Touring Bike Recommendations?
VFRANKL
Any recommendations?
Any opinions on the most important and/or preferred features?
Most bike shops that I've been to in my area don't seem to carry many
strictly touring bikes. Some that I've seen in the bike shops include:
Cannondale T1000, Trek 520, and the Trek 2120. One bike shop that did
seem to have a pretty extensive collection of all types of bikes, also
would build custom bikes (but would likely be a tad expensive ;-).
I would appreciate any recommendations and/or input on good/bad
experiences with particular touring bikes/features.
Thanks.
--Vic
Steven M. Scharf
: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
: Any recommendations?
It's very difficult to find touring bikes these days. The two
best mass productions touring bikes were the Specialized Expedition
and the Miyata 1000, neither of which are available any longer.
Probably your best bet is a Bruce Gordon. You can probably get one
for under $2000. Or find a used Expedition for about $400.
____________________________________________________________________
Knowing everything about everything is Steve Scharf
an awesome burden, but I accept it humbly FAX 408/746-3096
in service of the common people. sch...@mirage.nsc.com
SMS
________________________________________
All Opinions Expressed are My Own
_____________________________________________________________________
Thomas Franges
: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
: Any recommendations?
The touring bike market ... REAL touring bikes ... is too small for the
full-range manufacturers to bother with, so they tack some
arbitrarily-placed braze-ons on to one of their existing frames and call
it a "touring bike". This kind of bike can be pretty scary at speed with
a normal touring load.
The ultimate affordable touring bike, in my opinion, is the Bruce Gordon
Rock 'n' Road Tour. Bruce has been making touring bikes and touring
racks for almost two decades, and I don't think there's a bike out there
that will outperform a Rock 'n Road Tour under fully loaded touring
conditions. As I recall, the price is still under $2,000 with front and
rear racks. The extra bonus with the Rock 'n Road is that it uses 700C
tires with clearance for 43mm wide knobbies, so you can literally go
anywhere with the bike, on road or off, just by fitting appropriate tires.
Bruce Gordon Cycles is in Petaluma, California.
Mark MacLennan
>VFRANKL (vfr...@aol.com) wrote:
>: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
>: Any recommendations?
$2000 is a pretty good chunk of money ...
If you really can afford that then why not consider a custom-frame
for a touring-bike. Check out the issue of Bicycling from this past
year that featured custom-frames. (I wish that I could afford the
touring bike that they featured in that article!!)
>
>The touring bike market ... REAL touring bikes ... is too small for the
>full-range manufacturers to bother with, so they tack some
>arbitrarily-placed braze-ons on to one of their existing frames and call
>it a "touring bike". This kind of bike can be pretty scary at speed with
>a normal touring load.
Huh?! Both the Cannondale and Trek touring bicycles have frames
specifically designed for use as a real "touring bike". They are
also relatively affordable (~ $800-1000 which may or may not include
any extra goodies like fenders or a front rack, etc. that one would
likely want ...). You could always use the money that you "saved" to
purchase good panniers and camping gear.
There are certainly some "hybrids" with braze-ons that could be used
for touring and would likely work well enough. How well you pack your
panniers and distribute the load is probably far more important an issue
regarding riding characteristics than whether or not one has a
"touring bike".
cheers,
MARK
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark J. MacLennan, Data Systems Coordinator
Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research (CGRER)
RickVosper
>Bruce Gordon Cycles is in Petaluma, California.
Prospective buyers canreach Bruce at 707/762-5601. He's also on the Net,
but I'm not sure if he wants his e-mail address broadcast.
Anyway, he does beautiful work and be sure to ask for your "Bruce Gordon
Cycles-- Where the Touring Nerd is King" Plastic Pocket Pen Protector.
Really!
Frank Krygowski
In a previous article, macl...@eco.uiowa.edu (Mark MacLennan) says:
>
>$2000 is a pretty good chunk of money ...
>
>If you really can afford that then why not consider a custom-frame
>for a touring-bike.
>
[... and MM responds to this post:]
>>
>>The touring bike market ... REAL touring bikes ... is too small for the
>>full-range manufacturers to bother with, so they tack some
>>arbitrarily-placed braze-ons on to one of their existing frames and call
>>it a "touring bike". This kind of bike can be pretty scary at speed with
>>a normal touring load.
