Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,211
Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.
Mentioned: 48 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3461 Post(s)
If you have 126mm dropout, this will not be a great touring bike regardless of what you do.
But, if you have not done any bike touring and want to try it, buy some good racks and panniers, put the racks on the bike and give it a go.
You will quickly decide that your gearing is too high when you try to climb hills. You could buy an inexpensive compact double crank for a slightly lower lowest gear, or a triple for even a lower lowest gear. From your photos, I do not know if it has a long cage rear derailleur. If not you would need that too if you get a different crank with smaller chainrings. I bought a new Vuelta double compact crank on Amazon a couple years ago, good price and square taper. I assume you have a square taper bottom bracket that it would fit on.
After your first couple trips, you may decide you want fenders. Get them too. But do not cut anything shorter, you may want to put those fenders on a different bike.
Then after a few more trips, you will know what you really want for touring. And get a different bike that meets that criteria. Then put your racks and fenders on that new bike. You will only be out the cost of the crank on this older bike. And, with a new crank you might decide that you like having it as a road bike.