bike without braze ons..?

[martinwhprice]

Hey,

Planning a 7 week tour - think I've found a great bike for it BUT there are no braze ons.... obviously I'm going to need a rack and panniers, so my question really is what is the best option?
I've thought about a trailor instead (expensive though)... and a rack that attaches to the seat post... I need something to support a fair bit of weight (camping stuff, odd bit of food/repairs/necessaries etc) so was wondering what you guys thought is best? Or any other suggestions? Oh and the terrain should generally not be too bad.

Or should I forget the bike and get something else WITH them?

Cheers

 

[TheDoctor]

My first reaction is that if you've found a bike with no braze-ons for mounting a rack, then you've found a road bike. Now, while you can tour on a road bike, it's nowhere near the best tool for the job. A tourer's what you need, but the differences are subtle and not easy to identify in a photo. Having said that, lots of gears, braze-ons for racks and mudguards and clearance for wide tyres are all excellent things to look for.
Maybe give us a link to the bike in question?

 

[martinwhprice]

I think you're probably right... but thanks for letting me know what to actually look for. I think I was mislead by the name "orbea spatios touring"
Anyway here it is...:


http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g336/mwhp20/IMAG0055.jpg

 

[mcr]

I would have thought naming a bike as 'touring' without providing the means of carrying luggage or clearance for mudguards breaches trade description legislation myself (unless they mean touring as in the Tour de France!). And (I know this may be contentious) a designated touring machine also needs drop handlebars (or at least butterflies) to give the changes of hand position needed for long days on the road. But it looks a nice enough bike per se.

 

[Cheddar George]

Compare the gearing to a proper touring bike, i am no expert but the cogs on the cassette don't look big enough to give you the low gears you would need with a trailer. You also need to consider how to stop the combined weight of you the bike the trailer and all your luggage, caliper brakes are not really up to the job.

Nice looking bike though .

 

[bigjim]

If you have not got the bike yet, forget this one. If you already have it, it can be "adjusted" to make it more capable of touring. You need to let us know your budget and what type of touring you intend to do. You don't need a specific touring bike. I tour quite happily on a road bike.

 

[Ticktockmy]

If I may have my two penny worth, within this forum there are many very experienced, cycle tourist, some tour in the main around the UK, others travel further afield. But we all have different ideas as to what is the best bike for touring mainly because we are all different in weight, shape, and fitness but from all the ideas voiced you should gain some good advice.

One has to factor in what type of touring you want to do, then look at what bike will suit your type of touring take in account of your fitness and body weight, will you be camping or just B&B or both will you be going off road etc, and how much dosh you have for your budget..

For many years I used a Reveille Romany purposed built touring bike, which took me many miles through Asia and Africa with no problems at all including crossing the Nubia desert.

Then because a short notice problem, I had to use my mountain bike for one of my tours. Since then I have always used a mountain bike, mainly I build them up to suit me. Currently I am using one based on a Charge Duster (2011) frame.

But, I see no reason to not use any frame taking in the above factors, my Charge frame has no welded rack bosses, so I use old man mountain racks which have an extra long QR skewer to support it and P Clips it attach it to the frame.

Trailers always sound a good option, however if at some time during your tour you find that you have to carry the bike across foot bridges etc (Some NCN routes do require that) then you will have to mess about disconnecting it and making two trips across the obstacle. Also the more room you have the more likely you will take stuff you don’t need, also at B&B’s they can be a pain to find storage and its one other item to care for and maintain on tour.

Once you start fitting panniers, then I would look at the gearing, a 32 or 34 for the rear Cassette for those hills at the end of a long day. For any weight I would not use a seat post rack, as it places all the weight on one point, it tends to place the weight higher above the centre of gravity and could cause the seat post to swivel, if it s not tighten up securely.

Anyway that my say over.

Cheers Bob G.

 

[martinwhprice]

Cheers all,

for a bit more info: I'm planning a 6 or 7 week trip in scotland - glasgow to edinburgh via the caledonian canal and various other places. Nothing too off-road, probably be looking at quiet roads where available for the majority of the trip. It's going to need to be relatively straightforward to repair and move about (so i guess that's a no to the trailer).

I'm 11 stone, 5"10, and not doing it until next year so I plan to up my fitness. For the 7 weeks the majority of it will be camping so lots of equipment .


I've declined that bike now, sadly. But still not really sure what it is I need. The above advice has been very handy though, ta!

 

[mcr]

I'm planning a 6 or 7 week trip in scotland

Blimey, you could walk round it in that amount of time. Seriously, though, and I'm not meaning to belittle your ambition or anything, but that looks an awfully long tour in a relatively small place - commendable if you like exploring places in micro-detail, but unless you aim to get round every western isle, I would have thought you'd find yourself going round in circles in that time (and I'm hardly a distance-freak myself when it comes to touring).

