Papa Tom

We're way too damned critical of each other's choice of words. The OP made a comment that he/she probably only thought about for two and a half seconds. He/she might even be a gear head in everyday life. Regardless, sometimes we have revelations that help other people see things in a different way. If we're going to be afraid to post them here, we should just close this forum down.

rebel1916

Yeah I wouldn't hate on the guy at all. He took a nice trip on the cheap which is something I love. I will say that something that costs $1500 and lasts years is a better deal than something that cost $150 and lasts months.

axolotl

Thanks for posting your report and photos, Omiak. I enjoyed reading it. When I was touring in northern Laos I met a cyclist who bought a cheapo bike in Hanoi. He was already having some serious mechanical problems with the bike. He didn't know if the bike would make it to Bangkok as he had originally hoped. But he didn't care. He was having a grand time, and that's all that mattered. If he had to chuck the bike, he said he'd simply take a bus to get to Bangkok.

BTW, I rode with another cyclist in Laos who had biked previously in Vietnam. He wasn't that keen on touring in Vietnam except for the Mekong delta.

cyccommute 

I'd bet most people started out touring because they are cheap. I know that I did. What money I've spent on touring equipment has happened over the span of years and was done for my own reasons. I doubt that there are too many people who are going to drop $10K on a touring bike and then only use it for 2 weeks. There aren't that many who are going to spend $45 on a bike and use it for 5 days either. On the other hand, someone who might drop $10K on a bike for a 2 week trip probably isn't going to come here and thump their chest about it.

Omiak's trip is also the epitome of consumerism compared to what most people who post here do. We tend to hang onto our touring bike for decades and only replace them when they are broken beyond repair. He bought a bike, used it for 5 days and dumped it. It wasn't a great bike but he still used it and got rid of it which is the very definition of consumerism.

People are reading a whole lot more into his 85 words than I can see. There's not a lot of 'there' there. 14 of those 85 were basically a slam on those of us who may not share his philosophy or have moved beyond his ideas as we gathered experience. Quite frankly, I'd rather a newbie to touring have a bike that will get them through the entire tour and make them want to come back for more than to suggest that they buy a bike that isn't mechanically sound enough to make a 5 day trip. Being broken down and stranded in a foreign country is probably more than most people...even experienced bicycle tourist...would bargain for. It tends to put a damper on the idea of exposing one's self to that again. Better to get some good experiences under your belt before you have to deal with the bad ones.

nun

I enjoyed the original post.

cyccommute 

There in lies the problem. He put about 2 seconds of effort into the post.

Let's stand this on its head. What if I came here and posted these words: "Touring is only for the Rich..." Then detailed a trip that I took in 60 words or so in which I crowed about how good the equipment was, how everyone needs to use it, and then ended it with "Consumerism is the only way to translate your desires into wanderlust."

Would you be so willing to look at things my way or would you be more likely to find them insulting? What revelations would you draw from them?

nun

I think I could make some good money selling blood pressure medication on here.

alan s 

More rampant consumerism . . .

Niles H.

OK, maybe it isn't such good advice, even for the newbs.

Plus, there is a note of greed and exploitation in the way the OP resold the bike and then crowed about it.

It's a bad example for clueless newbs. And the epitome of the ruthless and ruinous, selfish, money-grubbing, self-centered and heartless capitalist mindset.

Much better if he could feel and exemplify a bit of generosity and compassion, and donate the bike to a poor and struggling Vietnamese family....

Maybe we could do a little more for those poor people, and all those in need, and show some streak of heart.

Slussman

I can totally identify with getting sucked into consumerism when it comes to bikes. Sometimes I've gotten carried away with what I've spent on cycling, and I haven't even gotten into carbon fiber or anything either.

Did I need to get a pair of clipless shoes and pedals back when I had a fixie, when the clip pedals I had worked just fine? Or did I really need to build a generator hub wheel? Absolutely not. Not saying I'm not happy with it, but to say I got into cycling to save money would definitely be a lie - I just have too much fun with it is the problem!

Edit: Let me clarify that I can walk to work and school, so technically a bicycle is something I really don't need and that's why its not saving me money.

Ironically, I've spent more on cycling than my old motorcycle that I've only put like $100 into. lol

toxicburn1

Lol, no Ferrari bikes ... damn ...

P.S. Awesome post !!!

Niles H.

I'm here to save money.

CenturionIM

plane ticket. Plane Ticket. PLANE TICKEETTTT.

indyfabz

No Ferrari bikes? Think again:

https://www.colnago.com/cf8/

https://www.commuterbikestore.com/all...ari-bikes.html

https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=...rari%20colnago

contango 

Maybe some do, I'm sure many don't? My first tour, if you can call it that (it was a two day trip) was just to see if I could do it. And I did, but it hurt. I travelled light, stopped for lunch at a pub, stopped overnight in a B&B, had dinner in the local pub, stopped at a friend's house for lunch the next day, stopped at a cafe for an afternoon snack (huge ice cream!). The only thing we really did to keep the cost down was to share a twin room rather than booking two single rooms. I've never done huge tours but when I have done multi-day trips on the bike I do look to eat out in the evenings and stop overnight in a B&B. I look for cheap places to stay - all I want is a place to lay my head and be confident of a good night's sleep - but don't want to deal with the hassles of camping and hauling vast amounts of food around with me.

