General Cycling Discussion - Light weight tour bike

Would like a light weight tour bike and would prefer steel. No big cross country tour in my future but I would like a frame longer than a standard road bike yet lighter than most of the bikes sold today as touring bikes for serious touring. From my limited research, the Bianchi San Remo (2003 last production) seems to fit what I am looking for. However, I have not been able to locate a good used San Remo in my size (~31" stepover) and none of my LBS have any old stock. Am looking for some help to (a) locate a dealer who as a late model hiding in stock or ....(b) locate a good clean used bike or....(c) identify another brand who makes a similar light touring bike still in production.

have you considered the surly long haul trucker? not the lightest out there, but a decent frame.

http://www.surlybikes.com/longhaul.html

I have seen the Surley LHT but they are heavier than I would like...much like the hybrid I am currently using to carry a rack/panniers.

OCR touring seems to have the geometry you're after. The weight is around 28 pounds, and I don't know how that compares to the others. Weight is the toughest spec to find.

What about the Bianchi Volpe?

Well, I don't know what the new ones weight, but my '98 Trek 520 is 24lbs. Seems pretty light to me.

there's a san remo on ebay, maybe a bit too big though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bianchi-San-Remo-road-tour-cx-57cm-Campy-Mirage_W0QQitemZ160043699204QQihZ006QQcategoryZ98084QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I saw that San Remo on eBay. Standover is about 32.6"....to high for me. 32 is my limit...lower would be better.

I have started looking at the Volpe. A bit shorter chainstay and lighter weight than San Remo but it may be my best bet.

FWIW... I just weighed both my LHT and the Volpe. This was on a digital bathroom scale that rounds to the nearest half pound. I weighed the bikes while holding them to eliminate any variable as to how I was supporting the bike on the scale. I may just have to go borrow my friends digital fish scale now to get a more accurate weight.

To my surprise the LHT and the Volpe were almost identical in weight, 25.5 for the Volpe and 26 for the LHT. Now each has a brooks B17 saddle, the volpe has a lightweight Tubus rack and the LHT has a Tubis Cargo rack. Both had 2 waterbottle cages, but no other gear I suspect that they would be just about identical in weight without the racks.

Hope this helps....

Steve W.

Surly, Gunnar and Soma Marinoni are good for steel ight-touring road bikes with long drop calipers and eyelets.
The LHT is overkill for light day rides, look at the Pacer.

Most of the good custom steel workshops do a light tourer, Waterford, IF and others on the henryjames list.

Not sure what you mean by light. But the Fuji is 26.8 lbs.

http://www.fujibikes.com/2007/bikes.asp?id=290&subcat=2

kona sutra 2007 - steel, light, disc brakes and, as a bonus, rohloff speedhub ready(sliding dropouts)

http://www.konaworld.com/bikes/2k7/SUTRA/index.html

http://www.konaworld.com/bikes/2k7/SUTRA/2K7_SUTRA.jpg