Originally Posted by
bradtx
I hope that in the future people look at this thread and try their own hand at adapting whatever they have into some level of a touring bike. The variety of the bikes is encouraging, IMHO.
Part of the reason I sometimes come down less than friendly against those who insist on needing expensive bikes to do anything is taking the opinion of them (and the LBS employees who couldn't be bothered to help unless they seen at least four digit sales on you) kept me out of cycling for a good year and a half when I was thinking about getting into it. Wasn't til I found the C&V forums here, figured out how to buy a decent vintage road bike, and more importantly how to work on it, that I started to enjoy being on a bike much more.