iherald

Here's the situation:

Next summer I want to ride across Canada. It's about 5000 miles, I plan on riding 60-75 miles a day, and will be with a group.

So I don't need a touring bike, because after this long ride, I'll be stuck working as a lawyer, and only riding on weekends, and maybe doing some local races, but nothing major. Plus, I won't be carrying anything on my bike, other than water and some power bars.

My original thought was to get either a Trek Pilot or a Specialzed Rouboix. I figured a 'comfort' bike would be good because long distances would be more enjoyable if I'm comfortable. A local bike store suggested a Giant OCR 1 as an option.

I don't want advice necessarily on which bike to buy, since I want to ride them all and see what fits me best. What I would like is any suggestions on bikes that might work well over long distances, hopefully 'comfort' series. I don't need race geometry, I just need something I can ride long and hard!

Thanks!!

Blackberry

Both of your choices sound good to me. Make sure you get some relatively low gearing for the mountains.

iherald

Any suggestions on what the gearing ratio should be?

nitropowered

Any triple would work. If you refuse to get a triple, a compact double with a 12-25 or a 12-27 would work.

Mentor58

Looking at the Specialized, it's the standard 12-25 cluster, with a 52x42x30 crank. This gets you a gear range from 116 inches down to 32 inches. If you're doing unloaded touring, that wouldn't be bad, but you may want to go a bit lower. Most people on a tour rarely complain that they spin out at the top end, but most would like a bit lower for the long climbs. Easiest and quickest fix would be to swap out the rear cluster with something like the Century Special from Harris. This will get you a high of about 106 and a low around 27 inches. Going to the Cyclotouriste 14 set (14-34) will get you a very low of 24 inches and still have a very respectable high gear of 100 inches. For what it's worth, a 100 inch gear works out to 27 MPH at a 90 cadence. This would, IMHO, give you a good top end, broad midrange, and a good low gear for when it's really needed. Plus, at the end of the tour, you could just swap out the cassette with the stock one, and have a nice sport gearing again.

The thing with an extended tour is that it's very nice to have that lower end available to save your legs. When I'm riding my sport bike for one day training rides, I'm willing to risk blowing up my legs in training, but on a tour I'm more willing to gear down and just spin up the hill slowly, since I'm going to need those same legs the next day, and the one after that, and the one.....

You might also want to consider a set of aerobars. The Profile Century's are dirt cheap and functional, and the AeroStrikes are also very reasonable, and have the benefit that the arm rests flip up, so you don't lose a place for your hands when riding on the tops of the bars. Even if you're not going that fast, I find that they give me a very comfortable position to stretch out, get the weight off my hands, and they are very nice when you're facing headwinds all day long. FWIW, my touring bike with full panniers has aero bars, and I've noticed a substancial difference on days where all the trees were leaning east, and I'm heading west.

Finally, seriously consider a brooks saddle, esp. the B17. Yea, it's a bit heavy, and doesn't have the bling factor, but it's ultra comfortable for most all that use them. Remember, you're going to perched on it for many hours each day, day after day. The best thing I can say about my brooks is that at the end of the day I'm not aware of it.

I envy you. I was just looking at a site for a Trans-Canada tour, I'm planning on the Trans Am (Northern Tier) in 07, but may consider a Trans-Can.

Steve W.
Who always has a rational well reasoned opinion. They probably are wrong

Blackberry

Excellent advice Mentor58. I might even take it myself. Here's a link to the Harris site, iherald: Keep scrolling and you'll see the options Mentor58 was talking about.

https://sheldonbrown.com/harris/k7.html