looking for touring bike

[remo974]

hi all. i am planning a mount isa to brisbane trip next august and looking for advice on first timer touring bike. i am 175cm 80-85kg. all suggestions will be appreciated

[Stuntman]

Depends somewhat on your budget.

Vivente Randoneur is a great out of the box, ready to go first touring bike. All the quality bits you need. Great colour range of black making your choice easy. Will fit a 50mm tyre with the guards off making it quite capable of some off road bike-packing as well.

[Tim]

Happy Vivente owner here.

[brumby33]

Happy Vivente owner here.

Here as well.....all thats needed on them is a set of front racks and perhaps a 3rd bidon and thats it....it already has everything else.
Mine is the Patagonia.

[remo974]

what do people think about Co-op Cycles ADV

[avolve]

Take a look at gumtree, etc. Gives you to opportunity to try something out and if it does not work, you are not out as much $$$. Not fun to fork out a lot of $$$ for a bike that does not end up being right for you.

[baabaa]

I looked very hard at Co-op Cycles and really they are top value for a well thought out bike.
Shame about the no shipping to Oz

[brumby33]

Fuji Touring is a decent bike for the money....deore rear deraileur, double butted steel frame, bar end shifters on drop bars.
I had one 12 yrs ago and its a great work horse.
The RRP is around $1200

Cheers

brumby33

[baabaa]

For any on rides or touring in the western parts of QLD the roads are good then bad, then bad then good. If you are carting any gear you really need to be thinking around a bike with a long wheel base. Vivente or a surly long haul trucker are ideal, anything with a short cx chainstay length will kinda hurt.
Seen this site? https://www.cyclingabout.com/

[rich1642]

Mid nineties chromoly framed mountain bikes with rigid forks make cheap but ok touring bikes. The steering can be a little more twitchy than a dedicated tourer with a longer wheelbase though.

I'm around 6'2" and ride a 21". It seems a little small for me when doing longer trips, but is great for riding around town.

[hartleymartin]

My first-ever touring rig was a rigid MTB frame from the late 80s/early 90s. It had studs for cantilever brakes, which I upgraded to Linear-Pulls. I also fitted 1.75" slick tyres that had kevlar belting, mudguards, racks, extra bottle-cages, etc. I didn't find the steering "twitchy" - the heavier tires were probably a big factor in that. I also used North-Road style bars.

I even did the Gong Ride in 2009 on it:



I had a Carradice camper long-flap saddle bag on the back, and fitted lots of extra water bottle cages. I wasn't sure what the fresh water supply would be like at the time. This particular frame had a 130mm rear spacing, and as I recall I had an 11-28 7-speed freewheel and 48/38/28 chainrings at the time. I was going to change it out to a 12-32 cluster (I might even still have it somewhere) and 48/36/24 chainrings. I also considered a drop-bar conversion, but at the time I don't think there were any good linear-brake compatible levers.

I loaned this bike to someone several years ago as I had moved to a 1982 Raleigh Royal Tourer. I should ask for it back.

[hartleymartin]

Also, as insane as it might look, a Raleigh Twenty actually makes a very good frame for touring, but be prepared to put a lot of time in the workshop to get it set up. The biggest job will probably be narrowing the bottom-bracket to 68mm, getting it rethreaded and then spreading the rear triangle. I would be inclined not to use pannier on the rear but take advantage of the small wheel and put a large bag on top of the rear rack. You will probably have to hunt around for a suitable rear bag, but small front panniers and a large bar-bag will help. I did a whole 3-day trip around Canberra with just the camper long-flap and a small back-pack - which included packing a 3-piece tweed suit!