My bicycle sufficient for a couple weeks?

[Zaurusman]

I'm sorry if this is a common question and annoying, but I don't know bicycles anymore, because it's been years since I was really "into it" and now there are all sorts of new-fangled things like disc brakes and LED lights, and probably new types of bikes too.

Anyway, back in '93 or so I bought a Giant Nutra cross bike, 700C wheels, 21-speed Shimano, cro-moly frame, no suspension. I love that bike; put around 4,000 miles on it over the next couple years, on and off road but mostly just "around", then got to Texas and quit riding except once in a blue moon. Just got back from a 2-month trip to Australia and Thailand, and decided to go ahead and start scheming for the next one (which will be limited by real life, i.e. 2-weeks' vacation time annually), and have been eyeing my old bicycle and would like to take it with me after I do a rebuild and get in shape again; I'd like to see a bit of the world on my bike next time.

Long story short, $300 cross bike (maybe $500 with upgrades like suspension seatpost, aluminum handlebars, accessories, etc), perfect condition sans scrapes here and there, sufficient for a couple weeks of pedalling through, say, Austria and Hungary? With around ... 35 lbs of stuff max over the rear wheel? Or is this out of a cross bike's league? I personally think it would laugh at such a trip given the mileage I've put on it without problems in the past, but wanted to see what you who've done this before think before I start working on it to this goal, since I've never ridden it past 60 miles or so in any given trip, nor carried much more than myself.

TIA

 

[dabac]

Originally posted by Zaurusman


Long story short, $300 cross bike (maybe $500 with upgrades like suspension seatpost, aluminum handlebars, accessories, etc), perfect condition sans scrapes here and there, sufficient for a couple weeks of pedalling through, say, Austria and Hungary? With around ... 35 lbs of stuff max over the rear wheel? Or is this out of a cross bike's league?
TIA

It takes some doing to break a good solid bike by riding it unloaded on decent roads. My first mtb saw a considerably higher mileage than that, and a lot of it under atrocious conditions. Clean frame thoroughly and check for cracks, try to sort them out from the scrapes. If in doubt you might want to consider removing the paint over suspicious spots to make sure. But all things wear out eventually, so there's no guarantees even if it doesn't sound too far-fetched.

I'd make a special point of checking the rims for wear and bearings for increased play, limiting the equipment I'd intend to carry and invest in a front rack too for better weight distribution. A breakdown in Austria is no major problem, English is reasonably well understood, cities aren't that far apart and bike shops aren't too hard to find.
I can't say much about Hungary, besides English probably not being quite as readily understood as in Austria.

 

[Zaurusman]

Originally posted by dabac
Clean frame thoroughly and check for cracks, try to sort them out from the scrapes. ... I'd make a special point of checking the rims for wear and bearings for increased play, limiting the equipment I'd intend to carry and invest in a front rack too for better weight distribution.

Thanks for your help; I'll go over all of those areas very carefully when I rebuild it in a week or two. Your note about cracks brings up a question, though. My fork is curved, and flexes a tad over bumps as per its design. Is this a weak point that will suffer from fatigue earlier; should I consider a new fork? The bicycle has done a fair bit of off-road riding (though nothing too extreme due to its design, naturally) in its past.

Thanks again.

 

[dabac]

Originally posted by Zaurusman
should I consider a new fork?

Bear in mind that I don't handle bikes professionally. But I'm an enthustiastic biker surrounded by others of a similar character, and have been so for 15-20 years.
I have only seen one fatigue-related disastrous fork failure in that time, whereas I've seen maybe a dozen fatigue-related frame failures.
Considering the odds I don't think a new fork needs to be a priority purchase. A suspension fork is nice, but the fairly long-travel forks that are stock issue today might mess up your handling and bike geometry more than you're willing to accept. Besides, it's usually a bit trickier to fit front panniers(sp?) to a suspension fork.