Australian importer/assembler/manufacturer of touring bicycles ?

Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
need suspension either front or rear.

I guess my ideal is something like a Koga-Miyata world-traveller or
similar. Not fussed about aluminium frames but would probably prefer
steel.

I've been searching for quite a while, and have not found a source.

At the moment it seems the only path is either to import a frame from
Europe and assemble here, or to go there and buy one. Which is
interesting in one sense since I am pretty sure all the hardware is
created either in China or Taiwan.

Any leads I would be grateful. I will summarise what I find.

Many thanks in advance.

 

AndrewJ wrote:
> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.

Have you considered a recumbent trike from, say, Greenspeed?

>From what I hear recumbents are much more comfortable for really long
distance rides and can carry quite heavy loads.

Travis

 

AndrewJ wrote:

> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles?

In Sydney, Cheeky Monkey near central station list tourers alongside
commuters, utility, loadbikes and courierbikes as their interest /
specialty. I'm getting a Surly Long Haul Trucker built up for me
through them with 26" (frame size dictates this for me). They also
have touring bikes built up for $1500 from another frame. They would
be interested on working up a tourer for you. I've gone for a LHT due
to the sheer number of braze ons, the steel, and the wide spread use in
the touring community. Surly frames are available from a local
supplier, so there's no individual importation issues.

> I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.

CM seem to have done this repeatedly. I'd recomment looking at the
Surly LHT or the Surly Crosscheck. LBS which stock Trek may have a 520
or 520 international on the floor to look at. The 520 would need gear
and tyre changes before being suitable for the off road uses.

> I guess my ideal is something like a Koga-Miyata world-traveller or
> similar. Not fussed about aluminium frames but would probably prefer
> steel.

Try the bike reviews off the Bicycle NSW website of bikes, there are
reviews of tourers in there with suppliers of the bikes listed.

> I've been searching for quite a while, and have not found a source.

As mentioned in another post, there's also the option of getting a
touring recumbant or recumbant trike. These frames are built in
Australia.

> At the moment it seems the only path is either to import a frame from
> Europe and assemble here, or to go there and buy one. Which is
> interesting in one sense since I am pretty sure all the hardware is
> created either in China or Taiwan.
>
> Any leads I would be grateful. I will summarise what I find.

Can I also recommend the Phreds touring email list? Its very American
but there seems to be a large number of Aussies on there too.

Finally, most hybrid/commuter/utility frames can be used for touring,
as can many MTB frames. Long chain stay road frames are also useful
for touring. A dedicated touring frame is an idea, a good idea, but
there's no reason why you can't start overnighting with an existing
bike.

yours for touring,
Sam R.

 

AndrewJ wrote:
> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.
>
> I guess my ideal is something like a Koga-Miyata world-traveller or
> similar. Not fussed about aluminium frames but would probably prefer
> steel.

Trek 520 is a steel touring frame. Cannondale T2000 and T800 are Al
tourers.
Fuji also do a steel tourer .. we've sold a few of them recently. How
hard have you been looking?

Ian Christie's shop was a good tourers shop but he shut up a few years
ago now (Melbourne), but any half decent LBS will be able to help you.
I think he shut because there's not that much demand and it's not
enough to sustain a shop, but that's a guess.

Have a look through "Bicycle Australia" magazine, it's the tatty one
hidden behind Ride in the newsagent.

 

In aus.bicycle on 22 May 2006 00:11:26 -0700
AndrewJ <[email protected]> wrote:
> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.
>

If you are in Sydney, you could try Cheeky Monkey near Central
Station.

They are into bikes as transport, and do various touring bikes

http://www.cheekymonkey.com.au/transport home.htm

eg Allegro touring
Allegro Touring $1500

Pretty much the same bike as the fuji touring. Nice riding steel
frame, Tiagra shifters, deore deraileur. 25kg rated rear rack. Shimano
hub. Mudguard capable.

THey do Surly for more offroad type touring too.

Zebee

 

In aus.bicycle on 22 May 2006 00:17:06 -0700
Travis <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> AndrewJ wrote:
>> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
>> in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
>> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
>> need suspension either front or rear.
>
> Have you considered a recumbent trike from, say, Greenspeed?
>
>>From what I hear recumbents are much more comfortable for really long
> distance rides and can carry quite heavy loads.

