touring on a trad touring bike?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
reohn2
Posts: 45158
Joined: 26 Jun 2009, 8:21pm

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by reohn2 »

Heltor Chasca wrote:Thread drift sorry. What bar tape is that reohn2? No 1 liners ok?


It's Bontrager BarGel with FiZiK gel pads underneath.
I find the Bontie stuff is more plush than other stuff and it has a silicon strip on the back side that holds it firm which has the added plus that the tape can be removed and rewrapped without unravelling or leaving sticky residue on the faceside of the tape.It's also longer than other makes,but costs about £13.

The FiZiK gel pads are four silicon pads,two curved for the tops and two straight for the drops,that add extra padding for my boney Arthritic hands :)
-----------------------------------------------------------
"All we are not stares back at what we are"
W H Auden
MacBludgeon
Posts: 462
Joined: 6 Feb 2009, 4:19pm
Location: Farnborough, Hampshire, UK

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by MacBludgeon »

Always a fascinating subject and interesting to see how things change over time. One of the things that is often missed is the upsurge of disc brakes meaning different wheel sizes can be run. As long as you don't mind the appearance of big clearances and skinny tyres. This is even more so now with the rise of the 650b. When comparing 700c and 26" the ability to interchange wheels was fairly narrow before geometry could be compromised...not so much between 700c and 650b. It's possible to envisage a frame that ran 700c up to about 700x40 for road use and wider 650b rubber for more offroad or heavily laden touring. Get stuck somewhere and whack in a cheap 26" wheel to get you to where your normal wheel can be repaired or replaced.

My first option would always be to consider 'fit for purpose' and that doesn't mean does it do what others claim but rather does it do what I need. Can the gears get me up what I want to ride?, can the wheels/tyres cope with what I want to ride and give me the comfort level I desire?, can the frame accommodate the luggage I want?, etc, etc.

On the adventure touring side I find the remoteness less and less of a persuasion for specific choices. Cable discs aren't much different to rim brakes, you can easily carry spare cable and pads and even a spare caliper. Spokes, if you're going that remote you should have spares with you. If you're remote enough then no spares will be available whatever you run. After that internet ordering, or packages you've left behind, can be sent pretty much anywhere. I've read plenty of journals where 26" wheel users were unable to get spares/repairs and had to order online.

For me I'd use a 29er setup with a Rohloff and SON, disc brakes and steel frame with full braze-ons and long chainstays...what I have actually. Tyres I'd give serious thought to tubeless, so many punctures are the result of thorns or those little bits of radial wires. Always the option to revert back to tubes, also you can always use 26" tubes if need be. Bars, again use what suits, I like swept flat bars with outboard and inboard bar ends, or Jones Loop.
nuns, no sense of humour
bretonbikes
Posts: 682
Joined: 3 Dec 2008, 12:35pm
Contact:

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by bretonbikes »

MacBludgeon wrote:Always a fascinating subject and interesting to see how things change over time. One of the things that is often missed is the upsurge of disc brakes meaning different wheel sizes can be run. As long as you don't mind the appearance of big clearances and skinny tyres. This is even more so now with the rise of the 650b. When comparing 700c and 26" the ability to interchange wheels was fairly narrow before geometry could be compromised...not so much between 700c and 650b. It's possible to envisage a frame that ran 700c up to about 700x40 for road use and wider 650b rubber for more offroad or heavily laden touring. Get stuck somewhere and whack in a cheap 26" wheel to get you to where your normal wheel can be repaired or replaced.

My first option would always be to consider 'fit for purpose' and that doesn't mean does it do what others claim but rather does it do what I need. Can the gears get me up what I want to ride?, can the wheels/tyres cope with what I want to ride and give me the comfort level I desire?, can the frame accommodate the luggage I want?, etc, etc.

On the adventure touring side I find the remoteness less and less of a persuasion for specific choices. Cable discs aren't much different to rim brakes, you can easily carry spare cable and pads and even a spare caliper. Spokes, if you're going that remote you should have spares with you. If you're remote enough then no spares will be available whatever you run. After that internet ordering, or packages you've left behind, can be sent pretty much anywhere. I've read plenty of journals where 26" wheel users were unable to get spares/repairs and had to order online.