 

[Jaristokraatti]

Blimey, you could walk round it in that amount of time. Seriously, though, and I'm not meaning to belittle your ambition or anything, but that looks an awfully long tour in a relatively small place - commendable if you like exploring places in micro-detail, but unless you aim to get round every western isle, I would have thought you'd find yourself going round in circles in that time (and I'm hardly a distance-freak myself when it comes to touring).

This is a "very good" answer. And very typical as well, unfortunately.
When I contacted some cycling websites (two years) prior to my adventure in Finland last year to get their advice in finding somebody to join me for a ten day 1200 mile trip the answer was LITERALLY: Our members do trips like that on a daily basis.

Who the "qwert" can make a ten day trip in a foreign country covering 1200 miles without some advanced planning.

On the other hand, if one is a beginner and has not even bought his first bike you can hardly expect him to cover 200 km each day...

 

[martinwhprice]

Yeah it's really not about the distance. I'll probably spend an entire week in edinburgh, a few days around Ben Nevis, a couple of days here and there - it's not about travelling each and every day for me. And yeah, I'm a beginner, and I've got time, so why not?!

Also, budget about £450 for the bike

 

[samid]

Scotland is a great place to tour, don't let anyone tell you otherwise (I keep going there each year - and I live in Canada). 7 weeks to go from Glasgow to Edinburgh may be a bit too much but again - if you take your time to investigate places, it may be just right.

As for the bike - check out tourers made by the Edinburgh Bike Coop - I do not own one but saw only good things said about them, e.g. this is almost within your budget - and being fully equipped, may turn out even cheaper.

 

[Nigeyy]

While that was a nice bike, I don't think it would have been the best choice for touring. There's a reason why bikes are called "tourers", e.g.:

-touring bikes (should) carry a heavy load. This usually means the frames are a bit meatier (and heavier) than your standard road bike.
-touring bikes, since they are intended to carry a heavy load, (should) have 36 spokes wheels and heavier duty rims. That's not to say you can't tour on a well built 32 spoke wheelset, just that usually it's better to have that 36 spoke count wheel.
-touring bikes have a different geometry. The chainstays -unlike their racing brethren that have the shortest possible to best transfer pedaling effort -should be long. This allows for panniers to be fitted and so that you don't get heel strike when you pedal. Also, race bikes aren't designed to comfortable for a long day in the saddle; they're designed to be the best at giving you an aerodynamic posture to go as fast as you can.
-touring bikes, since they are intended to carry a heavy load, (should) have *very* different gearing to allow you to pedal up the 1 in 3 hill in Whitby. Road bikes, in their slender and svelte form with the expectation you will not be carrying extra weight, have no need of such gearing.
-touring bikes have all the ways to fit things that bike tourers need -e.g. as you have found out, eyelets for racks, mud guards, etc. Road bikes assume you don't want to be slowed down by the extra weight and drag of mudguards.

Pretty much, tourers are designed for a purpose, much like off road full suspension bikes or road race bikes (e.g. you wouldn't consider going off roading on some rocky terrain on a road race bike). While you can use bikes for touring that weren't designed to be tour specific, usually it's a compromise or involves more money or wrenching. I'm sure I'll have missed something, but that should generally cover it.

Hope this helps you make a good choice! (and good luck)

Cheers all,

for a bit more info: I'm planning a 6 or 7 week trip in scotland - glasgow to edinburgh via the caledonian canal and various other places. Nothing too off-road, probably be looking at quiet roads where available for the majority of the trip. It's going to need to be relatively straightforward to repair and move about (so i guess that's a no to the trailer).

I'm 11 stone, 5"10, and not doing it until next year so I plan to up my fitness. For the 7 weeks the majority of it will be camping so lots of equipment .


I've declined that bike now, sadly. But still not really sure what it is I need. The above advice has been very handy though, ta!

 

[martinwhprice]

so then, this would suit me better perhaps? http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-1034265769/727f67bb.html

 

[mcr]

so then, this would suit me better perhaps? http://www.preloved....9/727f67bb.html

Does this have braze-ons? I can't see any mention of them, nor is there anything visible in the pic, as far as I can tell (and for Scotland's weather, you'll want full mudguards!). Also, reflecting Nigeyy's wise advice above, it only has 32-spoke wheels and a chainset that you might find a bit high (for comparison, my Thorn tourer has 44-32-22 working with the same cassette range as this one). Furthermore, the frame looks a bit 'squeezed' so may not give pedal-clearance for your heels when you've got rear panniers fitted (assuming you can fit them).

I suppose you also need to bear in mind: is this to be your only bike? And if so does it need to have to be able to cope with other uses the rest of the year (eg commuting, with or without luggage etc). Unless you plan to do lots of speedy road-racing, a dedicated lightweight tourer (and you don't have to have drop handlebars if they do not suit) can actually be quite a flexible machine.