Sorry for the confusion; I should have been more clear. I meant obtaining ETRTO 355 tires and tubes may not be easy depending on where you tour and the length of your tour, whereas 406s are somewhat easier to find in general.


The old style frame is still not that well suited to attaching a rear rack, right? I know the monocoque frames are better in this regard, but if this is true, you're looking at spending over $1k just to obtain a monocoque frame. I suppose their front pannier attachment is the same for both bikes, but you still have to buy Birdy's attachment. I'm not sure an off-the-shelf solution would work.


I never rode the Birdy off road (I'd use another bike anyway), but I regularly commuted on the streets of San Francisco around the Ingleside area near the Sunset District. Much of the roads around that area were rough with occasional potholes and railway lines to deal with. I used Marathons about 3 months into ownership due to newsgroup suggestions, and because these were some of the best 18" tires around at the time (ca. 1999).

In terms of comfort, here is where I differ from a lot of people: I actually like a somewhat harsher ride having gotten used to road buzz and vibration from my college days of riding my unsuspended cromo mountain bike everywhere. I like the "feel" of the road. The Birdy was my first full-suspension bike and strangely enough, I never got used to the ride. In addition to the squeaking and rattling (of my Birdy in particular it seems), I did not like the fact that it would dampen some of the road vibration on some parts of the road (I suppose the smoother parts), but would give (what I felt was jerky) feedback on rougher parts of the road. In other words, it took away the constant rhythmic road feel of my mountain bike. I remember on one particular down hill, I was riding smoothly along, very relaxed, when I must have hit a particularly big rough patch or something (though I don't remember seeing anything out of the ordinary) such that my front end all of a sudden dipped hard (due to the suspension) and I almost let go and fell - I guess you can say I was lulled to sleep by the smooth ride, kind of like the effect of using cruise control. This is not to say I like to ride my bike with my teeth rattling, but I like to have some regularity in road feedback. My Bike Friday gives me this feel. If this explanation seems pretty incomprehensible to you at this point, let me just say it's pretty hard to explain...


You may be right about the load carrying issue, but only the OP could say for sure. I know one thing though, it's not because the OP likes harsh rides.