Max Riffner
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Touring vs. Cycling
My mother told me a few weeks ago that you can order books from any branch in the library online, “online” being the magic form of communication with me. I quickly got that happening, browsing around and ordering two books to be delivered to my local branch. I checked out Serious Cycling and The Essential Touring Cyclist, because, I don’t know that much about cycling in general, and I don’t really know what I want to get into. I mean, I might want to be a racer. That could be cool.
After flipping through Serious Cycling, I quickly changed my mind about wanting to be a racer. Way too much information geared towards changing your body for performance. Lactic acid charts, VO2 optimization, slow-twitch muscle gain… not that I don’t like reading about this sort of science, but I need one more thing to obsess over like I need lemon juice in my eye.
So I put that book down and looked over The Essential Touring Cyclist. So far, perfect for my current mindset. It is all about having fun and exploring. The whole book is very laid back. You don’t need a high performance bicycle to tour, the one in your garage will do you probably fine. You don’t need clipless pedals and shoes, in fact, they argue strongly against it (if you’re in the middle of nowhere and only in the middle of your tour, and your pedal or shoe breaks, you’re stuck), especially for longer tours. They recommend touring shoes, which look like tennis shoes but have a very stiff sole, and toe clips to strap your feet to the pedal for easier traveling. There are self-supported tours, where you travel with all of your gear on the bike for camping, or there are credit card tours, where it is just you, the bike, and a hotel every night, and there are the supported tours like RAGBRAI or BRAN.
Even if you do want to pony up and get a new bike, a good touring bike should only run you between $700 – $1100, which is pretty damn cheap, mostly because they make the bikes out of steel (you can get steel repaired by anyone anywhere). Buy in the fall for a cheaper deal as the shops get rid of stock.
Any way you slice it, it all sounds like a good reason to get into cycling. I’m high strung enough about my work. I don’t want to get high strung again about my exercise. I just need to figure out a good schedule for me to go biking more now.
For inspiration, check out well designed Adventure Cycling site. I got my free issue of the magazine this week.
You’re buying a touring bike to ride around on, not a trick bike to compete in the X-Games.
I’m not following your logic here… a touring bike is pretty low end to begin with. A 10-speed from the 70s can be converted to a touring bike pretty easily for under $100.
I sincerely doubt that you are ever going to anything with it that would ever come close to damaging the frame.
Happens quite a bit with loaded touring, apparently. You can’t weld a crack in aluminum, carbon fiber, or titanium easily in a small town (carbon fiber is especially out of the question for loaded touring, but I bet it would be pretty sweet for RAGBRAI). Plus, steel is cheap and absorbs road shock easier.
I guess I should specify that I’m looking at self-supported loaded touring.
You’re too afraid you’re going to rack yourself.
Uhhh… what?
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Jun 24, 01:00 PM
I’ve owned two “high-performance” bikes in my life. I started off with the lower-end Specialized RockHopper, which had a steel frame that was soooo light. I loved that bike and probably would have never bought another one, but unfortunately it got stolen out of my garage in college, because one of my roommates left the garage door open. Anyhow, because of various factors, I was forced to upgrade to the more expensive Specialized Stumpjumper, which had an aluminum frame. The funny thing is, I know that the Stumpjumper is a better bike, and that compressed aluminum should be lighter, but I swear the Rockhopper weighed less. However, the Stumpjumper is a great bike, I still ride it occassionally (even on the mountain bike trails in Bellevue), and have no complaints.
So my advice is this: just buy a name-brand bike in that $700-$1100 range and it won’t matter if it’s steel, aluminum, or fiberglass. Are you really that concerned about needing to have the body repaired? You’re buying a touring bike to ride around on, not a trick bike to compete in the X-Games. I sincerely doubt that you are ever going to anything with it that would ever come close to damaging the frame.
You’re too afraid you’re going to rack yourself.