For me I'd use a 29er setup with a Rohloff and SON, disc brakes and steel frame with full braze-ons and long chainstays...what I have actually. Tyres I'd give serious thought to tubeless, so many punctures are the result of thorns or those little bits of radial wires. Always the option to revert back to tubes, also you can always use 26" tubes if need be. Bars, again use what suits, I like swept flat bars with outboard and inboard bar ends, or Jones Loop.


We hire bikes for a living and having had a batch of disc brakes would never use them for 'expedition' touring. The chances of a bike being bounced thousands of miles, thrown in to busses or aircraft and emerging without bent discs is slim. In our experience we had 10 disc-braked bikes - within 6 weeks use all had discs that rubbed (I suspect mostly bike-rack damage outside supermarkets) and I found it impossible to get them straight. If you are careful with your bike and don't ever put it into situations where a disc might get bent they are utterly brilliant brakes and I would highly recommend them - for any other circumstances they are too fragile.
38 years of cycletouring, 33 years of running cycling holidays, 8 years of running a campsite for cyclists - there's a pattern here...
MacBludgeon
Posts: 462
Joined: 6 Feb 2009, 4:19pm
Location: Farnborough, Hampshire, UK

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by MacBludgeon »

Fair point, rotors can take a knock some people dismount them for flying etc but you're also in the hire business. People do tend to treat hire items rather worse, or at least carelessly, in comparison to their own things. I suppose the ultimate would be some sort of sealed unit, drum brake style. But the cynic in me says that development funds won't be directed towards things with genuine longevity.

Though the point still remains that disc brakes allow for varying rims that rim brakes never could.
nuns, no sense of humour
bretonbikes
Posts: 682
Joined: 3 Dec 2008, 12:35pm
Contact:

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by bretonbikes »

MacBludgeon wrote:Fair point, rotors can take a knock some people dismount them for flying etc but you're also in the hire business. People do tend to treat hire items rather worse, or at least carelessly, in comparison to their own things. I suppose the ultimate would be some sort of sealed unit, drum brake style. But the cynic in me says that development funds won't be directed towards things with genuine longevity.

Though the point still remains that disc brakes allow for varying rims that rim brakes never could.


Yes absolutely, and I'm not belittling the advantage - disc brakes are also pretty cheap nowadays! I always think that hire use is a pretty good equivalent of expedition use - hard!
38 years of cycletouring, 33 years of running cycling holidays, 8 years of running a campsite for cyclists - there's a pattern here...
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by Sweep »

So what type of brakes do you recommend breton?

V?
Sweep
bretonbikes
Posts: 682
Joined: 3 Dec 2008, 12:35pm
Contact:

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by bretonbikes »

Sweep wrote:So what type of brakes do you recommend breton?

V?


Yes I'm afraid so - they do the job, indestructible, you can get pads anywhere. Like I said there are lots of pluses to discs (wet weather being by far the biggest) but for rough-and-tumble V brakes every time.
38 years of cycletouring, 33 years of running cycling holidays, 8 years of running a campsite for cyclists - there's a pattern here...
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8443
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by Sweep »

Thanks for the swift reply.

I know way way less than you but tend to agree.
Sweep
Des49
Posts: 799
Joined: 2 Dec 2014, 11:45am

Re: touring on a trad touring bike?

Post by Des49 »

bretonbikes wrote: In our experience we had 10 disc-braked bikes - within 6 weeks use all had discs that rubbed (I suspect mostly bike-rack damage outside supermarkets) and I found it impossible to get them straight. If you are careful with your bike and don't ever put it into situations where a disc might get bent they are utterly brilliant brakes and I would highly recommend them - for any other circumstances they are too fragile.


We have one disc-braked bike ( a 2nd hand MTB for a daughter), annoyingly it appears that a common rack around here, including the one in my shed, just tickles the bottom edge of the disc. If the bike is rocked when in the rack then the rack will bend the disc. I have placed a strip of 1/2" ply on the floor in ours to just raise the disk above the rack.

It seems it is easy to bend the disc, even from a pedal when someone leans their bike against another one. But if I do get a new bike I would love to have disc brakes, I am tired of the dirt and worn out rims from rim brakes.
Post Reply