Originally Posted by
Cyclebum
Are the tubes in your Alan screwed/glued together like the one in this link? Just curious.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=482506
Ask yourself "Can I really enjoy this tour worried that the stress may crack the frame of this vintage bike?" Probably not.
Nagging worries about equipment failure and problems on the homefront can turn a potentially great tour into a bummer. That sort of stuff should never be part of a bicycle tour, at least at the onset.
Yes, that is the frame. Glued and screwed.
Great, sounds like I am screwed as well... errg. The trailer idea isn't so bad, but I feel like that would make for super wonky handling combined with light "whippy" frame... y/n? I have never ridden w/ a trailer on any bike so far, only hauled stuff with a rack. I could definitly justify the trailer other uses if that would take the stress of the frame and put it on the trailer (and my legs)..?
Sunset- I am wanting to tour Philadelphia to Pittsburgh (where I have friends) and back on the GAP trail, to DC then back up to Philly. Although I have done dirtpack trails on this frame before (unloaded) it was thinking about all those little bumps that got me starting to think about metal fatigue. Or hitting a rut/pothole coming down a Pennsylvania "hill"...
...so you guys are saying catastrophic failure is advanced more by the side to side play of a load, not so much from something instant like hitting a hole? The idea of relying on the availability of welding does put the trip in a bad light.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those guys asking for advice yet still trying to make the wrong tool do the job... it's just I have very limited options. I only have two weeks in mid May between regular classes and summer classes and my options are
1.) tour on this frame (with trailer?) 2.) invest a bunch of time and money making my SS mtb geared (it does have rack bosses) 3. shelling out $350 (which would be food and "SHTF" money on the road) to do a shimano IGH on my IRO Phoenix frame (which also has waterbottle/rack bosses) and hoping to get that lined up and figured out by may..... 4?) steal my buddies geared panasonic which he never uses but is several CM too big... heh.