Major problem with trikes is ground clearance. Not sure I'd want to
use one on your typical Oz "not graded for years and corrugated to
hell" dirt road. For bitumen touring I think they'd be great.

My Bacchetta Giro can carry 2 sets of panniers - rear and under seat -
and a seat back back or rack top bag. 2 bottle mount points plus
places to put more, and fittings for mudguards. People tour on them
a lot although the Yanks seem to think the long wheel base two wheel
bents are better for that.

Zebee

 

On 22/05/06 at 17:50:43 Zebee Johnstone somehow managed to type:

<snip>

> Major problem with trikes is ground clearance. Not sure I'd want to
> use one on your typical Oz "not graded for years and corrugated to
> hell" dirt road. For bitumen touring I think they'd be great.

A couple of years ago I met a bloke on a Greenspeed on the Silver City
Highway which is better than the Gunbarell Highway but not by a great
deal. He was quite ready to swap the Greenspeed for my Giant ATX780. I
probably would've swapped if he hadn't told me WHY...

I met him again a few weeks later at Broken Hill and he was wearing a
neck brace the need for which he directly attributed to the Greenspeed,
the crap roads and the bouncing around.


--

Humbug
Today is Boomtime, the 69th day of Discord in the YOLD 3172

 

Cannot tell you anything about these but they look good

http://www.velosmith.com.au/juta.html

Compare them with

http://sjscycles.com
which I can highly recommend




AndrewJ wrote:
> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.
>
> I guess my ideal is something like a Koga-Miyata world-traveller or
> similar. Not fussed about aluminium frames but would probably prefer
> steel.
>
> I've been searching for quite a while, and have not found a source.
>
> At the moment it seems the only path is either to import a frame from
> Europe and assemble here, or to go there and buy one. Which is
> interesting in one sense since I am pretty sure all the hardware is
> created either in China or Taiwan.
>
> Any leads I would be grateful. I will summarise what I find.
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>


--
Remove norubbish to reply

 

In aus.bicycle on Mon, 22 May 2006 18:00:58 +1000
Humbug <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I met him again a few weeks later at Broken Hill and he was wearing a
> neck brace the need for which he directly attributed to the Greenspeed,
> the crap roads and the bouncing around.

You can get them with suspension now I think, but yeah... no way to
take the shock with your legs.

I reckon I'd notice it on the unsuspended Bacchetta too. I already do
when negotiating the bumpy bits of the Cooks River path.

Zebee

 

I bought a 60cm Surly LHT frame from a local bike shop and built it up for
loaded touring. It comes with 135mm rear spacing, three sets of bottle cage
bosses, spare spoke carrier on the left chainstay, lowrider rack eyelets on
the front fork, 46cm chainstays, etc. It's not the prettiest frame in the
world but everything on it seems well constructed, the frame alignment is
perfect, and the powdercoat finish is good quality with no pinholes. The
frame quite comfortably takes Panaracer 700x37 tyres plus mudguards. Without
the guards you could probably fit 700x47 with no problem. In the smaller
sizes the frame very sensibly uses 26" rather than 700c wheels.

http://www.surlybikes.com/longhaul.html. I think Dirtworks are the local
distributors.

The Trek 520 is another locally available steel touring bike, but it comes
with Shimano 105 cranks, which even though it is a triple has overly large
chainrings for what is supposed to be a touring bike (52-42-30). The middle
chainring on the Trek is larger than the big chainring on my Surly.
Cannondale do it better by having an MTB crank on their tourer, though it
has an aluminium frame.

Nick

"AndrewJ" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]
> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.
>
> I guess my ideal is something like a Koga-Miyata world-traveller or
> similar. Not fussed about aluminium frames but would probably prefer
> steel.
>
> I've been searching for quite a while, and have not found a source.
>
> At the moment it seems the only path is either to import a frame from
> Europe and assemble here, or to go there and buy one. Which is
> interesting in one sense since I am pretty sure all the hardware is
> created either in China or Taiwan.

 

Yes there is try www.velosmith.com.au

CC

 

Whew. Many thanks for all the info here. I'll take some time to digest.
It looks like I'm up for a visit to Sydney (I'm based in Melbourne).
Easier than trip to Amsterdam

I've got a modified road bike that I'm using for touring. I took a
strong steel frame, added strong spokes and wheels. I use a Topeak rack
on the seat, and load that up with panniers. It is a wierd hybrid, but
it works ok up to a point. That point being a strong upper limit on the
carrying capacity.

