Touring mountain bike help??
 

Hi!
I'm in the process of purchasing a new mountain bike for touring south america. The brand that im mostly intrested in is Cannondale. I have used a f700 from a friend. What bike would you suggest from the Cannondale line. Any help would be great. After the south american tour i will be heading out to india, nepal and tibet.

Thanks

I like the Bikes that Cannondale ships to the UK and European Market better than the few they offer in the States..

I own a Koga Miyata With a Rohloff rear hub for gearing .. frames are both aluminum..

but the way the front and rear racks are an integral part of the Koga build up is excellent.

I tend to re assemble what ever bike I get, and found a number of flaws that I fixed .

http://www.cyclofiend.com/working/20...clark1008.html

Ride them and see which is most comfortable. That's the only thing that matters. The rest is Tarot cards and fortune cookie fortunes.

I ride a Cannondale t1 and enjoy it.
However, I found the gears a little high for my tired old bones. 50-39-30 front and 11-32 ten speed rear.
I've switched the crankset to 48-36-26 and cassette to 11-34. The Cannondale t2 comes with lower gears than the original t1.

The lower gears are particularly nice when loaded and climbing.

Are there many people who use mountain bikes for touring? What about tires for the mountain bikes? I'm sure you need street tread in probably around 26x1.5 inch? What about puncture protection and wear resistance - what's the best to use when thousands of miles away from home?

You might consider reviewing the journals of on CrazyGuy as most expedition tourists use non-suss forks. I would also strongly recommend against going with anything but 26" wheels due to limited availability outside Europe and America. Not trying to sound rude, but I would only go with a steel frame, 26" wheels, with no suspension. If you are on a budget, consider a '80s or early '90s MTB frame and build it up from there. If you are in Europe, there are lots of manufacturers to choose from, notably Thorn (wide range of prices), Koga-Miyata, Roberts, and a couple of others. In the States, Co-Motion (pricey but nice!), Surly LHT (use only 26" wheels!), and Rodriguez can be considered.

Sounds like you are in for a fantastic trip!

Want suspension and 26" wheels ? See :

http://www.tout-terrain.de/2/product...ana/index.html

....is anyone actually riding this bike? I've seen one magazine review and that's it...I've never seen a single tour report of anyone using it.

How's your German, Vic? may just not be written in English language periodicals,
doesn't mean that the were not written ..

I Imagine their 'Silk Road' sells better .. no suspension ..
http://www.tout-terrain.de/2/product...oad/index.html

My German is okay....I carry a Swiss passport and my mom is native German speaker. I own two Rohloffs! I just would expect to see more real people reporting on their tours [besides magazine reviews and such]. I read reviews and reports about loads of Euro touring bikes from non-English speaking countries so you'd think if there were any of these bikes in the wild we'd hear about it.

Tulsa John- what cannodale mountain bike frame would you recommend so i can buil the bike from there?