Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.kyledr
05-27-07, 10:24 PM
Hi, I'm going to be touring through Europe next Summer. I'll probably start in Bergen, Norway and go to Istanbul. I'm wondering what kind of bike I should plan on using. Right now nothing I own has fender eyelets, and the closest thing I have to a touring bike is a Colnago Super, but I don't think that'll be appropriate. Another option is my road bike, a 2007 Specialized Allez Comp, but I doubt that'll be appropriate either. I plan to use a saddle bag, so I could do it with clip on fenders and a saddle bag, and the nice thing is that the Specialized is light. Well that's what I have (with gears, anyway), but I think I'll need something new.
So I posted an ad on Craigslist, and I got a response from someone with a Centurion Pro tour 15, which sounds like a pretty nice bike. Some say it weighs 26 lbs or maybe even closer to 30 with the rack, but a Centurion catalog quotes it at 23.9 with the rack, so that's not half bad! The Pro Tour is supposedly a pretty good touring bike. It has fender and rack eyelets and a triple crankset. I would take the rack off, though. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/centurion1984/pages/10pro-tour.html has some info, but the one I'm going to be looking at is a year or two earlier, so I don't know what to expect. Another person replied with a Centurion LeMans made with Tange 2, and he says it's 21-22 lbs. I'm surprised by that, but we'll see. The LeMans has a fender eyelets, but it has a double crankset. The Pro Tour is purpose built for touring, so I'm a bit more interested in that.
But are there better bikes out there? I don't mind paying more if I can have a lighter bike. I'm only 140 lbs, and I'll be carrying less than 20 lbs in a saddle pack (probably Carradice Nelson). I plan to stay in Youth Hostels, so it won't be a big deal. At most I'd bring a very minimal sleeping bag and a camping hammock (one with a bug net and rain shield...they can be sub 2 lbs). So I expect I don't need the heaviest duty of bikes. Should I be focusing on an older, steel bike, or should I consider buying a new one? I can get any Bianchi cheap via sponsorship, but they don't seem to have much for touring. The Bianchi Axis seems the best from Bianchi. That's a fairly light frame, probably about 1500g (based on weight weenies) without fork (and probably no headset either). Downside is it's aluminum if that's bad. Otherwise I could try to find a light vintage steel bike made of reynolds, columbus, or Ishiwata, but I don't know how light I could expect from something like that.
Any thoughts?
Edit: Oh yeah, I could also get a Surly LHT on sponsorship, but that's probably gonna be as heavy/heavier than the Centurion.
So I posted an ad on Craigslist, and I got a response from someone with a Centurion Pro tour 15, which sounds like a pretty nice bike. Some say it weighs 26 lbs or maybe even closer to 30 with the rack, but a Centurion catalog quotes it at 23.9 with the rack, so that's not half bad! The Pro Tour is supposedly a pretty good touring bike. It has fender and rack eyelets and a triple crankset. I would take the rack off, though. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/centurion1984/pages/10pro-tour.html has some info, but the one I'm going to be looking at is a year or two earlier, so I don't know what to expect. Another person replied with a Centurion LeMans made with Tange 2, and he says it's 21-22 lbs. I'm surprised by that, but we'll see. The LeMans has a fender eyelets, but it has a double crankset. The Pro Tour is purpose built for touring, so I'm a bit more interested in that.
But are there better bikes out there? I don't mind paying more if I can have a lighter bike. I'm only 140 lbs, and I'll be carrying less than 20 lbs in a saddle pack (probably Carradice Nelson). I plan to stay in Youth Hostels, so it won't be a big deal. At most I'd bring a very minimal sleeping bag and a camping hammock (one with a bug net and rain shield...they can be sub 2 lbs). So I expect I don't need the heaviest duty of bikes. Should I be focusing on an older, steel bike, or should I consider buying a new one? I can get any Bianchi cheap via sponsorship, but they don't seem to have much for touring. The Bianchi Axis seems the best from Bianchi. That's a fairly light frame, probably about 1500g (based on weight weenies) without fork (and probably no headset either). Downside is it's aluminum if that's bad. Otherwise I could try to find a light vintage steel bike made of reynolds, columbus, or Ishiwata, but I don't know how light I could expect from something like that.
Any thoughts?
Edit: Oh yeah, I could also get a Surly LHT on sponsorship, but that's probably gonna be as heavy/heavier than the Centurion.