New Commuting/touring bike HELP
 

I'm looking for a new bike, I do a lot of ride to work & school & around, but I am hoping on doing some bike touring this summer, I'm a college student that lives at home still, witch really means i don't have much money. Its like a 12 mile ride to school, even in the cold, as best I can, I live in IL its not nice. I have been riding a Giant OCR3 for some time till I ran into a car & broke it around Thanks Giving. I have been riding a old Swinn Continental along with that.
So Im looking for a new bike I don't really know what would be the best, I have looked at Touring spiciffic & cyclocross bikes, but i still have not found what I want.

I have really been looking at Specialized Tricross Sport, & dreaming of a Cannondale Touring.

Im kindof looking for more of a Steel or Aluminum bike, carbon for scare me just because when I crashed my OCR3 that was the big thing that went wrong,

Im not that educated in bike, I just learn as it come. So any help will help me. Like on what bikes i should be looking for, or what would also work, again Im not rich, so cheep is good, but I am one for quality,I dont realy know what more to say.

thanks for any help

Does Giant have some kind of frame replacement program? Sucks about the bike :(

I'm also a college student, and last spring I also bought a touring bike with similar ideas (A Jamis Aurora). I wanted to commute/ride around and do tours. What I found out, unfortunately, is that tours can be costly. Many will tell you that you can do them on the cheap, but for someone on a tight budget, things add up quickly. In my own case I found that I didn't really have the time or money to do touring, and my interests in cycling developed in different directions.

That said, touring bikes are awesome machines. Relatively quick but bomb proof and able to tackle a variety of terrain in many situations. With a tire swap they are almost as good as touring bikes off road.

If you are sure you want to tour, don't get a cyclocross bike, get a dedicated touring bike. You'll appreciate the way it handles under a heavy load, and you won't have to fuss trying to attack racks. If you never want to ride off road, take a look at the Jamis Aurora. it handles great under load but is a little more fun to ride unloaded than some other dedicated tourers. However, it only has tire clearance for about 35mm knobbies. Also worth a look is the Kona Sutra. It comes with racks, a good drivetrain, and BB7 disc brakes for a very reasonable price. The 07 model has sort of higher end specs, and is equipped with STI levers, whereas the 2008 has barcons. I personally like barcons in non-competitive situations because they shift nice and crisply and can be set on friction in a pinch.

Anyways, if you're willing to spend between 800 and 1200 dollars, you have lots and lots of options. Go for many test rides.

Finally, how secure do you feel parking an expensive bike on campus? All campuses are different. Mine has almost zero bike theft so I feel fine, yours may be different.

Tricross is a great bike and versatile. If you can comfortably afford that, I don't see how you could go wrong with it and if you decided to tour, it would be a good bike for touring too.

That being said, I don't think you need to spend that much to get something very servicable, especially if you go used. There are a lot of very nice $500 used bikes out there. And I wouldn't get hung up on any particular frame material.

- Mark

Any bike will get bent and smashed in a heavy impact like hitting a car. Material won't matter, it will snap and bend.

Well there are a decent selection to choose from.
For disc there are Trek portland, rocky mountain sherpa 10, lemond poprad disc (I can't confirm if it has rack mounts) and surley.
Trek portland and Rocky Mountain Sherpa 10 have rack eyelets that are placed in proper locations so the load doesn't sit very high.

For regular canti brakes there are a bunch of classics, rocky mountain sherpa 30, cannondale touring, trek 520 to name a few.

Personally I liked the trek portland the most, nice features, proper rack mounts and disc brakes. Probably the next thing on my list.

I agree that the rack mounts are a bit high on the Kona, but with a lowrider pannier, can't you get the bags low enough anyways? More importantly I like a touring bike to have more than 50% of the load on the front end, which isn't really an option with the Portland Lemond Poprad does not have many mounting points so I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm kind of biased but I like Surly.

The long-haul trucker seems like a decent value for the price, and based on my experience with my steamroller the frame is pretty much bomb-proof. Also it comes with bar-end shifters which definitely comes in handy when you have derailleur issues.

Otherwise I like the look of the Kona's, but their frames are kind of smallish for me (I'm 6'4" and i don't think they make anything bigger than 60cm)

What ever you do stay away from the Kona Sutra; I have one and it has a host of problems - braze-ons cracking off, heal strike (even with a Tubus Cosmo rack), nasty toe overlap, and handling like a tractor.

OTOH, my LHT is simply wonderful.

