Touring on a road bike

englishpremier

englishpremier

englishpremier

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Got a short tour (10-12 days) of France's east coast coming up soon.

I don't have a touring bike. Any reason I can't/shouldn't tour on my Forme Longcliffe 3.0?

It's got Mavic CXP22 wheels currently with 23c tyres. The rims will comfortably take 28c possibly 32c, but I need to check the clearance first.

The chain stay is pretty short at 417mm but I'm considering the axiom streamliner rack, which should give me another 40mm of clearance.

I've already got some panniers, and am thinking about getting a front bar bag. The forks are carbon with only mud guard eyelets, so probably best not to put a rack there.

I weight just under 75kg, so even the 10kg of luggage the bike should be able to take the weight.

The bike fits me well and is comfortable, but of course extremely stiff, but with wider tyres, and the French roads being better if should be ok.

The other thing is the crank/gearing, it's tall but I'm able to cycle up a 20% gradient (max, 12% average) unloaded, and I don't anticipate anything even near that on the French coast.

What do you think? Anything I'm overlooking?
 
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Don't see why not. You can tour on pretty much anything, it's more about willpower than gear. 32c tyres would be a plus, you could almost certainly run them with those rims but I'd check the clearance with the brakes first. Ideally you'd want to move some of the weight forwards as Von says, naturally you can't do that with a front rack but maybe a couple of handlebar mounted bottle cages?
 
Shoes I'm fine with. I love my cleats attached to the bike, then i've got some £1.95 specials that I took around South America. Super comfy.

I've been away on a motorcycle tour, but back this week. Need to get some miles in the saddle, which may or may not need replacing.

Probably double up on bar tape over the pressure areas.

Gloves are something I need to look at.
 
i mean cycle shoes with recessed cleats so you can walk when necessary - (i think you have to be spd for that). but if taking a separate pair of shoes that works too.
 
Jono said:
I'd quite like a proper touring bike... for photography adventures, mostly.... but wouldn't know what to start looking at. It would have to be going up 1:4 hills quite a lot :/
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Budget? Touring bikes assume that you're carrying a ton of gear anyway, so they don't aim to get up hills at speed, they just give you the gear ranges you need to get up at your own pace. Hence why many of them have mountain bike chainsets.
 
front fork rake is a big differentiater (or was ?) versus the road bike (like the long fork motorbikes they have in usa) so you looses some maneuverability, but frame can stilll be stiff so not sucking up power - gearing I have 52/42/?(I forget) with 13 so has a higher top than my compact road bike plus the gratuitous low 'granny' gear, many duplicates though.
 
Touring is generally about going a long way with lower regard for pace. So a somewhat flexy frame might seem to be sapping power, but equally it will be absorbing a lot of road noise which might otherwise tire you out.
 
i've toured my kinesis T2. 10-15kg on the back and it handled just fine, a bit truckish at slow speeds but fine once you wound it up. Was in Holland so gears werent a massive concern.
 
PermaBanned said:
Budget? Touring bikes assume that you're carrying a ton of gear anyway, so they don't aim to get up hills at speed, they just give you the gear ranges you need to get up at your own pace. Hence why many of them have mountain bike chainsets.
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I don't know. What's a kind of average sort of price. 105 sort of level groupset would be nice.
 
jpaul said:
i mean cycle shoes with recessed cleats so you can walk when necessary - (i think you have to be spd for that). but if taking a separate pair of shoes that works too.
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Yes, I have a pair of those. All day comfy too :)

Jono said:
I'd quite like a proper touring bike... for photography adventures, mostly.... but wouldn't know what to start looking at. It would have to be going up 1:4 hills quite a lot :/
Click to expand...

The Adventure Flat White gets touted as a decent basic touring bike. Think its around £500. Ridgeback Tour is another from a better known brand.

Personally I like my road bike. At 9.5kg it's not crazy light, the wheels are strong enough, and the riding position is relatively relaxed for a road bike. Being British it also has sealed bearings, and mud guard eyelets for our crappy weather.
 
I was going to say Dawes Galaxy - this is the classic, until I saw how much they cost now now
gulp £1800, do not know how much of that is down to 531 frame / British build, not sure where
chainset sugino Alpina Tour triple chainset
fits with respect to shimano range
and maybe the rims/hubs are bullet proof
Rims Mavic A119 Double Wall Alloy, with CNC sidewall
Front Hub Dia-Compe ENE Touring 36H Quick Release
it is not even disc either.

( On an older 531ST touring frame have post fit ultegra triple/Deore cantilever and Sachs New Success mechs which were nicely engineered. )
 
Maybe off topic - but if you are watching billions on sky episode 5, bike placement (unusual?) is a 24K$ modified Passoni Nero XL
which Bobby Axelrod - billionaire swaps for a sub £1k bike with a front basket carrier
 
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