Selecting aTouring Bike

There seem to be a countless number of bicycle manufacturers and each one has at least a half-dozen models and some of the major companies have many more. Yet the number of bikes designed specifically for touring is limited. I guess it makes sense; lots of people ride casually and very few take multi-day trips loaded down with 50+ pounds of gear.

There are however some touring bikes that are fairly popular and have been available for years.They include the Surly Long Haul Trucker, Trek 520, Jamis Aurora, and Novara Randonee. Any of these bikes would be a good choice, but none met all of the criteria I had established.  Fortunately, a few other companies are offering touring bikes now. Here's what I considered:

Specialized Tricross: There are 3 variations of this and as the name implies, it is intended for cyclocross, but it can also be used for touring. Canti brakes, triple crank, and good quality components make this an attractive choice. It has an aluminum frame and that's great for weight savings, but perhaps a bit too stiff for really long rides.


Co-Motion Americano - Co-Motion is best known for their tandems, but they also make some great singles. The Americano is their touring bike and it has all of the features I'm looking for: steel frame, available disc brakes, touring triple crank, and bar-end shifters. Unfortunately the price is much too high for me, a first time tourer. Still, I gave it some thought, but then found out that it would take too long to get it built. I really should have started shopping last fall rather than now when everyone is thinking "new bike."

http://co-motion.com/index.php/singles/americano

Crank Daddy's Bicycle Works http://crankdaddys.com/ (with which I have a family relationship) suggested the Salsa Vaya. Salsa makes some great off-road bikes. The Vaya is set up for mixed surface riding and has all the necessary components to make it a capable touring bike. At a complete bike price of about half of the Americano, it was definitely a possibility. Two problems: First, the 34/48 chainring and 11-32 cassette doesn't give me the serious granny gearing I want. That could be corrected, but the second problem was the fact that they had recently expanded their retail outlets and the increase in demand meant I couldn't get a bike for a couple of months. My fault; again, I should have shopped in mid-winter.

I was starting to think that I'd have to compromise on my specifications. Then Andrew at Crank Daddy's suggested the Gunnar Grand Tour. Gunnar doesn't build complete bikes, just the steel frames. The Grand Tour is designed to do exactly what the name says. This was looking good, but then I found out it couldn't be fitted with disc brakes and by now I had pretty much decided this was a minimum requirement. Back to square one? Almost, but then I saw that Gunnar also makes the Fast Lane, a do-anything frame that can be used for light touring both on and off road. This frame and fork are built to handle the added stress of disc brakes. And yes, they could build it for me with a early May delivery date.

By buying the frame, fork and all the components separately, I know this isn't going to be an economy ride. However it does let me customize everything from the gears to the saddle.

One thinks of bicycles as being rather simple machines, but there are lots of decisions to make in building one from scratch: wheels, spokes, tires, cassette, crank, sadddle, shifters, brakes, brake levers, pedals, and then all of the optional items like lights, bags, and cyclometers. Let the fun begin.