Adapting existing bicycles for touring

[hartleymartin]

I'm going to be leading a small group of touring novices on a 4-day ride from Mittagong to Goulburn via Wombeyan Caves in late April.

At the moment I'll be riding my 1982 Raleigh Royal, which is a Touring bicycle (even if a very old and a bit out of date one).

I've got to look into what other bicycles I can press into service, as rather unexpectedly, a contingent of girls (none of whom have suitable bicycles) have decided they would like to do it too! I have a small problem in that I want to get them reasonably good gear, without spending a lot of money, but nothing to make their touring experience a bad one - I don't want to put anyone off touring!

So at the moment I have

1.) A Giant Sedona, a few years old, but with V-brakes and suspension forks and 2" slick tyres, which looks like it will take a carry rack.
2.) A Repco Sport 24 - 24"-wheeled 10-speed, which I can probably fit a triple crankset to, but will probably need heaps of work.
3.) A Gary Fisher Mamba - another suspension-forked MTB - perhaps fit it out with butterfly bars?
4.) A rigid-framed MTB with 24" wheels, at the moment only missing its left crank.
5.) My old Elan X-Country, which I have previously toured on, but now is more of a city-bike, as it weighs in at a hefty 17kg
(perhaps give this last one to one of the guys on the trip)

I also have a 2-wheeled cargo trailer, so one bicycle can be left off without a carry rack, and I would probably encourage only bulky but light stuff such as sleeping bags and the tents to go into that.

Any ideas or suggestions?

[hartleymartin]

Just to help you understand the machines I have available:

The Giant Sedona looks to be this model:



And this is me, riding the Elan X-Country in the 2009 Gong Ride.