a one-day stage.

...The reason I want one is i've done a lot of walking and feel very confident using a rucksack to live out of, and I could just strap that down to the trailer and be away with it.

If it's a framed rucksack I don't know offhand which trailers it'd fit in. Besides, if you'd go for a Bob yak anything you put in it unprotected would get splattered with a liberal amount of road grime. So unless you want to carry your rucksack(with the extra weight and bulk it brings) to be able to do some hiking inbetween you'd basically need another sack to store your rucksack in.

What you haven't said is what kind of touring you're thinking of, there's entirely self-supported at one end of the scale and credit card touring at the other. Unless you're planning on camping out I don't see the need for a trailer to carry your stuff. Going between B&Bs, youth hostels and similar (maybe some coach surfing) and you should be able to get away with far less.

One big drawback of trailers is logistics. Even with loaded panniers one person can wrestle one bike on board a train for instance. And finding a car with a bike carrier usually isn't much of a challenge. But add a trailer to the mix and it suddenly becomes a lot more awkward.

 

[CallAnAmbulance]

That hybrid bike I have gotten has quite of few blaring manufacturing defects, and the material isn't the highest of quality. I didn't shop around much as I wasn't going to use it for anything serious, I only got it because I got a good deal!

Most of the touring I'll be doing with be self sufficient, camping and things, with the odd stay at a hotel or B&B. I have a budget of about £3000 for the entire trip, and I had budgeted around £800 for the bike as it seems to me that's a fairly mid ranged price. It's mainly roads I'm looking at cycling, and any track cycling would be done without all the gear I'd be lugging, so I thought the trailer would be the best option. Getting my rucksack grimey isn't an issue for me- it'll get no worse than when I'm trekking!

My pace will generally be quite relaxed, I'm just looking for a bit of an adventure and thought that this would be quite a good way to get it.

Trailer wise I saw ones like this
Carry Freedom Small Y Frame Trailer Only £179.99
Which wouldn't be as difficult to transport on trains and things- although I'm not planning to spend any time on transport like this.
Another advantage is that I'm going with a few friends, and I imagine it'd be better for one of us at least to have a trailer for bulky things like tents and sleeping bags, which I think would be a struggle to fit in panniers.

Cheers for the advice on the touring bike, i'll be looking into that.

 

[dabac]

That hybrid bike I have gotten has quite of few blaring manufacturing defects, and the material isn't the highest of quality.

Well, that price did put it at the lower end of the scale - but still not quite rubbish. I'd expect a bike in that price range to do reasonably well for everyday use, if given a thorough reassembly and then properly maintained. But if you have the money to spend - go ahead and get you a nicer one. Just remember that bikes need some care and attention regardless what you pay for them in the first place. It's one of my pet peeves when people buy a bike, ride it for years with only minimum maintenance - then after having bought a brand new bike they start going on about how much better the new ride is compared to the old one. Very few seem to realize that apart from comparing two different bikes they are also comparing years of neglect vs straight off the shop floor...

Most of the touring I'll be doing with be self sufficient, camping and things,

It's doable with panniers, but it sure helps if you happen to have spent a few years collecting light weight/low volume gear of course.

Getting my rucksack grimey isn't an issue for me- it'll get no worse than when I'm trekking!

I'd hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but do this:
1) locate well-used bike with fenders
2) flip said bike over
3) look at inside of fender
4) imagine that muck on your rucksack

I'd be really interested in knowing how you'd be able to get that dirty by trekking..... Fell running - perhaps.

...Trailer wise I saw ones like this


If it was me I'd still go with a one-wheeled model. They track pretty close to the trail of the bike wheels. Trailers like the one you linked to tend to generate surprises for the riders as the extra width of the two wheels clips corners and suchlike.

... wouldn't be as difficult to transport on trains and things- although I'm not planning to spend any time on transport like this.

The trouble isn't really with the trailer as such, it's the fact that you're looking at managing two items, in an often crowded and cramped situation. If there is a group of you it becomes less of an issue, one can monitor the stack of items at each end, and the others can carrry the stuff on board.

But if you are reasonably certain that you can avoid public transportation then obvoiusly it becomes a non-issue.

... I have a budget of about £3000 for the entire trip, ...

Sounds like you'll be able to do just fine!

... I'm just looking for a bit of an adventure and thought that this would be quite a good way to get it...

I don't know about adventure, but you're certainly in for a memorable experience!

One thing - there is a huge difference between short daily rides and long daily rides. If you want to avoid nasty surprises you should really try to log some longer stints in the saddle before you take off. 6 miles probably gives you something like 35-45 minutes in the saddle, which isn't a wholly reliable indicator as to how 3-5 hours in the saddle will feel like - particularly as you approach the nth day of your ride.

 

[CallAnAmbulance]

Cheers for all the advice so far, I didn't realise that you could get one wheeled trailers, they seem like a far better way to do it. As for how my rucksack gets grimey, the last time I was trekking was in Vietnam during the rainy seasons. Knee deep mud and very steep hills leads to a group of very, very dirty walkers. One of the main tennents of the whole trip was that all the distance I make will be my own doing, apart from the channel crossing which'll be a ferry I assume so getting things on public transport. We're a pretty organised group to if we need to we'll be able to sort it out at the time.
The bike I've got at the moment is ideal, I just don't think I'd trust it to do as many miles as I'm planning.
I'm also aware that I'm going to have to get my **** in gear and do some traning runs. My university has a very good cycling team so I'll get in on some of the local events and see what's happening.
Back to the bike, would i be better off with something like this
Focus Variado Expert Triple 2009 Only £711.75
Or like Tifosi CK7 Winter / Audax Bike 2010 Only £739.99

To me they look quite similar, and bearing in mind that i'll be on roads all of the time, i just assumed that a road bike would be the best one for the job.

 

[dabac]

.. As for how my rucksack gets grimey, the last time I was trekking was in Vietnam during the rainy seasons. Knee deep mud and very steep hills leads to a group of very, very dirty walkers...

Gotcha. There is still one difference to road grime, and that is that is more sandy, sharper if you wish. So in terms of visual dirt there's probably not much that can beat your Vietnam experience, but road grime can do an absolutely amazing job of chewing up textiles.

..Back to the bike, would i be better off with something like this
Focus Variado Expert Triple 2009 Only £711.75
Or like Tifosi CK7 Winter / Audax Bike 2010 Only £739.99.

With the disclaimer that I'm only speaking from specs here, I'd recommend the Tifosi straight off. Fenders and wider tires are nice features for day-after-day riding.

..To me they look quite similar, and bearing in mind that i'll be on roads all of the time, i just assumed that a road bike would be the best one for the job.

Well, even if you're planning on staying on the road doesn't automatically mean that a road bike is the best option.
Although there are nuances between makes "road bike" usually mean that there's a fair amount of "race bike" in the design. And the features you like for racing usually aren't the same as you want for touring. Somewhat twitchy steering isn't a problem during a race, as you expect to be manouvering and jockeying for position pretty much all the time anyhow. And who cares about fenders when you'll be heading for a shower and a washing machine within a few hours anyhow?

 

[dabac]

..I didn't realise that you could get one wheeled trailers....

There are basically two versions available:

1)the Extrawheel. Basically looks like the rear half of a bike, with rack and panniers.

2)the Bob Yak trailer. A low-slung basket/cargo platform with a wheel at the end. Kinda tadpole looking.