hi everyone
i'm new to the forums and touring but have been planning a trip to europe in 1-1/4 years and feel that cycle touring would be a great way to see europe on a budget while spending alot of time there. issue is i dont have a bike suitable for touring. i have considered what is available new in australia and feel that most are out of my price range or that i will feel the need to upgrade alot of parts pushing the price up to the level of the pricier ones.
i also want a bike to ride before i go there to get myself fairly well trained and ensure i will enjoy the experience (nothing like dropping yourself onto the otherside of the world with a bike and a plane trip back 3 months later and realising you cant stand riding the bike for so long after 1 week with 11 weeks to go).
i am looking to buy a low cost second hand bike and upgrading a fair few parts with parts i think would be more appropriate as i use the bike for training and get to know it. i have little experience with road/mt bikes but did alot of bmx riding until a few years ago. i had built my bike up slowly by replacing parts and even turned up my own hubs on a lathe and designed and had a frame built to my specs, so i am no stranger to getting a bike build organised and deciding on what parts i like.
the bike i am looking for is a fairly standard touring bike with drop bars and 700c wheels as i plan to stay to the roads which shouldnt be too difficult. i plan on doing fully loaded touring but will go as minimal/compact as i can.
what i am thinking is buying a older style "road bike" that has a frame that fits me well and is suited to touring. i'm thinking an 80's or so road bike. i'd then change the drive train and possibly the wheels to more modern parts.
i want the bike to eventially have:
-27 gears (probably 11-34 cassette and a fairly compact set of chainwheels, maybe 22-44 or 28-48)
sealed bearing hubs, bb and possibly headset(always had trouble with unsealed bearings, was probably due to the cheap gear i had before upgrading).
rear and possibly front panniers.
my main questions here are-
-frame/ hub compatibility- would frames from the 80's or thereabouts have 130mm spaced dropouts to suit modern hubs? i'm pretty sure that narrower spacings were common before a certain time, but i dont know when the transition took place.
- rear rack and front pannier mounting: obviously it would be ideal for the bike to have the mounting parts neccesary for a pannier rack, but this would limit the bikes avaiable to me seriously. how hard is it to fit pannier racks to a bike without the mounting points on the seatstays? can it be mounted to be rugged enough without the mounting points? it seems to me that most frames have a screw hole in the dropout but the stays are missing the mounting point. i'd say that the axle could be used to hold the rack to the pannier if the axle had a bit of extra length to screw through the rack mounts.
would a fork with mounting holes be needed for a front pannier, or are there ways to mount them securely without.
strength: would most lugged steel frames/forks be strong enough for moderately loaded tourers? would it just be a matter of giving the bike a test ride and flexing it to feel how stiff it is and saying to myself that the ones that flex alot dont feel strong enough?
i understand that i will need to get the geometry right for touring, especially a longer rear end for heel/pannier clearance.
i have no trouble building and taking apart bikes and have built wheels before, i just want to make sure i am getting a suitable bike that can be upgraded in the ways i want to.
thanks
luke
i'm new to the forums and touring but have been planning a trip to europe in 1-1/4 years and feel that cycle touring would be a great way to see europe on a budget while spending alot of time there. issue is i dont have a bike suitable for touring. i have considered what is available new in australia and feel that most are out of my price range or that i will feel the need to upgrade alot of parts pushing the price up to the level of the pricier ones.
i also want a bike to ride before i go there to get myself fairly well trained and ensure i will enjoy the experience (nothing like dropping yourself onto the otherside of the world with a bike and a plane trip back 3 months later and realising you cant stand riding the bike for so long after 1 week with 11 weeks to go).
i am looking to buy a low cost second hand bike and upgrading a fair few parts with parts i think would be more appropriate as i use the bike for training and get to know it. i have little experience with road/mt bikes but did alot of bmx riding until a few years ago. i had built my bike up slowly by replacing parts and even turned up my own hubs on a lathe and designed and had a frame built to my specs, so i am no stranger to getting a bike build organised and deciding on what parts i like.
the bike i am looking for is a fairly standard touring bike with drop bars and 700c wheels as i plan to stay to the roads which shouldnt be too difficult. i plan on doing fully loaded touring but will go as minimal/compact as i can.
what i am thinking is buying a older style "road bike" that has a frame that fits me well and is suited to touring. i'm thinking an 80's or so road bike. i'd then change the drive train and possibly the wheels to more modern parts.
i want the bike to eventially have:
-27 gears (probably 11-34 cassette and a fairly compact set of chainwheels, maybe 22-44 or 28-48)
sealed bearing hubs, bb and possibly headset(always had trouble with unsealed bearings, was probably due to the cheap gear i had before upgrading).
rear and possibly front panniers.
my main questions here are-
-frame/ hub compatibility- would frames from the 80's or thereabouts have 130mm spaced dropouts to suit modern hubs? i'm pretty sure that narrower spacings were common before a certain time, but i dont know when the transition took place.
- rear rack and front pannier mounting: obviously it would be ideal for the bike to have the mounting parts neccesary for a pannier rack, but this would limit the bikes avaiable to me seriously. how hard is it to fit pannier racks to a bike without the mounting points on the seatstays? can it be mounted to be rugged enough without the mounting points? it seems to me that most frames have a screw hole in the dropout but the stays are missing the mounting point. i'd say that the axle could be used to hold the rack to the pannier if the axle had a bit of extra length to screw through the rack mounts.
would a fork with mounting holes be needed for a front pannier, or are there ways to mount them securely without.
strength: would most lugged steel frames/forks be strong enough for moderately loaded tourers? would it just be a matter of giving the bike a test ride and flexing it to feel how stiff it is and saying to myself that the ones that flex alot dont feel strong enough?
i understand that i will need to get the geometry right for touring, especially a longer rear end for heel/pannier clearance.
i have no trouble building and taking apart bikes and have built wheels before, i just want to make sure i am getting a suitable bike that can be upgraded in the ways i want to.
thanks
luke
