Tour bike or road on a tour ?
 

This September I am going on a sag tour across Nevada. Will have about 7 major climbs- up to 2,000 feet at one peak. Longest day over 4,000 ft. of climbing..
My question. The sag will carry more gear than I had expected.. So, organizer's emails and biking friends, who are going suggest I would be more comfortable on a road bike over a touring bike, since I will have to carry very little . The road bike being more responsive...
My tour bike and road bikes all have triple's, but the touring bike is about 25 pounds and road bikes under 20 pounds... The tour bike has like 56 and 11 and my road bikes has like a 54 -cog wheel teeth.. The tour bike is supposed to be better for climbing..
So which would you go for on a 450 mile tour.. Less weight on a road bike or better gear ratios on a tour bike..?

If I don't have to carry the gear, I generally take my road bike. It too has a triple, though the gearing is higher than on my touring bike. If you are nervous about the gearing, put a new cassette on it.

What's the actual gearing on the bikes? The road triple chainrings are probably 52-42-30; what's on the touring bike? The road cassette probably runs 12-25 or something like that; the tourer might go 11-32, for example.

Post the actual specs -- or go to www.harriscyclery.com and use Sheldon Brown's gear calculator -- and you can get a better idea of what the two bikes' relative gearing might do for you.

The tour organizer can tell you what severity of grades you'll likely encounter. That's the other important information.

Other considerations: which bike is more comfortable on long rides back to back to back? On flat terrain, giving up a few pounds in exchange for the comfort of a more compliant ride might be worth it. If you've done 60+ mile rides on both bikes you should already know the answer to this.

RichC

Rich..thanks for points you raise... Gearing on tour bike, probably only slightly better.. Tour bike is more comfortable for long haul.. Just not sure about the responsive point.. The climbing I have done on nearby Mt. Palomar has always been with the tour bike.. Is 8 pounds really that big a deal.. Other riders make me think so?

Another point to ponder is: are your freinds all riding road bikes and will you be expected to stay with them for the entire ride?

56-11???
On a touring bike**********??
Holy $h!t !!!!!

Go with the touring bike