Really having a hard time wrapping my head around the bike I need for my tour. Mind giving me a hand?
Total bike touring newbie with big ambitions… Too many options & diverging opinions on what’s good, appropriate & simply not recommended…. As of now, I’ve been to 3 LBS & read a bunch of forum posts, articles & old posts in this subreddit & I can’t seem to get a clear picture. I’ve been told more than a few times that riding loaded with 40-50lbs of equipment will be "deadly" with lower-end derailleurs. GRX 600 or 105 at least, they said, for light gravel/road bike touring, loaded with 40lbs+. Now SRAM, Microshift & Campagnolo haven’t been brought up yet & I know very little about them but basically, lower-end was a no go according to employees of the bike shops.
Furthermore they’ve told me aluminum was just fine (discussed a lot here) & that the saddle wouldn’t matter much because they’d all feel just as bad the first few weeks. I was initially recommended a Norco Search XR A2 but was/is reluctant due to the price.
For context I’m planning a 3000km+ European tour from France to Slovenia & back, passing through the Alps. Inevitably, I’ll be doing some climbing, I’ve avoided most of the Cat 1 & 2s but still, I know it’s not always gonna be a cakewalk. I estimate riding 50-100km/day. I will be doing some light gravel, but mainly asphalt.
I’ve got a limited budget being a student and all but I sure as hell wanna make the best out of it, least I’m gonna try. 1400-1500 CAD max tax included ideally.
I found this Kona Esatto D 2015 for 999$ CAD ($730~) … Practically never been used, found none used to compare with price wise, only the MSRP…. But it seems to be fine for my needs. The geometry is the only thing I’m a bit concerned with, not used to it, I tried it & I’m ambivalent… Fear my neck will go kaput from looking up 24/7. I’ve done a great deal of MTB when I was younger & so the position is really new for me.
Main specs I took notice of:
Rear D: Shimano 105
Front D: " Tiagra
Crank: 34/50
Cassette: Shimano Tiagra 12-28t 10spd
Tires: 700x30c Schwalbe CX Pro
Any suggestions, comments, advices? Any pointers would be super helpful & much appreciated!
by -StonedImmaculate-
7 Comments
Specs are not that important. I’ve met people who toured from India to Singapore on no-brand bikes with the lowest end Shimano derailleurs.
The Kona in your picture…did you test ride it in the configuration shown with the seatpost slammed down and the handlebars pointed at the sky? That picture shows a bike that does not fit its rider and should not be ridden that way at all.
If you don’t want drop bars that’s fine, get a used hybrid bike like Giant Escape or Trek FX or Cannondale Quick or Specialized Sirrus. Those all cost around 700 USD new, or around 300-400 USD used. Don’t buy one that’s more than 5 years old.
Don’t get a bike with front suspension.
That’s it. Simple. Ideas about GRX derailleurs or whatever are unimportant. You’ll have a great tour no matter which model of derailleurs you use.
Offhand, looks difficult to put a real rack on it. I don’t see any bosses on the seat stay.
Geometry looks fine. The main thing is the gearing. When I was young I toured on a bike with similar gearing (in the French alps no less) and it was manageable. But if I were to be buying a bike specifically for the trip I would definitely get lower gearing.
That Kona is not the right bike for heavy loaded touring: No rack mounts and no appropriate gearing (lowest gear by far not low enough), narrow tires, 28 spoke rear wheel.
Seat post and handlebar position look weird too. If someone was riding it like this, the bike was waaay too big for that person.
Also the shops have been telling you BS. Lower-end groups can work perfectly fine for loaded touring, you just want low gearing.
The information you’ve heard about touring with lower end deraillieurs being “deadly” is quite frankly laughable and I wouldn’t trust anything out of the mouth of someone who told me that.
The gear ratios available on Sora/Claris/Alivio and equivalent 7/8/9 speed groupsets are far more suited to touring with cargo than how most GRX 600/105 bikes will come stock.
On top of this, the fewer gears a system has the lower the tolerances are. Thicker chains and cogs last longer, and fewer gears mean these systems have a much higher tolerance to poor indexing. On top of this, parts availability for 7-9 speed systems is far better and the parts are cheaper if you break something out on the road.
Try indexing an 11 speed deraillieur and then an 8 speed derailleur and you’ll get the gist of it.
I’d skip the bike you’ve listed, it has no mounts for a rear rack and looks like it would be awkward to mount one too using other solutions. The 11-28 cassette is pitiful and it looks like it has a 50/34 double crankset which won’t provide much range for carrying cargo up hills.
For comparison, something like an REI ADV 1.1 comes with an 11-34 cassette and a 48/36/26 triple crankset which provides far greater gear range and will give you plenty of gears to choose from compared to this.
I’ve ridden a lot with lower than 105/grx 600 derailleurs and components in general as well as cheap 10 eur rims and haven’t had any problems on tours or rides except for flat tires, a couple of broken spokes locally, and a broken brake track on a rim once. People tend to repeat what other’s say, and there’s occasionally some who’ve had bad luck or didn’t know how to use/maintain their bikes.
I would personally go for a flat bar hybrid/touring bike. You might more readily find bikes within your budget that have clearance for larger tires (good for comfort, heavier load, rough roads), that come with hydraulic brakes (acera level brakes work great for me), and they’ll probably have mounts for racks, mudguards. You also probably don’t want very short, racey chainstays if you’re using racks to prevent your heel hitting the panniers, but I suppose there’s some room to adjust and pull the panniers back on better designed rear racks.
Maybe you could buy a new or discounted bike in Europe and then start the tour.
You want something durable that will take lots of weight and have low gearing. You want something with low spec easy to find parts that you can replace yourself.
My suggestion – steel frame, comfortable geometry, drops, lots of mounting points, wide tyres (32+) – something puncture proof. Rack and mudguards, low spec shimano group set.