Peaceful_Animal

Hello all,

I'm am living in Cologne Germany and want to get into touring. I'm in the market for my first bike and what I think is that I can get a better deal on bikes in my old hometown (Toronto) than here but I won't be going back there for a while. I saw a posting about Urbane bikes on john st and they sound great, but is is possible to buy a bike through them mail order? or does anyone have recommendation for mail order touring bikes? Is there anywhere where I can send in my measurements and get some quotes on different models?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

p_a

acantor

Even if bicycles are less expensive in Toronto than in Köln, the cost of shipping could wipe out any savings. Furthermore, if you do buy a bike and have it sent to Germany, and something goes wrong during its first days or weeks, you will be faced with the prospect of either paying a king's ransom to ship it overseas (in both directions) for free repairs, or paying a local bicycle to repair it.

stokell

I highly recommend Urbane Cycle and their touring bike. I'm very pleased with the one I have. The only way it would work would be if you were visiting Toronto and returned with the bike. Check with your airline. As a rule Canadian carriers don't charge for sports equipment. Although bikes are a bit pricey in Europe, shipping would eat up any savings.

NoReg

I recomend the Urbane bike also, at least for road touring, not the right bike for mongolia perhaps, though I wouldn't cacel my trip if that was were I was headed. At one point when I was buying a recumbent, I did look into the cost of getting a bike shipped from Germany to Canada, and it wasn't all that bad it was about 70 euros, but a recumabnt is a lot larger and heavier than a frame. You could try SpicerCycles.com for Surly touring bike frames, they put together a good price to ship the Surly to Canada. Or try Bikenashbar.com they have a very inexpensive touring frame, but I haven't used their shipping in recent years.

I bought my Urbanite touring bike as a walk in, so I don't know how easy they are to deal with mail order for bike sized objects, they were very accomodating to walk-ins, but mail order and general retail are two different skills. International mail order seems to be getting worse. Carriers have no difficulty finding out their costs to a penny and are often leary of using cheaper options if they don't have tracking, so look into your shipping issues carefully. Also a lot of people seem not the least bit sensitive to the cost of services these days, and don't see anything weird about a 70 dollar shipping bill for a few tools from Dicks in gernany, that only cost a few bucks themselves. Maybe it's all the cellphone charges, i-tunes, and porno site subscription.

Sadaharu

The folks at Urbane are A-1 supernice, but I wonder if it wouldn't be easier just buying a frame, and building it up. Frames are much easier to ship, and wheels/derailleurs/shifters are much more fragile. I like the urbane frame, but I won't buy one because of the geometry in the smaller sizes, plus I'm not a big fan of the higher bottom bracket. Medium to large, you can't go wrong with their great frames.

I wonder if ordering a surly wouldn't be easier, or perhaps ordering from the UK? They seem pretty touring crazy over there.

p.s. their urbanite tourer is 425 can frame+fork. you might also look at marinoni in quebec or bike specialties in toronto (if you have the dough).

Peaceful_Animal

Hi,

Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I should've thought about picking up a bike last time I was in T.O. Maybe you guys can offer some advice on European bike makers. Stevens seems to be really popular in the shops. Does anybody have some tips for touring bicycles for beginners in the 500€ range? I've been looking in the shops and I'm not so interested in shocks or this wheel-powered lighting system that is very popular (what ever happened to batteries?), both seem to be unnecessary things that can get messed up and require more maintaince. I'm interested in a sturdy, simple, reliable bike (comfort would be nice, too). mostly for day trips but also I'd like to do several-day trips by the end of the season.

Thanks!

NoReg

There are lots of good brands You might try the Cycling plus forum, they are UK based, and the UK has some great makers.

https://www.cyclingplus.co.uk/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=3

For your price range you might want to check out second hand bikes, as well.

The generator hub is well regarded and you might look into whether there are local conditions that suggest that kind of lighting. I don't tour much at night so I don't want to push a generator hub all day. The new LEDs are so good that unless you need BIG light, you might as well go that route.

Boudicca

Another word of caution on buying a North American bike for use in Europe, and you may find that a lot of supposedly standard parts are not standard at all, so it may be hard to get parts or to get things repaired. Last thing you want to do is end up calling Canada each time you need something that you can't get in Germany.