Recently I've become obsessed with the idea of buying this bike at the beginning of a tour across Japan (and/or Korea) – it's steel, fits my budget, classic looks, great color, braze ons/eyelets for racks (and I don't own a tourer currently). would be my first drop bar style bike. Just want to check other people's thoughts – what might need changing for touring? There isn't a lot of English content on this bike, the Fuji Feather CX+. I'd prefer maybe a lower granny gear (lowest is 29 gear inches I think on this) and put a taller stem on (and once I get back to my home country and it becomes an every day bike I'd maybe swap for a 650b wheelset to fit 42mm tires as I've seen online it fits 700C ~38mm or 650b 42mm). I'd take a few chill days in Tokyo to install racks (would fly in with panniers and I think I have a riser stem in the parts bin and maybe the racks too). Is it a crazy idea? I think I've just fallen in love with the color and maybe the "idea" of this bike.
by benrihike
2 Comments
You might think about replacing the crank with a triple. Japan is super hilly, and riding loaded is going to be a bear. Think about riding up a 7% grade of three miles with 10kg bike, 23kg gear and whatever you weigh.
We’ve toured in Japan, and are planning another trip in November. This upcoming trip will have 13,000m of accent over 1000km. Right now my touring bike has a low end of 19 gear inches and on the last trip which wasn’t nearly as hilly, it came in handy. I would agree that some lower gears might be handy.
Also, with a new bike, it takes time to dial in the fit so you might find the saddle doesn’t fit you, the geometry needs tweaking, and usually with a new bike, cables stretch out and need some readjustment. Also, disc brakes need a week or two to fully seat the pads and disc together before they work as they are supposed to. Just some other things to consider.
I just purchased a new gravel bike (not my touring bike) with a plan to use it for touring eventually. We aren’t doing as much completely self supported touring with tent, sleeping bags etc so my current touring bike is an overkill and heavy. I went with a 1×12 arrangement, and I swapped out the rear cluster for a 11 – 50 with a 40 tooth chainring. This give me around 23 gear inches. I also got a 36 tooth chainring that I can swap out with the 40 using only an allen wrench and give me lower gearing for touring.