Originally Posted by
MarcusT
When you say "building a tourer", do you mean building a bike from the frame up or adding racks to an existing bike?
I built up an LHT this past winter and going with what is "hot" was more complicated than I thought. Compatibility between derailleurs, shifters, brake sets, frame and of course component colors, took a lot of research. In the end, I went withe tried and true 3x9 . A big challenge was the little things.
For racks, I settled for 2nd best, I went with Tubus, They are nice, but not much better than the other brands. Panniers are usually "one fits all", but it's always good to make sure
for Marcus and sdn40,
Marcus, here in Canada, Tubus racks are seriously expensive, upwards of 125 and 150 front and back, throw in 15% sales tax and its a lot of cash. I bought a pair for when I decided to do some Latin America trips, so went with top stuff
----BUT
sdn, for decades myself and probably every experienced tourer on here , did fun and successful tours on very moderately priced aluminum racks without any issues whatsoever.
I commute all the time, buy groceries etc, carry two panniers, on bikes with 25 to 40 dollar racks, and they just keep on ticking.
all that to say, is that well made, moderately priced aluminum racks will work perfectly fine, throw in the used panniers and you can try out bike touring for not too much money, and see if you like it, plain and simple.
just be moderate in your packing, and yes, you will probably take too much crap the first time, but thats life-we learn from doing it.