I always hesitate to mention this as no one on the forum believes me when I say it and it typically draws the topic off course. The Roubaix and Secteur have exactly the same geometry. They both have literally the same saddles on them. Both bikes were fitted in the same positions by the same LBS. The Secteur has 32mm tires, the Roubaix 25mm and the Roubaix is off the charts more comfortable on long, rough road rides. On a smooth city street, its a coin toss. Ride out into the country and its no contest. The carbon bike is way more comfortable to ride.

Yeah, I'd love to just use my Roubaix, but I suspect I'd need a backpack which would likely suck after 50 miles or so.

Not sure I'm comfortable with doing that to the Roubaix.

Hehe, yeah I've got the fever a bit too. Bike buying is fun. But I think I might try putting one of those CG-R seatposts and a set of panniers on the Secteur to give it a try. Maybe it will work perfectly.

My brother is constantly looking to buy luxury watches. (he already owns 4 or 5) He consults me about every one of his purchases because I have a large collection of watches, including some higher value vintage pieces. The funny thing is, for me it is just a collection that I don't think about 99% of the time, while he sweats it daily, or at least weekly. Should he get a Patek Philippe Calatrava, a Jaeger LeCoultre Reverso. or maybe an Audemars Piquet sports model? Which watch will make just the right impression on his clients, and which will best round out his collection? Similarly, he agonizes over whether to wear his stainless Rolex Datejust, or his gold one, or maybe his Daytona on a leather strap to this business trip or social occasion?

Here is what i tell him. They are all just jewelry for men that also tell time. The average person either can't tell the difference between a $20,000 luxury watch, a $200 department store model, and a $20 knock off, or just doesn't care. So buy/wear whichever one you think goes with your suit, or alternately, whichever one you feel like wearing.

Similarly, your quest for the perfect bicycle for every occasion seems like kind of the same thing. Just as every man really needs at most, 2 watches (and can probably get by with 1 if he really had to), most cyclists need, at most, 2 bikes, and can probably get by with 1.

That's a fun story, but not really the same for me. I have two bikes. One I ride and one that doesn't really have a use other than on the trainer or for a friend to ride. If I got a touring bike, I would sell the other one. I don't really see a need for more than two bikes at this point. How many bikes did you say you had? Just kidding

I am slightly considering one of the Milwaukee Bicycle Co Fugitive frames. They seem nice and are made by Waterford which seems a decent company born out of Schwinn and their Paramount line. I am curious to see how the OX Platinum steel is vs. 4130 Chromo and also play around with building up a bike.

If I were you, I would add a big saddle bag (Carrdice) and a clamp-on handlebar bag to your Roubaix for the "tour." That would be PLENTY of cargo space for what you need.

That said, I do understand that new bike itch--especially to get you through the cold winter months. I would recommend the Disc or Long-Haul Trucker. I also like the Soma products--I've heard good things about the Saga and Grand Randonneur. I have a 650b bike with 650x42mm tires and they are fantastic.

If you want a touring bike get one. Particularly at your weight it is a racing bike. (Racing bikes are built for anorexics). All around the best bike there is. Buy a really expensive good one. Buying a lot of bikes is a dead end. I woke up one day and realized I had 4 bikes with LX level gear mixed with some no name. 3 main tubes butted, etc... What is the fun with that. Even the most expensive bike is pretty cheap compared to what people pay for phones.

I do and don't agree with this. Just depends on your situation, but I currently have 6 bikes--road, randonneur, cross, mountain bike, cargo bike, and a spare road bike I keep at the office. 5 out of 6 bikes are production frames. I COULD sell the road/rando/cross bike and buy a custom, but for me, that JOAT (Jack of All Trades) approach doesn't work well. I love the speed of the road bike, and the "all-day" position of the rando bike, and the svelt toughness of the cross bike. All have their place. Given a limited budget, I would rather have 3-4 bikes in mixed diciplines than one "do-it-all" wonder bike. Again, that works for some, but not me.

Oh, also, purchasing a "really expensive" bike is done much easier when you're replacing a bike, instead of adding to the stable. The new bike talk with the wife goes over much smoother that way.

For your first mini tour, use what you have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEhySzO14ik

Greatness

I can appreciate your experience with the Secteur and Roubaix. The contact points on my Caad4 and Bierwagen are identical. But, due to more flexible carbon seatpost and fork, Bierwagen provided instant relief from hand and butt numbness issues caused the incredibly coarse Kiwi chip seal.

There's little reason you can't use the Roubaix for the first several, shorter, outings.

Moving away from the bikes for a moment. First assess exactly what "gear" you need for an overnight, credit card, tour. It isn't much.

I start with my basic saddle bag contents of tube, patches, boot, levers, tool and a quicklink. A couple bottles. The biggest question is wheather you're comfortable using the same shorts/bibs/liner on two consecutive days. A jersey or shirt and base layer easily dry over night. Usually I'll have a pair of nylon overshorts that provide a more socially acceptable outward appearance on the bike and double as my evening wear with the addition of a single pair of underwear. A rain jacket goes in my jersey pocket. And some Teva's or thin deck shoes get strapped somewhere for off bike/dinner use.