The slight downside with surley frames is that frame size will force you into either 26" or 26"/700c. If you like 700c, but are too short for the frame size, you are stuck with 26" wheels.
I only like the portland because it's aluminum and not a rust magnet like 4130 cro-mo frames can potentially be. (Canadian winters)

The Latvian winters are quite harsh as well, yet I've found Frame Saver to be a wonderful rust preventative.

Although it's not as well-known as most of the bikes recommended here so far, I suggest a Fuji Touring. I bought one 4th of July 2007 at another one of Performance Bike's sales. With the sale discount and other stuff that Performance does, I got the bike for about $675.

It has treated me well so far. I put between 10 and 15 miles a day on it every day, and haven't had any major problems. I do have one warning, though this might have been a one-time-only thing. One of the bolts holding the rack to the frame fell off. I'd recommend replacing the stock bolts with bolts that have locking nuts.

If you decided to go with a touring bike, I'd have two for sure on my short list: the Jamis Aurora and the Novara Randonee. The latter can be had for 20% off during the spring which puts it in the $750 range. In a touring bike, I definitely prefer steel.

- Mark

What's your budget?

Didn't you have parts left from the OCR? You could have used those to build a replacement right?

Here's an option on the lower end:
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/windsor/tourist.htm

My vote is almost always for something used. Ebay is full of bikes selling for less than half of the new price.

I've had this happen too, though thankfully, not while on tour. I always put my rack bolts in with Loctite, and I always carry spare bolts - 1 each of about 3 sizes (including a rack bolt, of course) - when I go on tour.

I would get a jamis Aurora Elite if I were buying a commuter today.

I'll second this. I got a 2005 Fuji Touring in 2006 (brand new) for $500 -- a steal! I had my own rack that was a whole lot better than the one it came with. The bike is a tank. It handles well with loads -- including fully loaded grocery runs -- but you can move pretty fast on it if you really want to (my top speed with a 10 pound load on the back was 43.9 mph and it still felt plenty stable -- though I'll admit I shouldn't have been going that fast). I use it mostly for commuting and sometimes for day trips and it's been perfectly reliable.

If anyone's interested, I wrote up a little review on its first birthday:
My Fuji Touring Bike Turns One

Check out the Commuter Series:

http://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/thebik...eet/index.html

And as far as LHT wheel sizing being a downside; it's not. Don't worry about it. It just means they didn't have to mess up the frame geometry to allow smaller riders to fit on a 700c frame. It's a great handling bike because of, not in spite of, variable wheel sizes being available. More manufacturers should follow Surlys example IMO.

Knowing your budget would help.

I am also a big Surly fan. If the LHT puts you in a compromising postion (i.e. 26" wheels) then check the Crosscheck. It handles well weighted down, but with the shorter chainstays you can get some heel-strike with larger panniers.

Also check the Novara touring bike. I saw it and thought it looked purty nice for the price.

Trek 520
 

Last year I looked at and rode the Fuji Touring, Surly LHT, Jamis Aurora, Novara Randonee, and the Trek 520. All good bikes. I bought the Trek 520. And I love it! It makes for a good all around bike, commuting or touring. Not to mention it being so smooth and comfy. I got it for a close out price of $845.00 With that savings I can upgrade the rear rack and put lower gearing if I choose to do heavy loaded touring.

I hope this helps!
Ciao,
Timothy

I own a trek 520 and a Bianchi San Jose (fixed/free). I love them both. I got the trek 520 first (though i've ridden a homemade fixie for a few years as well). i bought the trek 520 used for $250 from a guy who had no idea what he had or how good the bike was and had barely ridden it. he just knew that biking wasn't for him. i got the san jose new for about $450 at a local bike shop that wanted to get rid of their singlespeed bikes.

what i'm getting at is...there is no one right bike. there are lots of commuter/touring bikes out there now. try some out. does it feel good? does it look good? can you put a rack on it? are the handlebars the way you like it? if it looks good, feels good, costs good (!)...then go for it.

I've never understood all the debate surrounding wheel size. In the market today, there are scary light wheelsets, and tire selection on 26" are better than they are for 700c. The only difference is that a 26" wheel has slightly fewer gear-inches for the same gear ratio. I don't notice that much difference between the two personally. I think this debate has more to do with stuff in peoples head than it does with actual differences in performance.

As far as bike choices, be sure the geometry fits what you want to do. Cyclocross bikes are often set-up with geometry not far different than racing bikes. Touring bikes are set-up for more upright positions. If you really want to tour, I'd suggest making sure that the position you have while on the bike is one that you can handle for long touring days.

Both of these are great. If you can do it, I would go with the Tricross Comp instead of the sport though.