>
>Huh?! Both the Cannondale and Trek touring bicycles have frames
>specifically designed for use as a real "touring bike". They are
>also relatively affordable (~ $800-1000 which may or may not include
>any extra goodies like fenders or a front rack, etc. that one would
>likely want ...). You could always use the money that you "saved" to
>purchase good panniers and camping gear.
>
>
Just a comment on custom frames vs Cannondales. I've toured with a
friend with an elegant looking custom frame, standard diameter steel
tubes. Even with rigid racks and the same panniers I use, he has
serious problems with shimmy or oscillation above 30 MPH. (Sorry,
I don't know who built his bike.) My Cannondale tourer is absolutely
rock solid, perfect handling, fully loaded at 45+ MPH.
I know oscillation is a tricky problem, difficult to diagnose. May
not be his frame builder's fault. But I know he lusts for my bike.
--
Frank Krygowski ae...@yfn.ysu.edu
Mark Chandler
>VFRANKL (vfr...@aol.com) wrote:
>: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
>: Any recommendations?
>It's very difficult to find touring bikes these days. The two
>best mass productions touring bikes were the Specialized Expedition
>and the Miyata 1000, neither of which are available any longer.
>Probably your best bet is a Bruce Gordon. You can probably get one
>for under $2000. Or find a used Expedition for about $400.
While Bruce's bikes are nice, they're pricey. You could opt for a
Trek 520 or Fuji's touring model (whose name escapes me).
>____________________________________________________________________
>Knowing everything about everything is Steve Scharf
>an awesome burden, but I accept it humbly FAX 408/746-3096
>in service of the common people. sch...@mirage.nsc.com
> SMS
>________________________________________
>All Opinions Expressed are My Own
>_____________________________________________________________________
--
| Mark Chandler Novell, Inc. 510/975-4522 |
| Reply to chan...@wc.novell.com or cross...@aol.com |
| |
| The opinions expressed above are mine, not my employer's. |
Mr. Nice Guy
sch...@jedi.nsc.com (Steven M. Scharf) wrote:
>VFRANKL (vfr...@aol.com) wrote:
>: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
>: Any recommendations?
>
>It's very difficult to find touring bikes these days. The two
>best mass productions touring bikes were the Specialized Expedition
>and the Miyata 1000, neither of which are available any longer.
>
>Probably your best bet is a Bruce Gordon. You can probably get one
>for under $2000. Or find a used Expedition for about $400.
>
bicycle I would suggest a recumbent. They are much more
comfortable than any conventional bicycle.
--
Rod Anderson rcan...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mr. Nice Guy)
Don't be so hard on Willie, wouldn't you cheat on Hillary too ?
Matt Bushore
|> In article <Czzr2...@nsc.nsc.com>,
|> sch...@jedi.nsc.com (Steven M. Scharf) wrote:
|> >VFRANKL (vfr...@aol.com) wrote:
|> >: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
|> >: Any recommendations?
|> >
|> >It's very difficult to find touring bikes these days. The two
|> >best mass productions touring bikes were the Specialized Expedition
|> >and the Miyata 1000, neither of which are available any longer.
|> >
|> >Probably your best bet is a Bruce Gordon. You can probably get one
|> >for under $2000. Or find a used Expedition for about $400.
|> >
|> But if you are going to spend this much money for a touring
|> bicycle I would suggest a recumbent. They are much more
|> comfortable than any conventional bicycle.
|>
But if you are going to spend this much money for a recumbent I would
suggest a late model Nissan station wagon--the kind with the fake wood
panels. They are much more comfortable than any bicycle, and don't
don't require nearly as much effort in getting from place to place.
--
Timothy J. Lee
|VFRANKL (vfr...@aol.com) wrote:
|: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
|: Any recommendations?
|
|The touring bike market ... REAL touring bikes ... is too small for the
|full-range manufacturers to bother with, so they tack some
|arbitrarily-placed braze-ons on to one of their existing frames and call
|it a "touring bike".
Braze-ons? I thought that the typical thing was to install a
triple crankset and associated drivetrain stuff to a bike to
call it a "touring bike". Braze-ons on road bikes seem to be
rare these days, even on those pseudo-"touring bikes".
Why would this be the case? Do bike manufacturers believe that
roadies never want to carry things on their road bikes? A racing
or sport bike may not do well with a touring load, but smaller
loads (that are bigger than seat bags) are easy to envision.
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Lee tim...@netcom.com
No warranty of any kind is provided with this message.