I'll study the info. Many thanks.

Yes, I looked hard, but didn't uncover any of the leads here. Thanks.

 

"AndrewJ" wrote:
> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles? I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.
>
> I guess my ideal is something like a Koga-Miyata world-traveller or
> similar. Not fussed about aluminium frames but would probably prefer
> steel.
>
> I've been searching for quite a while, and have not found a source.

In Melbourne *the* shop for touring bikes used to be Christies, but Ian has
now sold up.

If you don't want a ready-made bike try Abbotsford Cycles in Richmond. Peter
Moore is developing as the touring shop of choice. He can probably supply
you with a Surly Long Haul Trucker frame, and all the parts to build it up
http://www.abbotsfordcycles.com.au/
http://www.onecer.net/abbotsfordcycles/

Also St Kilda Cycles www.stkildacycles.com.au can supply a great range of
top qualkity touring gear, Tubus racks, Ortlieb, B&M lights, etc, and one of
their contacts builds his own custom frames. Friend of mine had a very
classy 26" touring MTB built up by him, in the style of the UK Thorn
tourers. His frames are called 'Saints'.

--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ [email protected]
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

 

"Bleve" wrote:
>
> Ian Christie's shop was a good tourers shop but he shut up a few years
> ago now (Melbourne), but any half decent LBS will be able to help you.
> I think he shut because there's not that much demand and it's not
> enough to sustain a shop, but that's a guess.

Ian had a niche market and I believe the demand was there for his services
and products. He wanted to make a career change, I believe (perhaps looking
to build some retirement income too) and put the shop up for sale. Sadly
there were no takers to buy the business outright, so he had to liqidate the
stock. Peter Moore at Abbotsford Cycles bought most of it, and now fills a
touring shop role.
--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ [email protected]
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

 

AndrewJ wrote:
> Is there anywhere in Australia a bike store or company that specialises
> in touring bicycles?

Not as far as I'm aware.
I believe the last was Christies in Melbourne.

I recently went through the 72 frames suppliers in the Bicycline Year
Book and frankliy, it was bland blankness. Any difference was in fine
details.

The Surly longhaul frame was the only recommendation I received. Fine if
you only want derailleur gears. Nothing else had adjustable drop outs,
so you'd need to have a tensioner with them.

None of them had even the full compliment of roack and mudguard mounts
either. so that was always going to be an additional add-on

>I want something that can handle non-bitumen while
> carrying a fairly substantial load, both front and rear panniers. Don't
> need suspension either front or rear.

You'd need to look at MTB stuff then. It really is a case of how hard
you want to hit stuff as to whether you really must got MTB. I toured on
lots of off bitumen on 1.25" for decade until I scored a mtb. Lowering
your speed makes you less likely to pinch puncture, plus I used
thornproof tubes {.




> Any leads I would be grateful. I will summarise what I find.

If you are going to consider the price of a surly Longhaul frame
($700's?), then would you consider a custom frame?

I am currently talking to Wayne Kotzur about having a touring frame
built for my wife. We'll add a 8speed hub rear wheel and transfer the
rest of her kit over.

 

Check google groups, this topic has come up on a.b more than once. Another bike available locally is the mongoose randonneur. I've got one - aluminium frame, drop bars, canti brakes, 9 speed ultegra with a 12-34 cassette, triple chainring 30-39-50 I think, and while it's not exactly top-spec, it's done plenty of miles touring fully loaded, and handles firetrails quite well with 35mm tyres.

Adam

 

Peter Signorini wrote:
> "Bleve" wrote:
> >
> > Ian Christie's shop was a good tourers shop but he shut up a few years
> > ago now (Melbourne), but any half decent LBS will be able to help you.
> > I think he shut because there's not that much demand and it's not
> > enough to sustain a shop, but that's a guess.
>
> Ian had a niche market and I believe the demand was there for his services
> and products. He wanted to make a career change, I believe (perhaps looking
> to build some retirement income too) and put the shop up for sale. Sadly
> there were no takers to buy the business outright, so he had to liqidate the
> stock. Peter Moore at Abbotsford Cycles bought most of it, and now fills a
> touring shop role.

ahha, ok

Thanks