Best all-terrain tourer?
 

After finishing my first tour earlier this week (which was fantastic, by the way!), it's easy to say I'm hooked! My next tour won't be until December and will probably be a 3 day tour but next summer I'm gearing up for a nice ride across Tennessee, East to West!

Anywho, I've been touring on an older steel bike (Ross frame) and it's holding up fine for me. However, I want to start looking into getting a dedicated touring + casual road day trip bike.

Here's the catch: I want it to be able to perform on gravel, mud, dirt, asphalt, concrete, anything I throw at it.

Basically, I'll pay anywhere up to $1200 for a bike that could ride PanAmerican Highway-type terrain, where it'll mostly be on normal roads but might find its way onto a gravel trail or really crappy concrete or a muddy dirt road in the pouring rain.

My first thought is maybe a Cyclocross bike? Or a hardtail 29 inch mountain bike? Or are there some dedicated touring bikes out there that'll ride well with knobby tires and can take that kind of beating? Or maybe I just need a LHT with some knobby tires?

What would you suggest? And, as far as cargo goes, I used an old military rucksack for my 3 day trip. I'm 17 so it didn't bother my back a bit, but I know I'll want something more...liberating in the future? For all-terrain touring, panniers or a BOB trailer?

Thanks!

Welcome to the touring life! It's fun ain't it?

Before going farther, search this forum for the keywords "mtb", "mountain bike" and "cyclo cross". Many folks use cyclocross bikes like the Surly Cross Check. Also check crazyguyonabike.com and look for people who have toured off road and what they used. Many examples there. 1200 is plenty, but you'll have to choose between used and new, converting a hardtail mtb machine or buying a stock commercial build. Depending on how rugged your off road touring is, even a normal touring bike like a Long Haul Trucker will do fine with the right tires. My 2 cents: stick to 26" tires for off road use but 700c/29er is fine if you intend to stay in the US. Remember to budget for racks, fenders, panniers, etc.

I have yet to meet a touring bike that can't handle some rough treatment. I don't really have a mountain bike any more, when I want to hit the trails I just strip off the rack and fenders, throw on some knobby tires (or sometimes I don't) and just ride as is. A touring bike with 32mm slick tires is surprisingly competent on light cross country. I would not hesitate to take my bike across gravel, mud, even mild single track. Just stay away from major drop offs.

By the way, if you haven't used drop bars off-road, you are in for a treat, wide drop bars work incredibly well off-road.

Hi, Before I bought my Volpe I read Adventure Cycle Touring by Lord. There's a new edition out. Highly recommend it for bike buying advice. Here you will read lots of positive about Surly LHT. Cycle cross is the way to go for my environment.

Thorn in the UK do an all Terrain Tourer - but I would suggest that it is a bit more than $1200

I'd suggest getting a bike that can take the bigger tires, at least 42-50mm.... and a long wheelbase, like 18". This eliminates cross bikes, and for good reason, they are not intended for your purpose.

A Salsa Fargo seems like it would suit you.

I'd suggest a Rivendell Hunqapillar or Bombadil, but that's beyond your range. The Bombadil is friggin' awesome.

The LHT is Bike Forums favorite cheap bike, this may or may not be a good thing. It would work okay.

RIB47, when I hear "all -terrain" I'm thinking there's some hills and steep sections involved in which case carrying the least amount of gear and having it well secured would be as important as the bike design. Otherwise crappy roads can be dealt with using fatter tires. Your criteria for "dedicated touring, casual road trip day bike AND PanAmerican Hwy type terrain" covers one hell of a range, at least you're not asking for fast single track riding over logs and ruts which points to a mtn. bike with shocks. If you're thinking of road trip day bike AND loaded rough terrain tourer you're asking for a lot. If you're light you can pull it off better than if you're heavy.

Cross Check or similar bike that can take fat tires would fit the bill. You might consider having two sets of wheels. Light road wheels/tires and heavy touring wheels/tires. Keeping the load light with fat tires taking up the shock can get you through a lot of rough stuff but at some point shocks become worthwhile. For $1200 you've got some compromising to do. LHT with 26" wheels and two sets of tires would be another thought if your dedicated touring involves some weight.

I hope Nancy Sayer weighs in. She and her family are riding from Alaska down to the tip of South America, and probably have more experience with the type of riding you described as anyone.

If I had to choose a bike that would work for regular touring as well as rough-road touring, I might go with a Surly LHT with 26" wheels. You can mount narrow, slick, road tires, but you can also put on pretty stout knobbies.

Cross Check with rear wheel at the back of the drop-outs is about about 17.75" which is a smidge longer than the shorter Hunqapillar.

It certainly is. If there's a better off-road tourer than this I don't know about it, but it's more than double that budget and when you're NOT off-road, is way more bike than you need.

OP, I agree with others. Put the right tyres on almost any decent touring bike and you'll be surprised at how competent they are off-road. Cross bikes are great too, but aren't as well set up for fully loaded touring.

