Originally Posted by
Venturarace
The truth is I have NO intentions at ALL in doing touring or adding panniers to the bike. I will be using the bike for casual to moderate weekend group/solo rides, 25-50 mikes charity rides and hopefully a Century in the
future. Im beginning to think the Masi Randonnuer really is NOT the appropriate bike for my needs.
I tihink the Bianchi Vople or Salsa Casseroll(sold out nationally until Sept in my 53cm size) may be a bit more appropriate for me.
Thoughts?
A touring bike would be fine for the kind of riding you describe. There are other bikes that would be fine too. There's no reason you should be (only) looking at touring bikes (unless you are interested in touring too).
People tour on the Volpe and the Crosscheck. These bikes might be more prone to heel-strike issues but such a problem isn't a certainty (just don't use large panniers!).
Originally Posted by
prathmann
But the differences are pretty slight - I've used my crit-geometry bike with 390mm stays for fully loaded camping trips and didn't have any issues. Conversely, I don't feel any slower on my touring bike with 450mm stays (except in the hills - and that's due to weight, not geometry).
A sensible comment. People often like the "snappier" feel of shorter chainstays (and other related frrame properties) but, outside of racing, they aren't really necessary. Most of the time, people are riding their bicycles in fairly straight paths (there isn't much reason to need to turn them "quickly" and a touring bike turns quickly enough.