New here - advice needed

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nibbler

New Member
Hi everyone.
I've been using a trek 7.3fx for a couple of years now as a city bike and I can't fault it - however on longer journeys it gets uncomfortable, it's a little small now and now that I've tried drop bars it feels like I'm riding a kid's tricycle when I ride it. I've got an old racing bike at university (am home on holiday at the moment) and it's much more to my taste - it's a pretty hefty steel frame, at least a 60cm frame size and so much more comfortable (it seems alu is really, really bad at dampening any vibrations....). I'm thinking of doing some longer distance stuff in the summer, possibly going round france with a couple of friends. Is it worth selling the trek and getting a new bike altogether (it would serve as an upgrade for my weekend rides too, I was looking at something like a dawes vantage or a tifosi ck7c which I saw on gumtree) or could i easily do some upgrades on my uni bike? Here's a picture of it:

1114k2f.jpg


It runs pretty smoothly, the brakes could do with replacing and possibly the rear cassette/hub as it makes a sort of groaning noise if I put the power down sometimes. The transmission is good (new chain possibly too). The third option would be to sort of combine my nice trek which still has great wheels with the classic bike pictured above (is that the brand?) and salvage some parts. Like I've said, I really like the ride of my uni bike and it feels as strong as anything so should take a heavy load.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance :smile:
 

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xilios

Veteran
Location
Maastricht, NL
The fx series from trek are prety good for touring, my wife's been using the 7.2 for several years (+/-40k kms) all over europe without any issues. More details on our page.
pic8.jpg
 

willem

Über Member
You could use a bike like your university bike, provided it is in good condition, the gearing is low enough or can be lowered enough, and provided you take only very light weight luggage. If you think you can live with the latter/are prepared to spend your budget on lightening your gear, it would be worthwhile to look into the bike in more detail to see what it would need (the picture is a bit unclear).
Willem
 
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nibbler

New Member
Thanks guys :smile:
And say I wanted to spend around £600 on a touring bike, would a cheap dawes be the way to go?
 
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nibbler

New Member
I will have a 60 cm Ridgeback Panorama coming up for sale next month for around the £350 mark if thats any good to you ?
Potentially, depending on what i get for the trek (it's on gumtree now) I might pm you when I'm looking for a replacement :smile: (issue is that it looks like you're in devon and I'm in Glasgow/Cambridge...)
 

david1701

Well-Known Member
Location
Bude, Cornwall
If your budget is £600, do bear in mind that you'll need panniers and stuff too.
Have you considered the Edinburgh Revolution tourer, from a bargainacious £360?

they only have super small ones, sad times :s
 
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