Hallo all recently been looking around on eBay and have been seeing quite cheap £200+ tourer bikes. I was just wondering what peoples thoughts are on dawes tourers?
Dawes has a good reputation for touring bikes, and there are at least two threads going on in this section on Dawes tourers. If you could get a Dawes Galaxy for £200 that would be a good deal, but I suspect relatively new ones are going to go for £400+. However an older Dawes in good condition would still be worth considering.
2 years ago I bought up a mint, 1997, almost unused Dawes Horizon, minus rack, for £75 from my local bike shop. Tourers are not that fashionable any more and good cheap examples can be picked up quite cheaply.
They're great bikes, especially the older ones with the UK-built frames. Mine is from the mid 80s, I think. I had it resprayed about ten years ago and the guy who stripped it (George Longstaff, who knew a thing or two about frames) said there wasn't any rust at all anywhere on it. I spent about twice what the bike was worth on paint and bits for it and it was worth every penny. If you can get one for £200 or so (and you could probably get one cheaper), go for it.
Another vote for an eighties Galaxy. Mine's actualy a Londoner - slightly down specc'd for the London Bicycle Co. Frame is standard Galaxy 531ST but the original Suntour "groupset" was a midrange compared to the set up supplied on Galaxy branded versions.