Does it matter what other people do? If you want to tour, do what's right for you. If that means dropping $10k on a shiny new bike and abandoning it after a couple of weeks go right ahead if you've got that kind of cash to burn. If it means $45 for a bike and dumping it after a week go right ahead. It's probably more expensive to ship it back than it would cost to just buy another one at home. A $45 bike that lasted for 5 days means it cost $9/day assuming the OP dumped it at the end and recovered no value from it at all. I'd say $9/day for transport is pretty cheap.

Perhaps he got rid of it because it wasn't economical to do anything else with it? I don't know where the OP lives but shipping a bike internationally is going to cost more than the bike is worth, and more than it would cost to buy another one at home if he so desired. How is buying a $45 bike and dumping it when it's no longer economical to keep owning it any different to buying a $1500 bike and dumping it when it's no longer economical to keep owning it, other than the length of time between buying it and dumping it? And if the $45 bike lasted more than 3% of the time a $1500 bike would cost it's a cheaper option anyway.

Either way my point was that I read his post as saying nothing more than that you can tour very cheaply. When some folks talk about cycling as if it's the kind of sport that one shouldn't even consider unless they have $2000+ to spend on day one, it's interesting to see the very cheapest end of the spending scale.

john426

Dear Omiak:

I am so glad you started this thread. I often wanted to bring up this very topic, but was not sure which forum to post in.

I agree with your observation and was glad that you had a fun trip on your inexpensive bicycle. I too am a thrify dude and I have often felt like I was not a "real cyclist" becuase I do not have the latest carbon or titanium bicycle. Truth is I often buy cheap bikes at yard sales to go on tours. Two years ago I had a green huffy bike that was hit by a car and rendered unfixable. I was so sad about losing that bike! It had lots of lugs for attaching front and rear racks and fenders.

John

PS My only suggestion is that you carry a chain break in your tool kit. You probably could have fixed your bike and gotten a better price for it at the end of your trip!

cyccommute 

Please show me one post in the "Touring" forum that says that. The "Road" forum people may say that but that's just not the attitude here.

I don't see that kind attitude in the "Touring" forum. We all tend to be cheapskates and penny pinchers here. No one has said that you need $2000 to tour nor that you need the latest carbon or titanium bike to tour nor that you aren't a "real cyclist" if you don't look like a pitch man for REI. Carbon and titanium bikes tend not to be good touring bike any way because they are made for racing not load carrying. Some of us may have the latest equipment but most of us started with very cheap stuff indeed.

You'll find very little of the snootiness towards inexpensive bikes of the Road forum here. And that's my point. Omiak came in here with attitude of "I'm going to show these rich snobs how to do it cheaper and better." Most of us already know how to do it cheaper and better and we aren't all that snobbish. He's preaching to the choir.

contango 

My whole point was that I didn't see the snootiness or the attitude you're describing. There's not much point you and I slugging it out, all I wanted to do with my post was to say that I didn't see his original post as being condescending or preachy or trying to tell the rich snobs there was a better way. After all, the best way to tour is the way you enjoy the most, whether that means having the hotel porter clean your bike every evening before carrying it to your suite for you or wild camping and leaving no trace, no?

Doug64

It is hard to glean the intent and sometimes the meaning of e-mail messages, and I think some of our postings in this forum fall prey to this gremlin. That is why in my work world I never handled important matters by e-mail. I've been guilty of over reacting to posts at the initial reading, and wonder what my problem was when I went back and read them more carefully later.

I wonder what the reaction would have been if the OP had titled his post something like: "Bicycle Touring on a lean budget". And what if the last sentence said: "it is true, you can tour on anything." I suspect it might have been totally different. When I read the post initially the title seemed out of context with the body of the post. It was a little off-putting, but not a big deal.

The Mekong Delta is flat, and almost anything could last 5 days. The thing that really puzzled me-- what in the heck is a "normal backpacker?"

Pukeskywalker

The message is good and I like the sentiment. Bike touring is kind of inherently anti-consumption though, isn't it? Even if you are riding around on a $2k bike it's all about the trip

skilsaw

Lets talk about nice things, like cycling in a mist of pig urine coming out the back of a semi-trailer truck taking 100 pigs to the slaughterhouse. Rich or poor, the pigs treat us all the same.

Erick L

And tasty as well. Ham and eggs, little taters and coffee while the morning warms up... hmm hmm!

Booger1

Looks like fun....

How much was the hat? How long did it last?.....

jrickards

If you continue reading, you might want to sell some uppers and downers, considering the variety of posts in this discussion.

However, nice photos of a place I'll likely never visit.

alan s 

Nothing says RICH like a guy hauling a heavily loaded bike up a hill at 5 mph in the rain, while the poor folks in RVs are honking as they roll by.