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Old 03-10-19, 01:17 PM
  #27  
Tourist in MSN
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Madison, WI
Posts: 11,212

Bikes: 1961 Ideor, 1966 Perfekt 3 Speed AB Hub, 1994 Bridgestone MB-6, 2006 Airnimal Joey, 2009 Thorn Sherpa, 2013 Thorn Nomad MkII, 2015 VO Pass Hunter, 2017 Lynskey Backroad, 2017 Raleigh Gran Prix, 1980s Bianchi Mixte on a trainer. Others are now gone.

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Originally Posted by djb
...
In stores, as a regular customer, you will never...and I mean never, get a detailed answer from a salesperson. For lots of diff reasons. What you will get is, "sure this bike would be fine for touring", or "absolutely the gearing is so low on this bike you can pull tree-stumps", and while I am being cynical, this is nearly always from someone who has never toured, or is young, and or young and strong, and only rides very light bikes very fast, or wouldnt want to appear wimpy gearing wise.
Cynical, I know, but ....
Yup.

Before I got into touring the only off-the-shelf-production touring bikes I could look at in stores was the Trek 520 and a Fuji. I wanted steel, did not go into a Cannondale store.

One sales person told me that the bike I REALLY needed to get was one that he then showed me how great it was because it had extremely short chainstays. Yup, he said I wanted short chainstays for touring. I knew better and promptly walked out.

Now if you go in a store that sells camping gear and bikes, at least there is a chance that the sales staff might know someone that does touring if they have not done any themselves. But they still are only selling their brands.
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