Euro Touring

[t_buchanan]

I am looking to do a cycle tour of Europe over summer, likely starting mid-July for anything up to a month. I'm looking for any advice on what bikes would be good for this. I've been riding a hard-tail mountain bike for just over a year now, mostly just the few miles into/back from uni and occasionally a little more but i want to push myself this summer. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks back my bike was nicked, but i now see this as an opportunity to move over to road bikes, in particular for this summer. The insurance has got me £350 back and I would like to stick to a budget of around this as i'll soon be being hunted for my student loan payments! Very open to buying second hand...
I'm hoping to cycle calais/dunkirk to biarritz, mostly following euro cycle routes. So any advice on what steed might see me through this tour? Any extras or add ons you might recommend? Many thanks!

 

[awfulquiet]

Are you going to go camping, or credit card camping?

 

[Brains]

Student ? Credit Card ! Noooooooo.

So this will be a camping trip.
What you want to look for is a 2nd hand Dawes Galexy.
This is the 'benchmark' touring bike, you can find better and you can find worse, but if you use this as the one to judge all others by you won't go wrong.
Remember to allow enough money to buy the panniers and other other kit you will need

 

[MarkF]

I'd spend £250/300 on a new (ish), mint, hardly used hybrid, Trek FX, Specialized Sirrus, Dawes Discovery 5/6/701.

My touring bike was stolen just before my Spanish tour last year, I bought a used, mint Sirrus the week before and it was just the job!

 

[awfulquiet]

Ok, Ihave a Trek 7700 for touring, it's perfect.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

all depends....I have adawes galaxy and I love it...I mean LOVE it..it's part of me now...my best mate!

But people ride on all kinds of things.. on the trans am last year I met two teenage girls who had jumped school, loaded up their walmarkt MTB's with all kinds of bags and were riding from Oregon to Florida trying to evade the cops and their parents!....