puch
Regular
Hi. I decided a touring bike is where I'm at, as I'm looking for long range comfort and something good for shorter day potters around the county. My budget peaks at about £800 which is 'budget' tourer territory.
Here are the shortlist finalists:
Revolution Country Traveller
Revolution Country Explorer
Dawes Karakum 2013
Ridgeback Voyage 2013
Ridgeback Tour 2013
(Raleigh Royal - rejected due to generally poor reviews).
I started off with the tourer 'Steel vs Aluminium issue' which after much reading of opinions doesn't appear to be an issue at all, as most informed opinion says it's the tires that make the most difference (correct me if wrong). Some even dislike the springy steel feel prefering the stiffer Alu frames.
Then it was the '700 vs 26" wheel issue' settled in favour of 700 rims.
Finally, it's boiling down to brakes... I've read so much about brakes having a make or break effect on a bike, I decided to focus on bikes with good installed brakes. The RC Traveller has mediocre-poor Tektro 992AG which can be replaced with the better Tektro CR-520.
The RC Explorer has Avid BB5 discs (inferior to BB7's) which have ok but not excellent reviews. I was on the fence about discs for a while, but have decided cantilevers are the way to go for simplicity and bombproof proven design.
Brakewise, the Ridgebacks are a bit of a contradiction as the less expensive Tour, has the apparently better brakes (Tektro CR-510). The Voyage has the Tektro 992AG which has mediocre to poor reviews.
The Karakum has the excellent Shimano BR-M422 V-brake, which I've yet to read a negative review of. The Karakum looks interesting - a Dawes for reasonable money with butterfly bars and good reviews.
I assume the frame & gearing is probably far more important than the brake set up for long term satisfaction, but I don't have the bike tech savvy to decode all those gearing numbers in the bike specs and, I imagine all the finalists have an adequate spread of gear ratio's.
So there it is. I'll probably find something else to add to the three finalists, no doubt...
Here are the shortlist finalists:
Revolution Country Traveller
Revolution Country Explorer
Dawes Karakum 2013
Ridgeback Voyage 2013
Ridgeback Tour 2013
(Raleigh Royal - rejected due to generally poor reviews).
I started off with the tourer 'Steel vs Aluminium issue' which after much reading of opinions doesn't appear to be an issue at all, as most informed opinion says it's the tires that make the most difference (correct me if wrong). Some even dislike the springy steel feel prefering the stiffer Alu frames.
Then it was the '700 vs 26" wheel issue' settled in favour of 700 rims.
Finally, it's boiling down to brakes... I've read so much about brakes having a make or break effect on a bike, I decided to focus on bikes with good installed brakes. The RC Traveller has mediocre-poor Tektro 992AG which can be replaced with the better Tektro CR-520.
The RC Explorer has Avid BB5 discs (inferior to BB7's) which have ok but not excellent reviews. I was on the fence about discs for a while, but have decided cantilevers are the way to go for simplicity and bombproof proven design.
Brakewise, the Ridgebacks are a bit of a contradiction as the less expensive Tour, has the apparently better brakes (Tektro CR-510). The Voyage has the Tektro 992AG which has mediocre to poor reviews.
The Karakum has the excellent Shimano BR-M422 V-brake, which I've yet to read a negative review of. The Karakum looks interesting - a Dawes for reasonable money with butterfly bars and good reviews.
I assume the frame & gearing is probably far more important than the brake set up for long term satisfaction, but I don't have the bike tech savvy to decode all those gearing numbers in the bike specs and, I imagine all the finalists have an adequate spread of gear ratio's.
So there it is. I'll probably find something else to add to the three finalists, no doubt...
It's more useful than it sounds because it makes it easy to compare one bike to another.