Mr. Nice Guy
mbus...@icaen.uiowa.edu (Matt Bushore) wrote:
>In article <9c3tkidp...@nyx.cs.du.edu>, rcan...@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mr. Nice Guy) writes:
>|> In article <Czzr2...@nsc.nsc.com>,
>|> sch...@jedi.nsc.com (Steven M. Scharf) wrote:
>|> >VFRANKL (vfr...@aol.com) wrote:
>|> >: I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
>|> >: Any recommendations?
>|> >
>|> >for under $2000. Or find a used Expedition for about $400.
>|> >
>|> But if you are going to spend this much money for a touring
>|> bicycle I would suggest a recumbent. They are much more
>|> comfortable than any conventional bicycle.
>|>
>
>But if you are going to spend this much money for a recumbent I would
>suggest a late model Nissan station wagon--the kind with the fake wood
>panels. They are much more comfortable than any bicycle, and don't
>don't require nearly as much effort in getting from place to place.
My recumbent is comfortable enough to be ridden slowly, in fact I
have a real problem in staying awake on 80 mile days. Everyone is
so much fast on uprights because they are in such a hurry to get
home and off their uncomfortable bike.
Peter - INL
>I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
>Any recommendations?
An answer from the real cycling country: HOLLAND!
I don't know if you can get them in the States, but its worth to consider
touring bikes from Koga Miyata. It is a Dutch factory which only uses frames
of Miyata. All their bikes are hand-build. They have a very, very good
reputation in Europe. I have a Koga Miyata Traveller which costs Dfl 2600 ($
1350). I use it for touring, holidays and in summer I use it to go to my
employer (70 km a day). I bought it in july 1992 and it never let me down.
Another bike under $ 2000 is the Koga Miyata World Traveller, which costs
about Dfl 3500 ($ 1800). I have no experience with this bike.
Because of the high prices, Koga is somewhat exclusive in Holland. But the
real Dutch cyclist doesn't care about prices.
Peter van der Kamp
v...@rulxho.leidenuniv.nl
Paul Nevai
:In article <3b7rav$o...@newsbf01.news.aol.com>, vfr...@aol.com (VFRANKL) writes:
:>I'm looking for a touring bike (under $2000 price range).
:>Any recommendations?
I recommend the Cannondale T1000 (or another Txxx with appropriate upgrades).
I don't really tour but do long rides + it's the best commuting bike as well
(think of gropcery shopping etc). Take care...Paul
Hans-Joachim Zierke
Peter - INL wrote:
> An answer from the real cycling country: HOLLAND!
> I don't know if you can get them in the States, but its worth to consider
> touring bikes from Koga Miyata.
Koga Miyata made phantastic loaded tourers in 1985-1990. In the last years,
they produced current fashion. Still well built, though.
hajo
--
"Unix _IS_ user friendly... It's just selective about who its friends are."
Robert M. Perkins
|> Koga Miyata made phantastic loaded tourers in 1985-1990. In the last years,
|> they produced current fashion. Still well built, though.
|>
|> hajo
What do you mean buy "current fashion"? How have they changed their
frames (chainstays, toptube length, bottom bracket height, etc)?
How have they changed their components? Have they changed their
chainrings from half-step granny to mountain bike ratios?
Just curious.
--
Rob Perkins Internet rper...@bnr.ca
Hans-Joachim Zierke
Robert M. Perkins wrote:
> What do you mean buy "current fashion"? How have they changed their
> frames (chainstays, toptube length, bottom bracket height, etc)?
> How have they changed their components? Have they changed their
> chainrings from half-step granny to mountain bike ratios?
> Just curious.
They put some weird handlebars on. These handlebars add a MTB hand position
to a drop bar. Tradeoff is that you loose the brakelever hood hand
position. So they pleased the people growing up with MTBs, and substracted
the hand position that is most comfortable on long distances.
The rest of the bike is still first-class. It just stresses the hands when
staying in the saddle the whole day.
Koga Miyata does a better assembly job than most manufacturers around the
globe. The only thing that needed additional work before a really long
trip used to be the wheels, but they have bought a Holland Mechanics
Stabilizer some time ago, so this should be better now.
hajo
SMS
David Scheidt
--
sig 125
Frank Krygowski
using.
Now if we could just get that message to him, back in time...
--
- Frank Krygowski
Mark J.
compact flux capacitor in the BB shell and stay mounts for a Mr. Fusion.
Mark J. [It's otherwise a great bike, too]