Touring - Touring friendly bike shops

Well, for my upcoming summer tour, I'm starting to look for a touring bike for the trip. While I have an old school MTB and a road bike, neither bike is quite right for a long tour through the rockies. The MTB handles loads well, and climbs like a billy goat, but has a poor position and has kind of squirrely high speed performance. The road bike has good high speed performance, and a comfy position, but gets noodly pulling a trailer at low speeds, and is geared way too high, so I'm looking for a touring bike.

I've seen a bunch of touring bikes that strike my fancy, but I've found that a lot of the local shops don't get touring, so I'm looking for a bike shop in the NY/NJ/CT tri state area that sells touring bikes. Anyone have any ideas?

Don't know about bike shops in your area but as for bikes the Surly Long Haul Trucker (LHT) (http://www.surlybikes.com/longhaul.html) is my favorite. It was built from the ground up to be a touring bike with easy field servicing and standard everything including braze-ons. I totally love mine and most people who have them do. There's even an owner's group (http://surlyville.net/) (and here (http://groups.google.com/group/SurlyLHT)).

Another popular tour bike which has been around a bit longer than the Surly is the Trek 520 (http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2008/road/520/520/). When I was tour bike shopping I chose between these two and the Kona Sutra (http://www.konaworld.com/08_sutra_w.htm), another decent choice in touring bikes. I felt I was going to get a bit more bike for my buck with the Surly and I don't regret the choice at all.

Don't know about bike shops in your area but as for bikes the Surly Long Haul Trucker (LHT) (http://www.surlybikes.com/longhaul.html) is my favorite. It was built from the ground up to be a touring bike with easy field servicing and standard everything including braze-ons. I totally love mine and most people who have them do. There's even an owner's group (http://surlyville.net/) (and here (http://groups.google.com/group/SurlyLHT)).

Another popular tour bike which has been around a bit longer than the Surly is the Trek 520 (http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/2008/road/520/520/). When I was tour bike shopping I chose between these two and the Kona Sutra (http://www.konaworld.com/08_sutra_w.htm), another decent choice in touring bikes. I felt I was going to get a bit more bike for my buck with the Surly and I don't regret the choice at all.

Thanks for the response, but that isn't quite what I'm looking for. I've done a lot of research on bikes, what I'm looking for is a place to buy. Most shops around here tend to stock very few tourers. I'd like to find a shop that stocks one or two, so I can test ride it before I buy.

If you're willing to make a trip to MA you can check out Harris Cyclery. I'm going to be buying a bike from them in the very near future. There's also Wheelworks who stock the Trek 520 and some Co-motion touring bikes.

"Touring friendly bike shops"

That's almost an oxymoron in these parts.

Well, for my upcoming summer tour, I'm starting to look for a touring bike for the trip. While I have an old school MTB and a road bike, neither bike is quite right for a long tour through the rockies. The MTB handles loads well, and climbs like a billy goat, but has a poor position and has kind of squirrely high speed performance. The road bike has good high speed performance, and a comfy position, but gets noodly pulling a trailer at low speeds, and is geared way too high, so I'm looking for a touring bike.

I've seen a bunch of touring bikes that strike my fancy, but I've found that a lot of the local shops don't get touring, so I'm looking for a bike shop in the NY/NJ/CT tri state area that sells touring bikes. Anyone have any ideas?

Check out these guys, they are close to Stamford and stock Waterford and Co-Motion so they should
be touring friendly. If you want a Trek 520 or a LHT they should be able to help too. Take a look at the Rivendell website too.

http://www.davecycle.com/map.htm

Thanks for the response, but that isn't quite what I'm looking for. I've done a lot of research on bikes, what I'm looking for is a place to buy. Most shops around here tend to stock very few tourers. I'd like to find a shop that stocks one or two, so I can test ride it before I buy.

Sorry, I misunderstood.
Good luck
tdp

Jon Bono,
I will ask on the NBDA E-List who they recommend in NY/NJ/CT tri state area, then post the results.

Dick Powell, www.OutfitterTours.com (http://www.OutfitterTours.com)
Founder & Former Owner of The Bicycle Outfitter of Los Altos, CA a touring speciality shop.

All of these places are Surly dealers:

New York BIKE WORKS
106 RIDGE STREET
NEW YORK, NY 10002
(212)388-1077



BICYCLE HABITAT
244 LAFAYETTE ST
NEW YORK, NY 10012
(212)431-3315


BICYCLES PLUS
1400 3RD AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10021
(212)794-2929


A BICYCLE SHOP
349 WEST 14TH STREET
NEW YORK, NY 10014
(212)691-6149


NYC VELO
64 2nd Ave
New York, NY 10003
(212)253-7771


SIDS BIKE SHOP
235 East 34th Street
NEW YORK, NY 10016
(212)213-8360
www.sidsbikes.com


GOTHAM BIKES
116 WEST BROADWAY
NEW YORK, NY 10013
(212)732-2453

Tour friendly shops are far and few between in the Northeast, REI has a couple of decent touring bikes under their own brand, I know they have store near Philly don't know about closer to NYC.

