Originally Posted by
staehpj1
I would say that I feel the same way about most components. Even the fairly low end stuff is completely functional these days. Yeah you can still find junk, but especially for touring, the parts that come as original equipment on even the low end touring bikes are fine. The exception not being quality of parts, but inadequate gearing on some.
I guess the bottom line is that for me touring is about the places, the people, and the riding and not much about the bike itself.
I can't remember EVER being on a ride and thinking to myself that life would be better if I had a better component somewhere on my bike. I have always had decent or very nice stuff, so maybe that's part of the reasoning, but I remember when integrated headsets were becoming all the rage and some of my mountain biking friends would wax on about the virtues of their exotic headset and I would just nod dumbly and wonder what it was that I didn't understand about something so "important"...