dotrix

Hi, I am planning to do some light-touring (duration 20 days). Will be staying in hostels. Will cycle around 80km per day. On mostly flat roads, some long slopes, some gravel. Can it be done on a hybird? Something like this perhaps.

n4zou

Sure! I tour on an older Specialized CrossRoads Hybrid bike. I replaced the straight handlebar with a Nashbar trekking bar and added racks. Trek has a couple of Hybrid bikes with rack mounts on the rear and front fork. I was going to purchase one myself until I found my Specialized CrossRoads in a thrift store for $5.

Bacciagalupe

Yeah, I think you can do a 20 day tour on the bike. Suspension + wider tires will do the job. Consider fenders if you think you will run into wet weather.

I'd take it into the shop and get a tune-up. Also make sure the saddle is up to the task; gel saddles might seem comfortable, but for day-after-day rides they, uh, wind up putting pressure in the wrong places. Otherwise I think you're in good shape.

bccycleguy

I've done fully-loaded touring on a Trek 7500FX, no problems.

paul2

I toured India for three weeks on a Miyata TripleCross hybrid.

becnal

My touring bike is a hybrid. Why couldn't you tour on a hybrid?

xilios

My wife and I have both clocked thousands or kms on hybrids (fully loaded) and still going strong, no problems.

dang133

Sounds good to me! Go for it!

IronMac

Minus the wife part.

acantor

Nothing wrong with touring on a hybrid. I happen to prefer the "old-style" touring bike geometry with drop bars, but I would estimate that half the cyclists I meet on tours are riding hybrids or mountain bikes. On one tour, a couple on fully-loaded hybrids sailed past on a long, steep, climb up a mountain pass. I never did catch up. (The fact that I was 48-years-old at the time and they were in their early-20s may have had something to do with it!)

adam12

I dig your DIY pannier "thingie" How did you go about that? I'm in the middle of a pannier project myself. Opps sorry. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. I did a short 5 day tour on a hybrid, and it did well. I like the more upright riding position. I had less neck pain.

stormchaser

If I had to walk into a bike shop right now to buy a bike for touring, I would come out with a hybrid.
A hybrid will usually have better gearing for touring. That is to say, a mountain crank & wider range cassette. As shown above, you could change a flat handlebar out for the trekking, midge, or moustache bars for more hand positions. This is what I am doing with my old too-big MTB.
That said, I would look at the Trek 7.3 fx

n4zou

I used 1/2" PVC plumbing pipe as a simple frame to hold a standard backpack and easy attachment to my rack. Just purchase a backpack and measure the back and fabricate your pipe frame to allow easy attachment of the backpacks straps to the pipe frame. I used plastic zip-ties to hold mini-carabineers to the pipe frame and just clip the mini-carabineers to the rack. I used to use Velcro straps for attaching the backpack to the pipe frame and to the rack thinking I might need to remove the pipe frame from the backpack but after 6 months I figured out I never needed to do that. That’s when I started using zip-ties and mini-carabineers. Here is a photo of the back so you can see how to do it.


Note: this was the Velcro mounting system. You can also carry extra water in the pipe frame. The plug at the top back corner is a friction fit so you can easily fill and drain water stored in the frame.

BikePackin

The great way to reliably go and go and go and still keep it going... here is wishing you a great tour.

jkmartin

I have a Trek 7200 I use for touring. You will definitely want to get some bar ends so you have more hand positions. You may also want to consider trading out the suspension seat post for a rigid and the same thing with the fork (I still have the suspension fork).

BillD

I always tour on my 10 year old Hybrid. It did the Transam very comfortably (ave 80 miles per day) and is now working it's way from Istanbul to Ashgabat.

Checkout www.bill2007.crazyguyonabike.com for picture of it fully loaded