Originally Posted by
hybridbkrdr
I've ridden bikes with a mix of Alivio/Deore and Sora/Tiagra. And those might be fine to ride and fun. But when I bought a cheap Canadian Tire bike once and installed Shimano Altus shifters, I found the bike worked well enough even with Tourney derailleurs. So I was thinking if you could find a bike with flat bars, front and rear racks, fenders and Shimano Atlus or Acera components, would you go for that?
Some people like to buy an inexpensive bike to tour on, They'll fly to the area that they are starting from, buy an inexpensive bike, add whatever they need to it there and then ride it on their tour to their end point. they then take off anything they want to keep from the bike and leave the bike for someone to take.
Also, some people need a very upright position in order to be comfortable on a bike. That could be due to previous injury or other health related issues.
I find that something that helps me a lot of times when I'm riding my MTB on long rides is to have a pair of bar-ends mounted inboard of the brake levers and shifters. Having a pair of bar-ends in that area means I can get a more aero position if pedaling into a stiff headwind or if I just want a different position on the bike.
Here are a couple of images on a rigid frame/fork MTB I had that i mounted bar-ends inboard of the brake levers and shifters. I could have had a second pair of bar-ends mounted at the end of the handlebar but I felt I didn't need them there. I did a lot of long rides on that bike and really appreciated the location of those inboard bar-ends.
Happy riding.
Cheers