Hi all,

I posted a little while ago in the Road forum asking if there was a bike that balanced strength (ability to carry moderate additional weight) and speed (ability to maintain reasonable race speeds). I wrote a lot, so I don't want to spam and repost it here.

After a couple of hours of heavy research, I'm now leaning in the road category. However, I've both read and been told that some bikes commonly listed as "road" can be retrofitted for lightweight touring (e.g. Specialized SECTEUR).

What are your thoughts on buying a road-centered bike and obtaining the necessary equipment that could enable light/medium touring on it? Has anybody done it themselves? What equipment exactly would I need to do this (if it's even possible?). I am looking at the SECTEUR as a potential ride, but I could be off the map on that one.

Just so you know, I'm a complete novice in the technical world of biking, so I might be tossing around terms and statements that could (and most likely are) completely wrong.

I tried mounting a Carradice Nelson Longflap bag to my Cervelo RS, an endurance/plush/relaxed-geometry road bike. Absolutely hated the way the additional weight made the bike handle! I bought a $100 Nashbar aluminum touring frame, bolted on some parts-bin components, and built some wheels. The geometry of the Nashbar touring frame was phenomenally better than the Cervelo RS when I mounted the Carradice bag. Plus, the Nashbar was so cheap I didn't have to worry (much) if it got stolen...

If you do go the road bike route, you'll need a way to carry your gear. For "credit card" touring, you might be able to get away with one of the various Carradice saddlebags, possibly with a Bagman support (if your saddle doesn't have the loops for hanging a bag). If you want to carry more stuff, you'll need a trailer or racks plus panniers. Since a road bike won't have the braze-ons necessary to mount racks, your options there will be somewhat limited. Tubus and Old Man Mountain have both front and rear racks that can be mounted to bikes that don't have braze-ons. Wayne at The Touring Store carries Tubus and is supposed to be very helpful. Trailers are somewhat easier to attach that racks and affect the bike's handling less. The disadvantage of a trailer is that you have more tires to maintain, it's heavier than a set of racks, and it makes the bike much longer.

But advantage to a trailer, light bike frame is un stressed..


I have a Portage Pack it, attached to My trailer , If I leave the straps on top,

I can put the load on my back , the bike in my hands , and go Up stairs

or cross Gullys and washouts, etc. relatively easily.

In the UK we have several such styles of roadbike called Audax, light touring, winter training.
They generally share useful features such as:
lower gearing, usually a compact double
Rack and fender eyelets
Generous tyre clearance, often with long-drop caliper brakes to fit 28mm tyres+fenders.
Steering geometry and chainstay length vary but the bikes are generally longer and more stable than racers but not as heavy or long as a full touring bike. Frames are made from racing-grade materials.

In the US, similar models are Surley Pacer, Soma ES, IF Club Racer, Gunnar Sport. These are all steel but UK models include aluminium, carbon and titanium.

You can get any QBP bike shop to order you a Surly Pacer complete, but most of those MichaelW mentions are framesets, which cost a person significantly more to build up compared to purchasing a complete bike. As a novice rider, i'd suggest staying away from building up a custom build, it's not where you want to double your cost to get a bike that performs identically to one purchased complete.

Off the hook, there's the Raleigh Port Townsend, or racier still, the Raleigh Clubman.





Very well suited for light touring.

Also, REI has an interesting bike in their lineup this year, it's lowtrail front end, very curious how this is sneaking back into the market........ Novara Verita.

THESE bikes, off the hook, would be mos excellent.

Specialized and Trek just aren't nailing this type of bike yet, for some reason. And i think it's bizarre they leave a gaping hole in their bike lineups, offering up half assed cross bikes as if they were relaxed geometry, well equipped road bikes.

I toured for years on a sport touring bicycle ... a Marinoni Ciclo. It was a great little bicycle for randonneuring, racing 24-hour events, and touring.

Get a cross bike all the way with a triple if you like. Either a surly cross or a soma cross would make a fine bike for what you want to do.

Buying a road oriented bike that's suitable for touring is a great idea, trouble is, the sectuer isn't that bike.

Here's an example of what i mean by specialized and trek missing the mark with their bike lineup. ALL of the non-disc secteurs have compact, short reach brakes on them. This means no slightly wider tires plus fenders.

It's bizarre huge bike conglomerates can miss the mark so wildly when specc'ing bikes.

I'd avoid the sectuer, and go with one of the bikes on the market that offers long reach brakes. A rider can easily swap between light wheels with 23c tires on them, to beefier rim/tire combos, throw on the fenders, and shazaam, mondo rando.

Jamis makes a good bike too, is it the satellite? that is a road bike, relaxed geometry, with rack/fender fittings and LONG REACH brakes.

The Raleigh clubman is like a road riders custom build of a bike for all day and light touring comfort, without the custom price.