I think the assessment about 'cross bikes is, well, kinda wrong. Most, if not all 'cross bikes I've seen have WAY more upright positions that road racing bikes. Many come with eyelets and room for wide tires. The differences, to me, between a touring specific bike and a 'cross bike are:

1) Touring bikes tend to have longer chainstays for bigger loads
2) 'cross bikes have high BBs
3) Touring bikes tend to come stock with spacers on the steer tube to get the stem higher.

You can overcome the handlebar height objection by shimming up a 'cross bike and/or using a riser stem. Same difference at that point.

The higher BB is mighty handy in some situations. You might argue it's overkill, and for touring it probably is...but for commuting and general city riding it is sure nice being able to corner tighter without worrying about pedal strike.

The chainstays and loads thing is a problem. That one 'cross bikes have no way around if you have fully loaded rear panniers. I think bikes of this type tend to do better loaded more heavily up front, however, so putting the big panniers on a front rack with a handlebar bag and leaving the small panniers on the rear CAN easily work with 'cross bikes like the Surly Crosscheck.

Lastly, on many 'cross bikes the top tube is actually shorter even than a touring bike. This means you can find a bike with appropriate height for efficient pedal stroke, and you can easily use spacers to get the handlebar higher and be more comfortable. I wish there was a touring bike out there with a shorter TT, but I haven't found it.

The Novara Randonee is the name of the bike I like. It comes with fenders, a rack and I think even a pump and a spare spoke and spare spoke mounts.

I'd rather be riding my crosscheck, though.

A buddy of mine got a single bike for touring and commuting not too far back. He went with one I haven't seen on this list yet, the Bianchi Volpe. He loves it, his wife loves hers, he talked another friend of ours into buying the same bike and she loves it. It's a cross bike, with mounts for fenders and racks. If I didn't have a Surly LHT getting built on Monday (after sitting around for almost two years) I'd probably have gone with a Volpe as a good middle of the road tour and commute rig.

Ok, well I'm going to disagree with both of you on the "upright bike" argument, and here's why.

I feel that the stem is likely to be changed on every bike sold. After seat position, it's the next place people go for fit adjustment. What's my point? That if you remove the stem from the equation, there's nothing about most touring OR cross bikes that makes the position more upright than a road bike. Yes, a cross bike often has a higher bottom bracket, but they also often have a higher head-tube to compensate.

Here's some quick numbers - sorry, the bottom bracket numbers aren't necessarily comparable. All of these bikes are the largest from each manufacturer, typically in the 61-63 range.

XO
ht - 20cm
bb distance to ground - 27.6cm
tt - 61.2cm

520
ht 16.5cm
bb distance to ground - 26.8cm
tt - 59cm

madone
ht - 20cm
bb distance to ground - 26.8cm
tt - 59.7cm

long haul trucker
ht - 21cm
bb drop - 78mm
tt - 610

crosscheck
ht - 18cm
bb drop - 66mm
tt - 61cm

Specialized Tarmac
ht - 23cm
bb drop - 67.5mm
tt - 60cm


From this list, and based solely on frame geometry, the Trek 520 is one of the least upright bikes of the bunch, with a ridiculously short headtube. The Specialized Tarmac has the tallest headtube of them all, prettymuch just as upright as the Long Haul Trucker
- Tarmac HT is longer
- LHT gets extra height from an external headset
- LHT has a lower bottom bracket = lower seat and higher relative bar position
- LHT has longer head tube meaning a technically more stretched out ride

Comparing the numbers of the Trek 520 and the Madone, you see little difference, and the Madone actually looks more upright to me - and it would be if you put the exact same bars and stem on both bikes.

Again, just pointing out that that a "race" bike can be just as upright as your "touring" bike with nothing more than a stem change.

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Personally, I think we should be giving these manufacturers a hard time about their head tube lengths. I mean, most everyone I run across has spacers under the stem - and many of them are running high-angle stems on top of that to get in a comfortable position.

Some of the raised bottom bracket height is due to the larger tires. With 28s instead of 32s it's lowered a little bit, and many euro-style cross bikes have geometries that are extremely close to road bikes.

That said, why buy a cyclocross bike if you want to tour? It makes no sense to me. Touring bikes will ahve all the eyelets and attachment points you need, most cyclocross bikes will not, especially on the fork. Mine, for example, doesn't have eyelets on the chainstays, and the fork hole is where one might mount the top attachment point of a fender is used up by a cantilever brake cable hanger.

The Tricross series does have eyelets, but that is sort of the exception. Besides, if they have cyclocross geometry, they won't handle under load as well as a touring bike will.