Check out the Topeak website. They have a lot of bags that can provide plenty of storage on the Roubaix without the addition of a classic pannier rack. They even have beam racks that can accommodate a trunk bag and panniers off the seatpost without vetical stays.

Or, check out Bike Bag Shop and look at the Tubus or Old Man Mountain racks that are designed specifically for bikes with disc brakes and attach to the axle quick release instead of eyelets. That way most of the weight is not going through your frame. Then you can look to attaching the forward supports to the brake bridge, that Roubaixs still have, or seatstays, by whatever means you are comfortable with.

Really, between a bar bag, frame bag, MondoXL saddle bag, and a beam rack with a trunk on it, I could credit card tour for a week or more.

Try this overnighting idea on with the GF before investing in a touring specific frame. If you don't like the ride quality of your alloy frame with a carbon fork, how is the ride of a steel frame and fork going to compare to your Roubaix? The Roubaix really is built for comfort. And for such short, initial, journeys you don't require the long term ruggedness and repairability of a steel frame.

My biggest concern would be that you spend your money on some DURABLE :-) wheels. ;-)

1 or 2 bikes? You're taking to the wrong crowd. I have 9. Touring bike, dedicated winter commuters, fat bike, mountain bikes, commuting bikes. Much better to have single purpose rides. YRMV.

I like your collection of bikes. One day, I will learn to stop selling and then buying the exact same Surly bikes (XCheck and KM, in particular). The new green 1x1 is calling my name...

As usual, thanks for the solid info, Fred. I think when the times comes for the first trip, I'll try the Secteur and then make decisions from there.

Also, the new wheels seem to be holding for now. It's hard to say for sure because I go through them after each ride with the tension gauge and adjust them as needed. So with that kind of attention, they are staying very true.

See my question about the wheels in the TM-1 thread.

With regards to the bikes. IF it were comfortable, the Secteur would be my first choice for two reasons.
1. knockabout durability and less value than the Roubaix. I struggle with the inevitable situations where I want to tether/lock my bike to something while I investigate something, go inside, etc. It gets leaned against a lot of unstable situations and cabled to things. So far I haven't lost anything from bag left with the bike. But, I do take my valuables with me and strategically place the dirty underwear on the top of the load in any bags left behind :-)
2. Tires. I believe the Secteur is capable of accommodating a wider tire. I think you mentioned having 32s on it. If it could fit those plus fenders, bonus.

I think that comfort is the only thing limiting the Secteur in any way. If you found that it was equally as comfortable as the Roubaix by adding a flexible post, bars and stem, it would make an extremely capable credit card touring, adventuring bike. It's got braze ons and eyelets for everything you would need. It's capable, it's not as valuable as the Roubaix, it fits you. I don't know what wouldn't be good about it. The only negative thing I really see is a fairly stiff, straight bladed, carbon fork.

I just noticed that Blackburn also does a disc brake specific skewer mounted rear rack for only $55usd.

Absolute bare minimum... I need three. A bike for club rides, a bike for off road, a bike for touring/commuting that has fenders/rack mounted. Even that is pushing it, b/c I would hate to not have both a dedicated cross bike AND a mtb which brings me up to four. To meet this criteria, I would need to have a bunch of additional wheelsets and swap accessories and gearing depending on the ride. There's absolutely no way I could get down to just one and still ride with all the groups I ride with. Then to get bikes that work for multiple situations, I'd have to get rid of a bunch of older bikes that aren't as versatile but have nostalgic value... *sigh* and I still need a fatbike!

N + 1, but honestly, this is more want than need. If you really had to, couldn't you come up with a bike that could handle club rides, commuting, and touring? I see people riding hybrids, cyclocross, and touring bikes on club rides. And if you really had to, you could probably figure out a way to tour on a road bike, or a hybrid. So if you also ride single track, that leaves you with a "need" for two bikes.

Not looking to rain on anyone's parade. I own 3 bikes, but I ride just 1 98% of the time.

Yeah, thought about this plenty in the past. I could sell all bikes and get a road/cx-ish geometry, clearance for 700x50c and disc brakes with all sorts of brazeons and call it good. I could get a pretty sweet custom if I did end up selling all of my bikes. Thought occured to me once again last weekend when I took my CX bike with 700x35's on a 20 mile asphalt and 12 mile singletrack ride. I wasn't as fast on the road, and definitely had to pick my lines going up and down the trail, but it was still fun.

But eventually reality hits and I know I would miss blasting down the trail on my MTB and zipping along the road on my roadie. Plus, I don't know what I would do if the only bike I owned broke down.

I'm a Clyde as well, and I did a trip very much like the one you're looking at last year. My wife and I had so much fun we're going it again this spring.

We rode our Trek CrossRips - very comparable to your Secteur - on an overnight trip to a town 80 miles away. We got up the next day and came back. We each had a Topeak rack and a pair of Ortlieb panniers. That setup worked very well for us.

Since then, we've purchased steel frame bikes. They ride very nicely, but I'm not sure I can really tell that much of a difference between them and the CrossRip - YMMV.

Those Windsor bikes look like a good deal if you don't mind the assembly. I'm a bigger tourist and used the components on my LHT to upgrade to a Riv Hunqapillar after I could afford it, and knew I would have the time to use it. Best move I have made in equipment yet.

Marc