It does not have to be about the bike if you don’t want it to be

I see lots of posts here asking "what sort of bike" to to get for a tour or "is this bike good enough" or "how much should I spend". I’m middle aged and have been touring and bike camping for about 30 years, and I can tell you, you can make it all about the bike if you want to, and if that’s fun for you and you have the means, go for it. Planning and thinking about bicycle trips and technology is super fun for me too. But that’s not all that that there is to the touring mindset, and it’s easy to get hung up on the making of the thing and loose sight of the big picture and the profound things touring has to offer.

I remember a time when I couldn’t afford the best and I had to use the gear that was available to me. In reality with the right mindset, almost any solid bike will do. With that in mind, there’s something to be said for going for old tech. Hopefully this post will show that it’s not always about the bike. Recently, I did a couple of short proof of concept tours, using two "old" bikes, one was a gravel bike build and the other was an all-road build.

My current "high-tech" tourer is a 2023 Kona Sutra that I set up as a comfort touring tank. It’s a slow, heavy, reliable machine that will most likely never let me down. I put a bit of money into it, yet it still cost less than a new middle-of- the-road gravel bike. Nonetheless, it’s modern and while not terribly expensive as bicycle standards go, it’s certainly not "cheap."

One of my other hobby, besides touring, is building up cheap bikes and riding them. One of my more recent builds was a 1982 Univega Specialissima that I picked up $80 on an online market place. I snatched it up with the idea that I’d ride it on one of my micro-tours.

This specific Univega was made in Japan by Miyata. It's the touring model, so is has the cool cantilever brakes, which I left intact.
For touring I replaced the weird stock crankset with a modern-ish Shimano XT mountain triple form the 2000s.

The Suntour stuff was really pretty but I wanted a better gear range to suit a loaded bicycle. To that end I stuck a 13-42 7 speed cassette, made to work with a late 90’s XT rear derailleur with an extender. I also threw on some old clunky looking mountain shifters that work great. The gear range is wider than most people need, which is what I like, because as I age and I grow more tired and creaky, it keeps the injuries away when I have to knock out a 90 mile day.
I replaced the old 27 inch wheels that came with bike with another pair of "junk" Shimano Exage hubs laced to some cheap 700c, 36h single wall aluminum rims. I repacked the hubs and the wheels trued up fine. The tires are Schwalbe Mondials, a 35mm in back and a 40mm in front. That’s some pretty fat tire clearance for an old steel bike.

I removed the drop bars and installed some extra-wide Nitto Bars and a weird stem extender, to make the bike extra comfy. I also added a cheap Chinese leather saddle that’s actually very comfortable.
This summer I took the Univega out for it’s inaugural tour from downtown Los Angeles to San Diego, stealth camping along the route. I’ve toured the pacific coast multiple times using different types of bikes, so this leg is quite familiar to me. The 43 year old Univega did just fine and I had a great time . To be slightly technical I think the only further upgrade would be to install some V-brakes.

The other bike is a 1991 Univega Activa Trail Hybrid bike with added 700c wheels, setup with Schwalbe G-One tires and some Jones Bars. 90’s hybrids were like the like the first "secret gravel bikes" before gravel bikes were a thing. The tire clearance on this model is 50mm. The bike was purchased second-hand for $70 and all the parts were used aside from the tires, seat, chain and rear 11-42 rear cassette. Other more modern builds are great, but there's just something fun about seeing what still works. The whole setup was probably less than $400.

I've taken the budget gravel build out on a few overnights and some group rides.its a fun capable bike.

So far I’ve put about 400-500 miles each of these these bikes on and off road. Do they handle like a real mountain bike, or feel as bomb proof as my Kona, or have the agility of an ultralight gravel bike; of course not. But they sure are very capable, low-priced touring / gravel bikes that certainly do their jobs well.

I’ll admit that not everybody has access to used parts or tools like I do, and bike co-ops aren’t in every town, so I am speaking from a point of some privilege. I also had to put several hundred dollars into each bike to suit my touring style. But still compared to buying new, these bikes really are a deal. That’s what I did when on my first tour down the North American pacific coast. I rode a 90’s Cannondale mountain bike with slicks (the only modification) and a rear rack, used borrowed panniers and an over-stuffed backpack and almost no budget. I had an amazing time probably because I didn’t know any better.

Sometimes I’ll even see a ready to go touring bike, that like 10 or 20 years old for like $200-500 on an online market place. Of course thats hit and miss.

In 2019 I had the privilege of riding the length of Baja California form Tijuana to San Jose Del Cabo. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by two young Mexican bike tourists Ana and Alan who I met at the very beginning of my tour. They were delighted to accompany me because this was their first tour, and I was delighted because their English was pretty good and my Spanish was not. Ana rode an old mountain bike with slicks, a rear rack and she carried an over stuffed backpack, just like I had on my first tour. Alan rode a city bike with a Shimano Nexus 8 speed hub and Schwalbe Slicks. I rode a 1991 Bianchi Tangent Cyclocross bike with a front Ortliebs and a rear rack. Our bikes were not ideal.

Alan and his wife have since visited my home and we have kept in touch since then. I visit Ana in Mexico whenever I’m down there. But while I remember the details about the tech, it wasn’t about the bikes. It was about the journey, the cultures I experienced and the friends I made.