Well, for my upcoming summer tour, I'm starting to look for a touring bike for the trip. While I have an old school MTB and a road bike, neither bike is quite right for a long tour through the rockies. The MTB handles loads well, and climbs like a billy goat, but has a poor position and has kind of squirrely high speed performance. The road bike has good high speed performance, and a comfy position, but gets noodly pulling a trailer at low speeds, and is geared way too high, so I'm looking for a touring bike.

I've seen a bunch of touring bikes that strike my fancy, but I've found that a lot of the local shops don't get touring, so I'm looking for a bike shop in the NY/NJ/CT tri state area that sells touring bikes. Anyone have any ideas?

Jon,
I miss spoke, NYC was Bicycle Habitat. They suggest Mt Airy, Larry Black's amazing shop near DC. Here is the entire response I just received from Larry, a very real character and extremely knowledgible and compedent. I have always wanted to visit his shops. I assume it is a big trip, but where else can you see so many great touring bikes and ride them?? Read on:
<<< Hi dick, how's France?
Drive a little see a lot
College Park and Mt Airy Bicycles
currenly has a finer compliment in assorted sizes including :
Rivendell
CoMo Americano with and without CoPilot
Burley Hudson
Waterford
Koga Netherlands
Klein Navigator Tour
Holdsworth
even a one-off USA Paramount Canti tourist still in the box from the 80's

also dozens of pre-loved fully loaded tourers from
Bob Jackson
Trek 80's
Specialized Expedition Japan
Lotus Japan

For something they are going to keep for life and take all the way to your
Villa in Dordoigne, the extra couple hours traveled might be well worth the
trip.
I am sure if he is your friend, you will have warned him about me ahead of
time.
Larry Black

On 2/15/08, dick@outfittertours.com <dick@outfittertours.com> wrote:
>
>
> Hi All,
>
> I am looking for a shop in the NY/NJ/CT tri state area that stocks and
> sells quality touring bikes from Trek 520 to CoMotion Americano to Rivendell
> to Waterford etc. I will pass the references along to the guy that wants to
> test ride and buy.
>

Dick Powell

All of these places are Surly dealers:

Surly is sold through QBP which is one of, if not the largest, distributor of bike parts almost all bike shops can order Surly bikes. If these shops stock Surly bikes that's another matter altogether.

Another bike shop response:

We're pretty close to NJ (philadelphia)...
and we stock :

Jamis Aurora, Kona Sutra, Surly Long Haul Trucker and Crosscheck, Gunnar Crosshairs, Bike Friday New World Tourist and Waterford Adventure Cycle... we're also an IF dealer, but haven't sold an IF Independence yet.... we carry the largest selection of panniers and racks in our region (jannd, ortlieb, carradice, berthoud, arkel, tubus, blackburn, nitto, and more)

We have long-distance touring cyclists on staff...

Trophy Bikes

3131 Walnut St.

Phila. PA open 10-6, seven days

www.trophybikes.com

215.222.2020

Jon Bono,
I will ask on the NBDA E-List who they recommend in NY/NJ/CT tri state area, then post the results.

Dick Powell, www.OutfitterTours.com (http://www.OutfitterTours.com)
Founder & Former Owner of The Bicycle Outfitter of Los Altos, CA a touring speciality shop.

Hey! I almost said "too bad you don't live in the bay area, I got my 520 at the Bicycle Outfitter, they were great!"

That was in Jan '04, before you sold it.

Hi from Anna, Dave D's friend. :)

Hey! I almost said "too bad you don't live in the bay area, I got my 520 at the Bicycle Outfitter, they were great!"

That was in Jan '04, before you sold it.

Hi from Anna, Dave D's friend. :)

Hi Anna,
Thank you for the note. How is Davo? I can not imagine you are still together . . . he does get around!
Dcik

PM'ing you :)

Update:

I made a day of it, and went to dave's cycles down in Cos Cob, and up to REI in west hartford(first store in CT). Dave's was a letdown. The closest thing they had to a touring bike in stock was a Spec. Tricross(not really a touring bike, IMHO). Though they said they could order me a Co-Motion(a little out of my price range), I had hoped they would have a touring bike in stock. I figure if they stock touring bikes, they do enough of a business that they will understand the needs for people doing loaded touring.

REI on the other hand had one Novara Randonnee's in every size. They weren't quite built up yet, but they brought out one for me to look at, and it was fairly good setup, given the price. If I buy from them, I'll need to get a new wheel set built up.

Come Easter, I'll have to check out that place in Philly. I'll be visiting my sister's in Jersey, and she's about an hour or so from there.

It really might be worth your while to check out Mt. Airy or College Park bikes. They've got the widest selection of touring bikes and touring related products I've ever seen.