milofilo

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I have been seeing a lot about the go-to traditional touring bikes (trek 520, surly LHT, etc). I am wondering what people recommend for lighter loads. I am coming from backpacking where I carried about 12 pounds baseweight so I imagine I can use most of the same gear and get away with a lighter bike? Or are the same bikes used for ultralight bike touring.

What are your thoughts?

bikemig 

Pretty much any bike you want can do this. Personally, I'd opt for something that can take at least s 28c tire and a fender and I'd opt for steel so that I can safely mount bags to pretty much any part of the frame. If money were no option, I'd get a high end steel cross bike like the gunnar cross hairs.

Gunnar Cycles USA, CrossHairs for Gravel or ?Cross Riding

Another possibility is to simply build up or find a used "sports" touring bike.

Like one of these, https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...g-bicycle.html

Happy Feet

Not really the same.

Traditionally touring bikes have certain features that make them so. Most (not all) of these have to do with being able to handle heavy loads. The exception being a more relaxed overall geometry to allow riders to feel more comfortable over many hours in the saddle.

Otherwise, a touring bike generally is built stronger (to carry loads), has multiple attachment points (to fix racks), has longer chain stays (to avoid heel strike on panniers), and lower gearing (to push loads up hills). The trade off, in some cases, is overall slower speed than a lighter bike.

If you are UL or CC touring you can make better headway with a road style bike but should still look for one reliable enough to withstand multiple days of long riding and general abuse. Don't know much about road bikes so which those are I can't say.

prathmann

Depends on the anticipated road and grade conditions. For tours on decent roads and no especially steep grades I prefer to use my regular Cannondale road bike with 23 or 25 mm tires and 53/39 double crank. OTOH, if much of the tour will be on worse roads or with some grades over 20% then I'd choose my older Specialized Sequoia which can accommodate tires up to 38mm and has a triple crank for lower gear options. The Cannondale is about 5 pounds lighter.

chasm54

If you're really expecting to carry loads of only 12lbs, then any bike will cope, with a frame bag or a saddlebag. I've done light tours with around 15lbs of gear in a traditional Carradice saddlebag on a full carbon road bike. There's one frequent poster here who does that with a load of c.20lbs including camping gear.

So the bike choice is wide open. The only other consideration is what sort of touring you might be doing? Road bikes are much more robust than many people imagine, but they don't have the clearances for big tyres so if you want to do serious off-road you might want to look at gravel, adventure or cyclocross bikes.

mdilthey

Cyclocross bikes make awesome light touring bikes.

Jim Kukula

"base load" means without food and water, right? One thing about bike touring vs backpacking is that bike touring is more often in the midst of civilization... of course, one can ride a bike in remote country and one can backpack in dense civilization, so there is no strict rule! If you are riding a few days through remote desert, you need to carry lots of water, so you need a strong bike! If you are stopping at restaurants three times a day, maybe riding down the Rhine or something, probably a liter of water and a croissant is all you need.

My brother rode his Ducati from San Diego to San Francisco. That tight suspension was not so comfortable on a long ride like that. Serious racing bikes are not really built for comfort. If you are carrying very little weight ... still on a tour you are likely spending many long days on the bike... you could look at bikes people use for randonneuring, for long distance riding. I guess the Specialized Roubaix might be a light fast bike that is still comfortable enough for riding long distances.

Salamandrine 

I went through this recently. Having ridden lightweight bikes my whole life, I'd never be happy riding a LHT or 520 or REI Randonee. They are all somewhat overbuilt to handle a style of touring that I'll never do. Not that they are bad, just not my thing. I wanted something like my old Univega Specialissima, basically a race bike with a slightly longer wheelbase and relaxed angles.

While you could ride almost any road bike with 12lb, I would look at an older high end touring bike, or a new bike in that style. Look at the Bob Jackson world tour for example. The longer wheelbase is more suited to all day riding, and it will help if you want to carry say 24lb... Also helpful if there's any gravel roads you may want to point your bike down.

There's also the new Cannondale touring bikes that just came out. I'd check that out too.

fietsbob

A classic steel road Bike with nothing more than a large Brirish style saddle bag and a Handlebar bag (& mudguards)

and a pocket full of cash or your debit card and there you go "Credit card touring" stay in a B&B , eat lunch, supper .. at a cafe.

You're in civilization so you carry even Less.

Tourist in MSN

My only advice is to follow the advice of others that actually do the ultralight touring thing. A few screen names would be azza_333 if you are interested in a carbon frame or staehpj1 who also posted a summary of what he carries on Crazy Guy on a Bike. Also, Machka who does not really do the ultralight touring thing might have some good suggestions for type of bike from her randonneuring experience.

I am not qualified to make any specific recommendations.

Squeezebox

Tipi Walter would buy a LHT and a BOB trailer. The UL hikers would buy an endurance bicycle with slightly lower gears and a bit more relaxed geometry than a full on racing bicycle. If you are going to do gravel and trails, that will take even lower gears, even more relaxed geometry, and fatter tires. Let us know what you are thinking of doing and your cycling experience. Yes you can do this! But there is no right answer though!