Salsa Casseroll,

They are no longer making them, but numerous bikeshops and bikeman.com have them at a discount. Steel frame, triple crank, STI, canti's and rack/fender mounts all for a decent price on closeout.

CX bikes are probably the most popular style of a versatile road bike in N. America. Capable of fast club rides, commuting and light-medium touring. A particular favorite is the Bianchi Volpe. The Raleighs that were mentioned earlier along with the Novara Verita are good non CX candidates.

Brad

But why bother? My touring bike can do all of these things, too. Granted, it's 5-10lbs lighter than the steel boat anchors that most tourists ride. But it doesn't suffer from the compromises that many CX bikes offer (double cranks, less than ideal gearing, etc). If the OP is going to move away from the idea of buying a road/race bike, he might be better served by buying a dedicated touring bike or frame.


The Verita is a cool-looking bike! But can it handle larger tires? Specs say that it comes with 700x25 tires. They also say the bike comes with Shimano's mid-reach BR-R650 calipers... but the REI pictures sure don't show a lot of extra clearance around the fender and tire! When carrying any sort of load, I'd want 700x32 or larger tires.

The worst part of many true road racing bikes is that they can't accommodate any tire larger than a 25 and cross bikes will take any size tire you want.

and sstorkel, they don't have to have doubles up front, you can set them up as triples and allow any gearing you desire. My CX is set up with a 46-36-24 and a 11-34 cassette in back.

The verita has the confusingly called "old standard -long reach - mid reach?" brakes that, unless the frame is dimensioned weird, should give a rider clearance for 28c tires with fenders, 32c tires without. Similar to the Surly Pacer, Soma ES, Gunnar Sport, Raleigh Clubman, etc.

not the tire clearances afforded a rider with canti brakes. For those wider tires/sporty bike but not cross bike geometry, The Raleigh Port Townsend or soon to be released Velo Orange Pass Hunter would be great bikes with canti posts, better suited than the cross bikes, for what the OP wants out of the bike. IMO.

I have to reiterate though, for anyone who's fond of bikes and hasn't looked, Raleigh's steel bike line is the afficianado's lineup.

For the prototypical sport touring bike, the Raleigh Clubman really, truly, nails the mark of a bike afficinado's all day comfort bike. they even painted the fenders to match! and a brooks..... this bike is the bike everyone builds up, +/- a few bits here or there.

and, for a little more tire clearance afforded from a canti brake, Raleigh's Port Townsend really nails that category too, offering a bona fide modern classic. Front rack for light loads or a large handlebar bag.... whoever's speccing bikes at Raleigh has taken an accurate pulse of what people are doing with bikes in America.

I did the Southern Tier from San Diego to Pensacola on a road bike. The 1990-ish Cannondale Criterium road bike and worked out well IMO. I much preferred it to my touring bike for lighter touring. The tires I started with were somewhat worn 23 mm gatorskins and I switched to 25 mm gatorskins when they wore out completely. The buzz on the Texas chip seal was pretty bad with the 23 mm tires, but much improved with the 25 mm ones. I weighed maybe 205 and was carrying a base gear weight of about 14 pounds at the start and a bit less at the end. That included full camping and cooking capability.

I used a triple converted to a double by leaving off the big ring. Gearing was 39/26 front and 12-28 rear (7 speed). That worked out well for me. I did have 32 spoke wheels though.

I rode with a guy on a carbon road bike some of the time on that tour and he used a BoB trailer, and carried a heavy load, but did have mechanical problems that he blamed on the trailer. His problems were related to bent derailleur hangers and subsequent wheel damage. I am not convinced the trailer was at fault, but maybe it was.

I see no reason why you couldn't do fine with a modern road race bike if you travel light and maybe even if you don't. Without a trailer I'd be leery of low spoke count wheels unless you and your gear are fairly light. A lot of this is personal preference though.

I'm guessing you're writing with regard toward loaded touring compromises, which won't apply to everybody.

Brad

Maxfield, you're leaving out some worthwhile info regarding your interpretation of light touring and your weight. Does that mean one set of small panniers or no panniers? If you're very light a modern road bike that can't carry tires larger than 25mm might be acceptable but why bother when there are the mentioned Audax and cyclocross bikes. Nearly all my ultra light riding was done on 80's steel road racing bikes that could run on 28mm tires w/o fenders. Once I had a bike that could carry panniers well I went straight to 32 mm tires for comfort and ease of keeping tires pumped with a frame pump.

Instead of asking yes/no regarding road bikes for touring start with the size of load you're carrying then get the tires and bike for that. I stuck with road bikes because it's what I had and kept the load very small, no tent or kitchen, riding in a region with little rainfall in the summer.

staehpj1, I tried to remember who had used a crit bike. I'd have no issues with using either of my old crit bikes as a light, sub 20 lbs. of cargo loading tourer. However, most of the more modern road bikes don't have any concessions for mounting a rack and while that could be an issue with a work around, it's still one I'd hate to confront in the middle of nowhere.

