Touring - Found - DIRT CHEAP Touring Bike

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Very nice.... You and the seller are both in the Gulf Coast region.

I'm sorry but your post looks and sounds like a sales pitch. If I'm mistaken, I apologize.

There are definitely no braze on's on that fork... that's a sticker for the frame material-same one that's on the seat tube (whatever Dura Forte Chrome Moly is?).

Also, look at the clearance between the brakes, tires/rims and seatstays/fork blades... hardly any which means zero room for wider tires and certainly rule out fenders.

This bike is not for touring and shares very little in common with a mass production, purpose-built tourer such as the LHT, C-Dale T-series or Trek 520.

All that said... you can find a great touring cycle for around your operating budget. Look at older cycles locally and on the 'Bay, Craigslist, etc... keep an eye peeled for older Trek's, Miyata's, Fuji's (to name just a few) with all the bells & whistles for touring.

One other little note-- the chainstays are short like a road bike should be, for better climbing. Note how close the rear tire is to the seat tube. This may cause mounting and performance issues with rear panniers.

Any bike can be used for touring, kinda, sorta. The Mirage would be one of the worst choices. The Cycle Spectrum in my neighborhood sells them. Very light duty rims. Low cost components. It is a "campus" bike, for riding to school or around campus. A good buy for that kind of thing.

The cheapest bike truly built for loaded touring is a Fuji. Although Cycle Spectrum, and its affiliates, may be among the largest Fuji dealers in the USA, I have never seen a Fuji tourer in one of their stores. Probably, no one sees a market for an "under $1,000" loaded touring bike. (I see one...bike stores don't).

Also, I don't mean to imply this bike is in any way the IDEAL anything. Just that it may give a reasonable option to an entry level person looking to get into a NEW bike that can be set up for touring cheap. I tend to prefer to buy new if the price is right.

I emailed SPRTYMAMA out of curiosity. The Mirage seems to fit the bill:
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I can understand your position on this but I honestly feel that you won't be happy in the end. You are looking to convert a low level 'road'-style bike into a tourer and that's fine... other than your starting point is too far below par to make it worth your efforts. As said already, the kit is low level-sub par actually-and beyond that the frameset itself will not accomodate what you intend it for without time & money... time & money that could easily be spent finding either an older, lovingly used tourer in need of a good home or an older road bike that is of better quality but nearly equal in price that you can invest some time and money into and feel good about having done so.

Also, not to cast doubt on someone I don't know... but the seller saying that this particular Motobecane has a good reputation for touring because it experienced a single flat tire hardly speaks to much more than luck and/or the tire itself. What concerns me with this whole line of thinking is you seem to want to buy new and make it fit a certain genre of cycling (and a rather specialized one at that) and the seller seems to think a defining characteristic of good from bad in a complete bicycle is the amount of flats experienced.

Sometimes a square block simply won't fit a round hole. Be careful, what you may end up with is a cycle that doesn't and cannot meet your needs and has virtually no resale value... which leaves you with spending (at minimum) twice as much in the end.

OK, at the risk of unleashing another hail of tomatoes, what do you guys think about this one?


This bike has been discussed in a previous thread.

Go here to see the results: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=81745

i'd never tour on a windsor. i hear they get a lot of flats.

Very nice.... You and the seller are both in the Gulf Coast region.

I'm sorry but your post looks and sounds like a sales pitch. If I'm mistaken, I apologize.
He's not the seller. I'll vouch for him

OK, at the risk of unleashing another hail of tomatoes, what do you guys think about this one?
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http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/windsor/images/tourist_big.jpg
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It's $589 shipped here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=7298&item=7128524455&rd=1

Again, Bikesdirect.com/Cycle Spectrum/SPRTYMAMA. This seems to be a better option for an entry level tourer. Decent frame & components.

I wonder why they chose cantilevers. Will STI levers and/or fenders work with V-Brakes?

STI doesn't work directly with V-brakes. Cable pull is different. You can add a travel-adapter (about $20 per wheel) that takes up the cable pull but I never found them to work that well. A properly tuned cantilever is a great brake, it's just that most of them aren't properly tuned. Go over to Sheldon Brown (http://www.sheldonbrown.com/cantilever-adjustment.html) for details on how to do it.

And fenders will work with V-brakes if you go for that option.

By the way the Windsor looks like an very adequate touring bike. Not the best but you could get lots of years out of it. Doesn't look all that different from the 1982 Miyata 610 I rode until last year.

Stuart Black