LeeG

Milofilo, just get the bike you like to ride. You don't say what your riding history is. If you are accustomed to drop bar road bikes then get that. If you're accustomed to old style three speeds there you go. If you're going to be riding where roads are wet then fenders are worth it. If you're accustomed to flat bar hybrid bikes and you're being steered to drop bar road bikes there will be some adjustment in posture. I'm impressed by how light a lot of non-racing bikes are nowadays. Basically pick the bike for comfort, road conditions and your preferences in posture.
When I did most of my fast light touring it was on road racing steel bikes with a light platform rack that couldn't take fenders. This was in Ca. where it rained infrequently in summer and I tolerated the spray when it rained. 12-15lbs was typical for 1-3 week trips.

ok, from your other post it looks like you're seeking the best road bike for under $200. I would say the one with good wheels and tires that hold air and it fits you.

PDKL45

I have been thinking about how cool a Soma Wolverine in black would be as an ultralight tourer, with a handlebar bag and a big saddlebag with one of those Nitto Bag Supporters that have supports going down to the seat stays.

Another option would be for an alloy 29er hardtail frame, Surly cromolly forks with an uncut steerer tube to bring drop bars back and up to offset the long top tube and run bike packing bags.

Doug64

Almost any bike will work if it is geared correctly and comfortable. My wife and I have done quite a bit of light touring using our road bikes,even though we usually are self contained, and on more traditional touring bikes. The bike shoes are tucked in because we were waiting for a ferry. My wife's size 8 shoe shows the size of the panniers, about the same as a typical front pannier.

My wife's 50 cm bike and my 58 cm road bike on self supported tour. Notice the custom made panniers with pronounced taper. This provides heel clearance, making heel strike a non-issue. We usually used 25 mm tires, and did well with them.


This gives you an idea of the pannier's taper on my panniers, providing heel clearance. If we were not camping, the panniers would have been more than sufficient, and would have weighed less than 20lb plus bar bag. The bags on top have the sleeping bags, tent, and Thermarest in them. Cooking and kitchen gear are in the panniers. However, no room for fenders. Same panniers, the red ones, but on my wife's older bike a year earlier.

DropBarFan

For ultra-light touring I'd really think about a carbon bike for light weight & ~shock absorbency.

Lt Stonez

Any bike will do the job when only carring 12 pounds. panniers or bikebags? 12P= bikebags ( saddlebag,framebag and handlebarbag)
https://www.revelatedesigns.com/inde...store.catalog/
expensive but good and waterproof.

bradtx

milofilo, I've used my mountain bike, my roadie, and my touring bike for light weight touring. Each have their pluses and minuses. From heaviest to lightest there's about a seven pound difference in bike weight which isn't significant when factoring in the cargo, water bottles, maintenance items and myself, IMHO.

Overall the touring bike is the best of the three. I don't have a CX bike, but my daughter does and geometry wise it splits the difference between the roadie and the touring bike and would be my choice for a dedicated light touring bike.

Brad

nun

For light weight touring I'd look at rackless carrying systems like traditional Carradice saddlebags or bikepacking bags. Then I'd get a carbon adventure bike with good tire clearance. So a Specialized Diverge or a Norco Search or a Raleigh Roker type bike. If the OP has a base weight of 12lbs for backpacking I'd add a few extra pounds for cycling specific stuff like tools and spares. I use a Cervelo RS to do lightweight touring and it has worked well for the last 5 or 6 years, but ideally, I would like more tire clearance.

IK_biker

Lots of valuable perspectives already shared in this thread.

Mine differs a bit.
This type of touring is exactly what I do, and my requirements after some simplification boiled down to 4 things:
- Low enough gearing
- Clearance for wide tires for comfort
- Luggage attachment options (if not entirely focusing on the bikepacking approach)
- Light weight as a heavy-duty machine is a total overkill.

This seems to call for a specialized bike, not something you will find "on the shelf".
So I took the pleasure to build my own - suited to carry panniers, and entirely self-sufficient electrical system (lighting and charging). With the exact gearing I needed.
Then this last winter I built another one - for the bikepacking approach (no racks), much lighter, Ti frame, without a dynamo hub. This is the bike I now ride most, almost daily.

Very happy with both bikes.

tarwheel 

Like others said, you can do light touring on just about any bike. It is comparable in many respects to commuting. I have bike commuted for years on various bikes -- a De Bernardi racing model, Bob Jackson World Tour, Salsa Casseroll sport tourer, Eddy Merckx Corsa racing, Waterford RST-22 sport tourer, Gunnar Sport, Gunnar Crosshairs cyclocross, Ritchey cyclocross, Soma Saga tourer.

For light touring, I have enjoyed riding most on my sport touring bikes (Waterford and Salsa) because of their comfortable ride, nice handling and ability to carry light to moderate loads. They also have longer chainstays, which is important if using panniers. I have carried my gear in large saddlebags such as Carradice Barley and Pendle as well as racktop bags.

milofilo

Thanks for all the advice! I am a little overwhelmed by all I have to learn about bikes.. I think I will be trying out some different bikes and see if I can find a good fit. It's a little intimidating since most bikes you just try out around the block and then make a choice. But i have time to be picky. Thanks again all I really appreciate it!

LeeG

Milo, if you're truly coming from zero experience. Dial in your preferred seat to handlebar position with seat to pedal distance pretty much fixed. Many folks who don't cycle much tend to have low seat positions as it's very awkward trying to sit on the seat and touch the ground. Seat height is set for riding not standing.