Touring bike?
 

Hey, im new to single speed but not new to biking. Im going to tour, im wondering what a good touring bike is, i was thinking the surly pugsly, i love fat tires and 29ers, so if anyone one has some suggestions i will be a happy man!

If you were going to go touring through eastern Tajikistan, I'd suggest the Pugsley. For anything else, get a Crosscheck.

try the touring forum: http://bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php?f=47

got any idea of the terrain? to some people, touring means riding from spot to spot on paved roads. to others, it's riding through singletrack and technical mtb trails. each type has its ideal bike, but for a compromise, i'd second the crosscheck.

i was looking at the cross check but what about the long haul trucker, can i change it to singlespeed.

For the terian, i want a bike that is versitile, good quote " thiers no bad terain, just a bad bike."

Get the long haul trucker complete bike. its really an amazing deal and a great bike. Its by far the most popular and reccomended bike on the touring forums. They are very knowlegeable about them. Here not so much. I'd check there instead.

Unless you're touring through snow or sand I would imagine you'd be miserable on the pugsley. Old Univega and miyata tourers are nice and have long dropouts for converting. I'm sure the crosscheck is ok, but I'm trying to set up my gunnar crosshairs for touring right now and I'm having some heel strike issues with the rear panniers. The chainstay length on both bikes is the same. I'm going to get a jandd expedition rack, as it has more heel clearance.
Gunnar also told me the bikes handling will get wonky with more than a 20lb load, you should find out what load limit the surly has.

Edit- If you can afford it, get a long haul trucker with an eno hub. Why you'd want a fixed gear touring bike is beyond me, but once you get sick of one gear you can go back to gears.
Or the IRO rob roy might work, for a dedicated fixie tourer

the long haul trucker has vertical dropouts, so to make it ss you'd need an eno hub or a magic gear. that being said it does look nice and i'ld consider it a very good option for geared touring.

the crosscheck is almost identical, only with horizontal dropouts. the lht has one more braze on for a canti cable stop but there are seatpost clamp attachments that work just as well.

edit: didn't look at the chain stays, good point garagegirl

I've used my fixed gear Crosscheck for some touring. Works great and you can fit some pretty fat tires (45s) on there. With the Long Haul you don't have proper drop outs for a single speed: you'll need an ENO hub, a magic gear or a tensioner.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/186/3...d8b10e45_o.jpg

Dirty- have you had heel strike issues on your IRO?

Did you have heel clearance issues? If you did, what did you do?

yes and no. you've seen my saddle bags, they're pretty poorly designed. if i push them all the way back i don't hit my heel, but with some properly designed panniers (like the ones pictured above) it'd be no problem.

No heal clearance issues, but my panniers are medium sized. I don't think bigger panneirs would be a problem though. My feet are large, but not huge (45 Euro).

I'm also interested in the heel strike issue. I am taking my Soma Doublecross on tour and it has the same chainstay length as the IRO cross and surly cross. I'm wondering whether I will have to buy expensive Tubus racks because they can mount the panniers really far back, or whether I can go with a cheaper, more available rack...

edit: rider-x, are those the 28L arkel mountain bags? What kind of rack?

Riderx- What gear ratio do you use when loaded? And for comparison, what do you normally use around town?

I use these Arkel panniers. They are designed for bikes with limited heal clearance, although I got them because they are more compact and I did not need anything bigger. I have nothing to say but good things about their product. I've turned on a few of my friends to them and no one has any complaints.

Look at the Jandd Expedition. That's what most people seem to reccomend. I set my panniers up on my gunnar last night, and it appears that if I had another 3 inches, which is what the Jandd would give me, I'd be fine. I've seen it for as cheap as $50.

I either run a 42x17 or a 44x17. I really don't change it up. This bike is my only "road" bike and I use it to ride everything from flat cruising to steep mountain hills. Touring wise though, I have mostly done relatively flat, gravel path type stuff (C&O Canal) so the extra weight doesn't really matter because I'm not climbing a lot of big hills.

Those arkels look nice!

This is what I use. The main reason being the deck is an extra 3 inches long and is better for strapping my sleeping bag and pad on. It is also tough and burly, I used it on a MTB overnighter last year over some very extreme terrain and it was nice and sturdy. Of course, it is heavy as a brick too! :)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/76/18...9e47fd30f2.jpg

Another reason I was thinking of going with the Tubus rack is that their 'logo' model also drops the packs down below the top of the rack for a lower centre of gravity. However, given that panniers tend to taper towards the bottom, this may effectively reduce heel clearance...

Jandd expedition
http://www.jandd.com/ProdImages/Rack...nRackThumb.jpg

Tubus Logo
http://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS...20Rack%201.jpg

I'll let you know how my jandd works out when I get it. I think the gunnar and soma are similar chainstay wise. I'll be using jandd mountain panniers.

Check this guy out-
http://www.waterfordbikes.com/gunnar...?rg=Y&rgid=170
from alaska to florida on a cross bike!

I may end up going with the tubus racks because they are over 500 grams lighter per pair, have similar capacity, and since they are steel can be repaired almost anywhere, unlike AL racks which must basically be discarded. This will be a boon if I do a tour through europe to oman like I have had kicking around in my head.

braze ons work much much better since they are closer to the brake and stiffer. The lack of one is my main complaint with my crosscheck.

The crosscheck is also missing the spoke holder and the fork rack braze ons of the LHT.

I also have tiny feet so heel strike isn't a problem.