Road bike for cycle camping

[corshamjim]

I just want to say thank you WestCoaster for raising this subject and everyone for helpful replies. I'm off camping with my Trek 2.1 next week. I think I'll find a much lighter tent to take and ditch the idea of taking the Trangia and all that entails.

 

[westcoaster]

Thanks guys, all good stuf. The bike does have a granny ring, although not wholly ideal touring gearing. The tent is a two man Vango Shadow 200 so it's a bit too much for my purposes but, hey, why be cramped. I could invest in titanium tent pegs to shave a bit off. I'm maybe wild camping, no plan at the moment other than to get the ferry over to Dunoon and head west until I get weary, see what happens, so a stove is necessary. I will need to be careful about pot holes as the poster above says. I bought a 28mm Schwalbe Marathon today for the back wheel, and a spoke tightening tool will be a good idea. We'll give it a go and report back.
Cheers!

 

[sleekitcollie]

I also found that with rear panniers only the bike was too heavy at the rear for that sort of bike ie road / CX (although mine is heavier than yours- see how you get on). Its flexes like mad on the hills.

have u fitted front panniers on the tricross . im wondering if the handling will be ok , ( hoping it will be ) , i recent test trip with my loaded tricross rear panniers only was great , steady ride , but i put a bar bag on for my trip ( not heavy ) and bike handled really bad , downhils were just frightning very unstable

 

[andym]

Lots of sensible advice here. As far as 32 spokes versus 36 spokes is concerned - i've toured off-road fully-loaded on 32-spoke wheels and lived to tell the tale. I now have 36 spokes on the back wheel. If you were asking for advice on what wheel to buy I'd say 36 spokes but I'm sure you'll be fine on 32-spoke wheels - I'd spend the money on a lighter tent and sleeping bag.

Titanium tent pegs can be a real disappointment - it you are camping in sites with hard ground you may end up breaking/bending so many that any weight saving is negated. Personally I'd go for a nail pegs (eg Alpkit.com) and/or alumnium Y-pegs. Don't waste money on titanium v-pegs (especially the ons wth holes in - they're fine for soft grond but nothing else). And as for the stupid rubbish that some tent manufacturers produce - just don't bother.

 

[psmiffy]

Lots of sensible advice here. As far as 32 spokes versus 36 spokes is concerned - i've toured off-road fully-loaded on 32-spoke wheels and lived to tell the tale. I now have 36 spokes on the back wheel. If you were asking for advice on what wheel to buy I'd say 36 spokes but I'm sure you'll be fine on 32-spoke wheels - I'd spend the money on a lighter tent and sleeping bag.

At the risk of being called uneducated I would agree that as a general rule that 36 spokes is a good number for a touring wheel - however I do not think it is quite as simple as that - on my first serious tour I used 32H cross country mountain bike wheels and on returning to the UK only about 60% of the spokes were origonal - or intact for that matter - For the next tour I replaced the rear with a hand built 36H of the same ilk - fewer spokes were beaking but there was a significant number that were pulling through the rim - at that point I abandoned my LBS and bought a hand built 36H mtb downhill rim which survived intact until the bike itself failed.

A touring wheel really wants to be a combination of a decent number of spokes (36H) and a strongish rim - weight penalty but well worth it

 

[andym]

OK it's a fair cop guv [holds hands up above head] I should have said "36 spokes, built by a specialist wheelbuilder, with decent spokes, and a decent rim'. But if you already have a 32-spoke wheels and you planning a road tour on mormal roads you don't need to rush outand buy new ones.

 

[tbtb]

At the risk of being called uneducated I would agree that as a general rule that 36 spokes is a good number for a touring wheel - however I do not think it is quite as simple as that - on my first serious tour I used 32H cross country mountain bike wheels and on returning to the UK only about 60% of the spokes were origonal - or intact for that matter - For the next tour I replaced the rear with a hand built 36H of the same ilk - fewer spokes were beaking but there was a significant number that were pulling through the rim - at that point I abandoned my LBS and bought a hand built 36H mtb downhill rim which survived intact until the bike itself failed.

But am I right in thinking that this stuff was happening when your total load was 133kg as per your cgob pages?

Beautiful spacious looking tent , that msr one, by the way!

 

[psmiffy]

But am I right in thinking that this stuff was happening when your total load was 133kg as per your cgob pages?

Beautiful spacious looking tent , that msr one, by the way!

Actually in those days I did not carry very much at all - two medium-ish (by my standards) panniers, smallish light tent, very little cooking stuff, not enough incidentals like adequate clothes, sufficient waterproofs, lights and electronic paraphanalia -

I was to some extent a little paranoid about weight, but suffice it to say once I had some decent wheels I went over to the dark side and have never looked back

The tent is brilliant - almost freestanding - lots of space to keep things seperate when it is deluging - a brilliant form factor - whilst with most two man tents you sleep along the axis of the tent with that MSR you sleep perpendicular to the axis - creates more space in the "vestible" when I am cooking - it grieves me that it is time expired and no longer in production

 

[bigjim]

Road bikes are a bad idea for touring,

Ermmm. Nobody told this guy.
My link

 

[peelywally]

i personally wouldnt use a roadie for touring ,

i use a rigid mtb frame with skinny tyres toiugh as nails no major reduction in speed and gearings great for hauling luggage up a hill in the rain into a headwind , and you can cycle across fields to the perfect spot .

my total weight for gear is around 10kg split between two panniers its easy to handle and well balanced i could add front panniers but ive no idea what id fill them with tbh ,

ive recently got some trekking bars for the summer season to replace the original fsa bar, at some point i will replace front forks with carbon ones but im using kona ones for now that replaced the rockshock darts .

in total i think i have shaved around 5kg off original weight of bike so im only loading an extra 5kgs which is vg and doesnt stress the wheels at all .
just read link above

 

[peelywally]

I just want to say thank you WestCoaster for raising this subject and everyone for helpful replies. I'm off camping with my Trek 2.1 next week. I think I'll find a much lighter tent to take and ditch the idea of taking the Trangia and all that entails.

take the trangias burner you can arrange rocks into a pot stand , thats what i do works a treat and youl wonder why the rest of the stove was ever made .

 

[corshamjim]

Thanks for the tip. There's a kitchen available where I'm going this weekend, but I'll remember the advice for the next tour which I'll be doing on the Pashley - for that one I have the option of towing the trailer so I can take the kitchen sink if I don't mind dragging it up the hills.

 

[samid]

Road bikes are a bad idea for touring, and particularly with camping gear.

Does this:

count as a road bike?

Never had any serious problems with it (knock on wood) during my three tours (2 in Scotland).

(During my last tour, the total load was about 20kg - 14 in the back, the rest in the front.)

 

[willem]

Nice Riv indeed. I don't think it counts as the kind of roadbike that I had in mind. It is what road bikes once were, and perhaps should be again. However, even with this bike I would probably prefer lighter load.

Willem

 

[samid]

Nice Riv indeed. I don't think it counts as the kind of roadbike that I had in mind. It is what road bikes once were, and perhaps should be again. However, even with this bike I would probably prefer lighter load.

Hi Willem,
Yes I totally agree that it is nice

As for the weight - I had some rather heavy photo gear, plus of course camping etc. And while it would've been nice to have less weight to tag along it was not too bad. Not bad at all in fact - but of course, no offroading with that bike/load.