Is touring becoming a thing of the past?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
martin113
Posts: 135
Joined: 19 May 2011, 5:35pm

Re: Is touring becoming a thing of the past?

Post by martin113 »

Don't be so sure that touring is going to remain a niche thing for much longer. The message of this article is that if you don't want a crowd accompanying you on your next tour, don't blog.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... zy-to-cool
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foxyrider
Posts: 6044
Joined: 29 Aug 2011, 10:25am
Location: Sheffield, South Yorkshire

Re: Is touring becoming a thing of the past?

Post by foxyrider »

quilkin wrote: it's odd that when I asked in 3 LBS's, no one suggested I could use one of their stock bikes, and how it could be used for touring. Only one said that they could order a touring bike for me. I guess, though, that this fact just reinforces the niche aspect.



Clearly they aren't very up to speed or stock a very limited range of machines.

Niche? maybe but I talk to prospective tourists almost every week, the thing is most 'touring' bikes don't come from the manufacturers with racks / guards etc fitted so they come in expecting to find a fully equipped bike but are presented with a variety of 'stripped down' machines ripe to customise! We normally have @ half a dozen 'adventure bikes' (latest parlance for touring steeds) on show alongside the gravel bikes, 'comfort' road bikes and more intensive offroad machines. We wouldn't stock them if they didn't sell, popular this season are the Trek Crossrips and if we can ever get them the small Whyte range. So, niche? probably less so than those time trial bikes and full suspension downhill rigs and in comparison tourers are cheap!
Convention? what's that then?
Airnimal Chameleon touring, Orbit Pro hack, Orbit Photon audax, Focus Mares AX tour, Peugeot Carbon sportive, Owen Blower vintage race - all running Tulio's finest!
SWAT06
Posts: 1
Joined: 15 May 2014, 9:54pm

Re: Is touring becoming a thing of the past?

Post by SWAT06 »

Interesting posts. I am obviously bucking many trends. I own a serious (and expensive) touring bike. I have done serious touring on it (London to Delhi including all the dangerous bits). I have young children (4 and 7) and am taking them on their second cycle tour in the Netherlands this summer. And yes we will camp too. Oh, and I am a woman!

Years ago when I got my first bike my husband and I did some touring but found that a hybrid was not that great for touring. We were suprised at how hard it was to find decent touring bikes in the shops. It is much easier to find them in NL. It is very difficult to find bikes suitable for a small woman anywhere. Interestingly, of the many other cycle tourists we've bumped into on our travels the biggest numbers are from the UK and NL. Our bike shops are really geared up to what is fashionable (racing or mountain biking or whatever it is). I think Dutch shops are different. Probably because there are more of them, and perhaps also there are fewer chains.
Slowroad
Posts: 995
Joined: 28 Jun 2008, 9:58pm
Location: Nottingham, UK

Re: Is touring becoming a thing of the past?

Post by Slowroad »

I've been cycle-touring for over 30 years and my experience is that there are loads more people doing it now than there used to be. However they are doing it on a wider range of bikes, and so am I. In the late 80's I bought a nice Raleigh Touriste which I was told 'will go anywhere those new mountain bikes will!' Well, maybe. But it now has flat bars as the reach was always too long, and there are still very few touring bikes for small women (I understand SWAT06!) so what tempts me are really 'expedition' bikes. (Or maybe Brompton touring, as I try to organise yet another trip involving complicated train journeys!)
“My two favourite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.”
― Peter Golkin
ChrisF
Posts: 665
Joined: 22 Mar 2014, 7:34pm

Re: Is touring becoming a thing of the past?

Post by ChrisF »

22camels wrote:http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2015/feb/18/the-rise-of-cycle-touring-from-crazy-to-cool

Thanks for that link. "Certainly cycle tourers are mocked by the roadies, but equally MAMILs [Middle Aged Men in Lycra] are laughed at by the tourers".... so I can laugh at myself, then, depending on which of my bikes I happen to be riding :wink: But am I allowed to wear Lycra when I'm touring?? Another thread suggests itself......
Chris F, Cornwall
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