im confused by alot of comments in this thread. i think im having the piss taken of me.
oh well. thanks for the help full info.
Surprisingly not actually - just a lot of in jokes, probably too many to explain them all.
Some good suggestions above. If you want a 54cm Salsa Vaya, let me know.
Oh man that snot the case at all. Is it the Elephant thing? We’re all just joking about a brand of bike actually called Elephant. They’re handmade frames in the usa, and quite a few on here ordered their NFE frame and they’re slowly arriving. That’s all it is, no piss being taken at all. Promise.
Yeah, no piss being taken.
I’ve got an Elephant NFE on the way but as noted it’s taking a long time for my batch to get done.
Also, there’s lots of new entries in the light touring/all-road/blabla segment and the peanut gallery is trying to make sense of it all. Hence all the Rawland/Ravn, Velo Orange etc chat.
Yeah surprisingly on topic thread.
I think the summary is (as you don’t want to go off road):
-Steel
-Drop bars
-Mountain bike style gearing
-~35mm tyres +
-Test ride some bikes
-Proper touring bikes made for fully loaded (4 big panniers) ride sluggishly with no load.
-Maybe check out some steel CX/gravel/adventure road bikes - they’ll ride nicer with smaller loads or no load
Oh, and the SOBP thing: that’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to the recent Summer Of Track Bike.
eTomato is suggesting this year it’ll be Summer Of BikePacking.
Oh, and the SOBP thing: that’s a tongue-in-cheek reference to the recent Summer Of Track Bike.
eTomato is suggesting this year it’ll be Summer Of BikePacking.
Oh, it will be Summer Of Bike Packing…… the truly hardcore will be doing Summer Of Fixed Bikepacking
And the not so hard core will be doing Summer of SS Bikepacking.
I may be able to join them, IF my Wolverine ever turns up.
Should have ordered an Elephant NFE…
I reckon these is one of these on sale at the LBS for under $2k.
not to mention the possibility of a Summer Of Barn Pooping
Poop packing
I’d disagree with two of your points. Drops bars aren’t just for road touring and shouldn’t be considered exclusively for just road riding. Personally I loved my jones h bars for my trip!
Touring bikes ride a little shit when not loaded, but are no means ‘sluggish’.
I was intendeding as a general summary.
I have a ‘touring’ bike with swept bars and it’s great. Also very few off the shelf road touring bikes come with flat bars.
I would stand by my sluggish comments, LHT vs say a soma double cross? No contest for ride quality unloaded.
I think the stock touring bikes that are available in Australia and what is trendy in Australia isn’t particularly in touch with general trends in the rest of the world. Almost every European touring cyclist I’ve met has been on a bike with some configuration of trekking bar or flat bar. Massive list of off road touring bikes: Complete List of Off-Road, Adventure Touring & Bikepacking Bikes - CYCLINGABOUT
Depending on where you’re heading, I would really recommend bigger than 35mm tires too. Nothing worse than ending up on a 100km roughgravel road and getting a million flats on your loaded bike because you only had 35c tires (I’ve been there).
No ones mentioned the Fuji Touring yet. For $1k you won’t get a more solid base to start on. Rides decently unloaded, and leaves plenty in the bank for some mods and good gear.
Just buy a shogun metro.
My generalizations were based on the fact the OP doesn’t want to go off road.
Also euro touring bikes esp. German ones are ugly and weirdly setup -rim hydro’s? Rear loading only? Suspension forks? (I know they aren’t all that bad)
Those Fuji’s are bangers, need an adjustable noodle or inline adjuster on the brakes and the mini-v don’t have heaps of rim clearance but good otherwise.
#sobp
Good list there Nat.
I just have to ask: who at Bilenky authorised this as a promo photo?
^ full marks on the bike rack though.
^ dat fenderline.