Do they sell the Giant Expedition where you are? They sell them locally for around 1200 euros on sale (~ $1700). Very sturdy bikes. I wouldn't hesitate to take it a few thousand kilometers on dirt roads.

I own the Cross Check with 700 wheels and Marathon 40mm tires. It can handle off road just fine. I don´t do stunts or bunny hop so can´t talk to that kind of activity but for trails it is just fine and dandy. It is a tad twitchier than my ancient Jamis Diablo mtb with rigid fork and 26 inch knobbies but the Cross Check is much more comfortable on pavement. It´s a compromise.

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

OK you said best in the heading , But then said a price point ceiling in the text.

but Pan American Highway was mentioned namely Alaska to the straights of Magellan ,
Tierra del Fuego.

so which part makes it all terrain for you?

Mountain bike tires can be found a lot of places , more so than 700c,

[406 more often too. say on a bike friday type touring bike.. ]

benefit for when you need to catch a Bus
something like a pre suspension 80's mountain bike frame can be the basis for a good touring bike .
the tubby tires will be your suspension then, and weigh less than all the Mech for suspension. like the forks..
Add a thudbuster seatpost and the riders backside is suspended a bit.

the BoB trailer with a suspended wheel was made to tow behind a mountain bike
to ride single track into the back country.

I took "best" to mean the OP was excited about his/her new found enjoyment, as opposed to "the ultimate bike, no price barred".

"Best" is such a subjective thing, as in, "best for what purpose?".

On the other hand he has narrowed down the mission and the budget so we can work out what we would think best for this mission. His profile says he is a college student so we can use that as a starting point. Plenty of us have walked in those shoes before...

Yep, let's keep this in perspective of the OP. Really, a LHT frame with 26" wheels as BigBlueToe mentioned would suit him fine , most likely...... as you can use up to 2.1" tires with it. The new Surly Troll looks interesting ,but the chainstays are short at 16.5".

I thought the Hunqapillars were 46cm, the same as the LHT. The LHT has a 2" longer wheelbase than the Cross-Check, going by the specs. The rougher the road, a longer wheelbase is great.

Ross could be equipped with strong pannier racks, and a modern drive train to be a pretty good tourer.
really the important part is getting the fit dialed in so the weeks of riding all day can be fairly comfortable.

+1 on the Fargo.

I'm clearly biased, since I own a Fargo, but unless you really want the 26" wheels, I can't see buying a LHT instead of a Fargo. The Fargo rides great loaded up, and gives you the option of mounting up real mountain bike tires. Disc brakes stop well in all kinds of muck, and the increased standover height is nice when mounting a loaded bike or riding dicey terrain.

Me on my last trip:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_cSQ2ufLIkac/TJ...0/IMG_1962.jpg

Parked next to my buddy's LHT:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_cSQ2ufLIkac/TJ...0/IMG_1965.jpg

Looking good and sporty seat_boy. You seem to have a minimal package to tour with, what were you carrying? Were you going off road too?

No off road, save for a few gravel paths through a metro park. No problem for the 35mm Paselas I was running.

It was a three day/two night trip. I carried:
- sleeping bag and pad
- eating gear and quite a bit of food (most of two day's worth of food, the rest we picked up along the way)
- mostly clothes for each day, plus rain jacket and pants
- camera, book, headlamp, toothbrush, etc.
- and to cap it all off, a 4 person Coleman tent (I weighed it when we got back: 12 pounds!) It was my buddy's tent, but I was carrying it.

Basically, everything you would need except the stove, which my friend was carrying. The total bike + gear was 70 pounds to start. The Fargo with racks, cages, etc weighs about 32 pounds, so the balance was gear.

This trip is inspiring me to go lighter, though. I want to see if I can get everything in the handlebar bag and a Carradice saddlebag, then use my Crosscheck as a light tourer.

I have my Crosscheck set up for light touring also. Just a rear rack and frame bag right now but I am looking for a porteur rack so I can carry something like a Carradice for short tours, or a Pelican case on longer rides. 40 lb max load. Once the custom w/Rohloff on order arrives, the cross bike will be dressed with Honjo fenders and narrower tires for shorter duration rides and credit card touring.

To the OP, this is a good example of the range of what "all terrain" means. The other extreme is what are called "expedition bikes" like the Thorn Nomad and other Rohloff equipped internally geared hub machines. Expedition bikes are 5K plus fully outfitted but are capable of amazing feats, climbing the Himalayas and the Andes without skipping a beat. For crossing TN you need nothing like that. An MTB or a bike like seat_boy's is plenty.

you can google bikepacking, and bikes of The Tour Divide.

this is my set up

That's a Hunter custom frame isn't it? Seen a couple of nice journals online ot people doing amazing things in the mud on those.

the CrossCheck has long horizontal dropouts the LHT has vertical, there's about an inch of range from the front to the back of the dropouts. The 16.7" measurment is at the front of the dropouts. Long chainstays are good for rear weighted loads, lax head angles and fat tires are good for rough roads. If you look at mtn bikes they have shorter chainstay lengths than most touring bikes.

yes, its a custom Hunter