fietsbob

What Brands are sold in your favorite local bike shop? what is your cycle buying budget?

Dream Cyclery

I have been using Marmot EOS 1P with Vargo Ti stakes.





And I don't use the drysack that the tent came with. I pack the tent relatively flat so that I can fit it in my frame bag.

IMO, there are two ways to tour. You pack everything you need before you go, or pack light and go buy stuff there if you need something. Many people imagine going through mountain roads or desert when going oversea bike tour, however, reality is, you will travel on 99% road(paved or not) that connect other city or town. And people will be there and will have shops that you can get stuff from. Once I got a camera from small town in Asia because I dropped my camera and it broke. Was it a good camera? No. Did it work? Yes. I actually like that camera because it was cheap. The camera that broke cost me $600 vs. $150 that I got from Asia.

I recommend try not to save money on the bike and sleep system, but don't get too stressed on pack everything.

saddlesores

dude, you're like going at this all backwards-like.

"i've never really bike toured, but i like bikes, and i wanna go on a tour,
but i don't really know where or what kind of terrain, and i don't know
what or how much i wanna carry.......gosh, i really don't know what any
of my needs are........so, help me choose a bike!"

you say "asia" like that's some homogenous entity. well, where the
heck in asia? singapore or mongolia? tibet or ****et? burma or japan?

i'd skip the camping part altogether, cut out that weight. in some countries
camping is not permitted, not safe, not practical....do you know which ones?
in general (there are exceptions of course) you 'should' be able to find
suitable lodging within daily ride-able intervals for $5-10. it's not that
hard to research a route........start with cgoab.

can you fix a bike? do you know what tools and spares to carry? don't
expect to find bike shops everywhere. and if you do find one, don't
expect it to have spares. or a mechanic. or tools.

i won't recommend a bike for you, since i don't know your requirements.
i'll just tell you what i ride here: large-frame (23") MTB. formerly a
diamondback wildwood, currently a BMC alpenchallenge. deore components,
26" wheels. v-brake front, mech disc rear. rear bags with about 5kg each,
h-bar bag with about 2kg. no camping or cooking gear.

i ride: thailand, cambodia, laos, myanmar, malaysia, singapore, vietnam,
southern china.

Velorific

+1 Most Definitely!

DVC45

Bike Friday NWT.

lasalope

I will take a flight to Beijing and buy the bike there, I think I can get pretty much all the big names. Budget would be <1500$.

lasalope

Dream Cyclery This (https://www.campsaver.com/eos-1-tent-1-person-3-season) is perfect , thank you.

I like your suggestions, it sounds like a better way to enjoy the trip. You mentioned your CX bike, could you share the model/brand?

lasalope

Hi there, thanks for sharing this.

If you need specifics my plan is roughly: Beijing->Hangzhou->HK->Vietnam/Thailand/Cambodia->India(->...). I do not keep an exact schedule and path, it is subject to change. I have a rough idea and will actually gather knowledge about each country and main checkpoints beforehand.

I do not know how to fix a bike, so I hope for a good recommendation so that it can be relatively simple to fix myself with basic tools.

Of course I won't camp all the time, it will just help stay on budget on the long term and enjoy special places once in a while. Thanks for sharing cgoab, I heard of it but never actually checked it out.

wheelinthai

If I were You, I would fly direct to Hongkong, and get your bike there. Then bike north to Peking, and either fly or hop on a train to Vietnam, and cycle into Thailand, via Cambodia.

lasalope

I am living close to Beijing, it's cheaper this way. But do you have any reason to think I should get a bike in HK?

wheelinthai

I assumed that you were from out side China, and Hongkong has a few dealers who specialize in Chinese bicycles, together with dealers for foreign brands. Riding gears and camping gears would be equally easier to shop in the city.