Brad

Eventually this will be used for light 3-4 day tours. It provides a solid frame with rack & fender mounts on the frame. I've also installed a ride range gear set that can carry 30 lbs of load up steeper hills. The 700x32 tires are fast on or off road with good touring performance.

I also have a severe-duty gravel-road bike for heavy touring.

2012 Pedal Force CX2

Carbon fiber frame and fork, size 59cm
Velocity A23/Shimano 105 32-spoke wheelset, 23mm wide rim for tires up to 700x35
Shimano 105 triple crank, 50, 39 & 26t chainrings
Sram 11-32 ten speed cassette
Shimano Deore rear derailler, 105 front deraillier, Shimano 105 brifters for triple

The bike has 425mm long chainstays and two attachment eyes for a rear rack and fender.

My thought is that a road bike isn't designed to carry panniers. It's meant to have weight between seat, pedals and bars with the rider able to toss the bike around at speed. Equipment and accessories won't change that. Depending on your weight and your load you can put some weight between the wheels but it's like turning a two seat sports car into a SUV, why bother? If you want a versatile road bike and aren't racing or need a racing trainer there's no reason to get a modern racing ready bike you're going to compromise the handling on. If you're going to want panniers, fenders or your weight pushes 200lbs look to less racing oriented road bikes than the Secteur and similar.

Barrettscv, that must be one nice ride.

Yes, I'm very happy with it. It's about 97% as fast (over longer distances) as my Carbon road bike which features much smaller tires and better wheels. It can also be used for gravel trails here in the Midwest. On gravel I can hold a 17 to 18mph average speeds while training with some serious Cyclocross cyclists. It's reasonable stable with a credit-card load of 20 to 25 lbs. The 425mm chainstays and stiff construction help with the load capacity.

The tires are important. I'll use Vittoria Randonneur Hyper tires on road or gravel when conditions are dry. I run Kenda Happy Medium tires when the trail is damp. Both tires roll well while providing a smooth ride and secure traction.

30 years ago, most large bike producers sold sports/touring models that cleared 700x28 or larger tires and had 425mm or longer chainstays. Most of these used long reach caliper brakes, and were available with triples. These bikes were popular and could be used for anything short of racing or cross country unsupported touring.

I guess when producers started making money with road bikes that copied the elite bikes used at the Tour d' France, they moved away from less practical bikes.

The chainstays on your cx2 are something.

wrt road bikes 30yrs ago the field of sport tourers was great. Specialized Sequoia was one of the best. The road bike I did most of my ultralight touring on was a Maserati road bike, 74 degree angles, the rear triangle could take a 28mm tire but I switched out the front fork for a smidge more clearence and less quick handling. Adapters at the Campy dropouts made it possible to put on a Blackburn rack. Worked fine with 12lbs of gear.

You can set virtually any derailleur-equipped bike on the planet up as a triple in my experience. But if the bike comes from the manufacturer with a double, which seems normal for all of the CX bikes I've seen, then you'll have to swap shifters, front derailleur, and cranks. Why bother with the added expense/hassle if you know you're going to need touring-capable gearing?

For my purposes, a sport touring bike combines the best of both worlds (sport riding and touring). Sport touring bikes were very popular during the bike boom of the 1970s-80s, particularly among Japanese models. However, a few bike companies are still producing fine sport touring frames -- including the Gunnar Sport, Soma ES and San Marcos, and the former Salsa Casseroll. Many cross bikes also come close to fulfilling the same niche, including the Gunnar Crosshairs, Soma Double Cross and others.

I've got two sport touring bikes that I use regularly for commuting and light touring, a Gunnar Sport and a Waterford RST-22, and I recently sold my Salsa Casseroll. I used the money from the Casseroll to buy a Ritchey Breakaway Cross, which is a combination travel and cyclocross bike. I have no trouble keeping up with group rides on any of these bikes and have ridden them all on supported tours. I also have a Bob Jackson World Tour, which is a full-on touring bike. It can handle much larger loads, but is slower and less fun to ride than my other bikes for normal riding.

aw, since we're doing pictures, some smoothie ES #1,

red Soma ES frame #2 in the garage. rode the first one so much i snapped it

and my travel cross bike, a surly travelerscheck, which doesn't ride as nice as a sport touring geometry bike. Whippier and you feel taller in the pedals at speed, a higher center of balance feels different as you rail bikes through corners IMO, and cross bikes sacrifice some of the stability found in Sport bikes with their typically lower bottom bracket and longer chainstays...

sport touring geometry, very light tour worthy road bikes. Several of the manufacturers make this model of bike off the peg that me and others have mentioned.Jamis Satellite, Raleigh Clubman......Unfortunately, Specialized Bike doesn't offer a classic sport touring bike for some reason. The sSectuer isn't it.

Trek 1.1 might still have LR brakes on it, though. Check that at the shop.