kahtadin

I just joined this forum and am not sure where to post so here goes: I'm in my late 60's and relatively fit. I have a number of bikes, mostly older but have been a bike rider all my life. I want to get into touring but being retired, I am on a limited budget and don't want to make too many mistakes in this adventure. I have been an avid backpacker and am familiar with roughing it. Now that I have more time I want to see more, only from the seat of a bike. My latest acquisition is (roughly I'm guessing, I bought it used) 2017 Raleigh Merit. l am wondering if I can make a touring bike out of it? What would I need to change on the bike? I'm not familiar with tire sizes etc. and would need advice as to what changes would I need to do? I'm willing to make some investments but not having toured before I thought I could get started with this? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

phughes

Which model? I believe the Merit came in different models. What I do know is that it has rather short chain stays, which can be problematic when using panniers. Does you frame have mounts for a rear rack? Gearing will most likely be an issue. I would want lower gearing than what it comes with. I believe they had a Merit Sport which had a carbon frame, and the others were aluminum. I would refer a steel frame for touring over the aluminum Merit frame. Aluminum frames can be made for touring, and can be quite nice, like the old Cannondale touring bikes, but they were made for touring, and were made strong enoughfor touring loads. The Merit wasn't designed for touring, so I am not sure how heavy of a load it could safely carry.

You can tour on almost any bike, it just depends on how you want to tour. Will you be doing credit card touring, staying in hotels? Will you be camping? If you will be camping you will have to carry more.

You say you have many bikes. If you have an old mountain bike, it might be a better choice, depending of course on the particular mountain bike. Hardtail mountain bikes from the 80s can often work well for touring.

kahtadin

This is all new to me, I hope I'm responding in the right place. The Raleigh is a Merit 2? I'm not positive, as I'm at work and not near the bike, It has more bells and whistles than I'm used to. I know it is an aluminium frame and a carbon fork, with fancy shifters on the brake levers. She also has disc brakes. My old mountain bike is really old, I got it 27 years ago. It is a Schwinn and has no suspension. It's frame is steel (crome moly) ? it also has a weird size seat post. She's old and heavy, last time I weighed her she was over 30 lbs. I'll check for mounting points ASAP. And what is a chain stay? I hope to be camping as credit card touring isn't possible at this time. I also have a Trek hybrid that I converted to electric by purchasing a new front wheel with an integral motor. I'd probably start out with a one or two night overnighter. I live in CT and there are many trails nearby.

Yan 

Bike touring is dirt cheap when you have a tent. That bike is fine as long as it has the screw mounting points for a rear rack.

Tourist in MSN

The mountain bike might be the better choice to get started on, I suspect if you try bike touring and like it, you will end up buying a new bike later. Starting with what you have makes sense. If the Schwin is mid to late 90s, it would likely have an 8 speed cassette that would work well for bike touring. Even if it is 7 speed in back, that is still quite usable. If it was a true mountain bike of that vintage, it should have a triple crank, thus has wide gearing which is good. And you have had it long enough to be familiar with it.

The chain stays are the metal frame tubes that go between the rear wheel and the bottom bracket. The bottom bracket is the spindle and bearings that your crank rotates on. Longer chain stays are better for touring, and if they are quite short then your panniers have to be mounted further back so your heels do not hit them, and putting the panniers that far back with the center of gravity that far back can impair handling.

If you start out using backpacking gear, that is light so you are at an advantage of keeping the bike light. I also backpack, but I am a lot less weigh conscious when the weight is on wheels instead of on my shoulder straps and hip belt.

Tell us more about the mountain bike, gearing details, tire sizes, model, etc. Seatposts can be shimmed if you need a different one.

GamblerGORD53

The Raleigh is fine for a race type, no chance for loading.
I looked at the 1996 Schwinn catalogue. These are the cheap FAKE Schwinns. I see nothing very useful. They all have a very short head tube.
So then we'll need to see what the Trek is good for.

irwin7638

Sounds like you can make an easy transition to bike touring since you have back packing experience. This might give you some ideas. It's an e-book I wrote to answer all the questions I get from club cyclists when they hear about some of my trips.
Stick your neck out and take a few local, short trips and see how it feels.

Marc

stevepusser

Shorter wheelbase bikes can be used with panniers on a low rider front rack along with a duffel bag/tent/sleeping bag on top of a rear rack, or ginormous seat bag, as long as you're aware about the front bags possibly having a low speed toe strike issue because of less fork rake.

This actually increases the bike's stability at speed when loaded. More problematic are narrower rims and tires with lower spoke counts, and higher gearing.

50PlusCycling

The Merit 2 has eyelets for a rear rack, and appears to have eyelets on the fork dropouts as well. There are some photos on the web showing these bike with a rear rack, so its obviously doable.

Steve B.

OP doesn’t state which Merit he has. Theres a 1 and a 2. The 1 looks to be a carbon road bike and I’m not seeing eyelets on the rear triangle.

The 1 I see has a Tiagra group, not sure there’s enough low gearing for a loaded bike.

For even light loaded touring I would want gearing of 20 to gear inches, as well as 32-36mm tires. Dont think this bike is going to be able to use tires that big and I would not be pouring money into chainging the shifting system to get lower gearing.

Bottom line is this might be a poor choice. If just credit card touring with bikepacking front and rear bags you might be OK.

50PlusCycling

He said he believed it was a Merit 2, and that it had an aluminum frame…

Steve B.

I missed his 2nd post

In any event, if planning a self supported tour, the mt. bike would be the better choice, IMO. I could see the road bike for a credit card tour,

Doug64

My wife and I have done quite a bit of touring on our road bikes. I made custom tapered panniers to prevent heal strike. We did not do any epic rides, but the bike equipped with 28 mm tires, did a good job hauling us and our camping gear on 2- week rides. I think they would have handled longer trips, but we were working at the time and our tours were relatively short. Both of our bikes had aluminum frames, and my wife's bike had a carbon fork. Depending on the route, I believe that the Raleigh would do fine. We both used our stock 9 speed chainrings, but replaced the rear cassette with an 11-34. We also replaced the rear derailleur with Shimano LX mountain bike derailleurs. We thought we died and went to heaven when we got 9 speed triples with a "small" 30 tooth chainring.



A better look at my wife's bike. It is the same model of bike as the one in the picture above. It is just a new frame.


Touring on a stock Peugeot PX10--1100+ miles in 11 days. The tubular wheels were traded for a set of clinchers that I used for training. The panniers are the first pair I made in the early 70s. I did a lot of tours on this setup, 14-28 5 cog freewheel and 45/53 chainrings.

Sorcerer

That is a great reply!

​​​​​​There's a lot of great equipment out there to try!

​​​​​​We have gotten into bike packing on dirt trails and while we use panniers usually, we are aware and use some of the latest bike packing gear especially on road tours as well.

Heel strike is something you're going to have to take into account fitting a rack and panniers. It is possible to find racks that are longer or locate further back. In my experience, moving a heavy load further past the rear hub makes the bike handle worse. Anyway it is a concern.

Without much more than a couple of straps (the silicone straps by Voile are excellent) a roll of gear can be fastened to the handlebar.

Stem bags are great for small things and are cheap. These are like little watterbotte sized (and can hold a water bottle) bags which attach behind the bars and next to the stem. They do restrict the turning handlebar, but for most riding they aren't in the way..

Finally I am one of those who recommends putting weight on the forks using something like the Salsa Anything cage or Topeak. We ause these on technical trails and they are great. It is possible to balance the load fore and aft.

Frame bags a great too, but finding one that fits right can be a challenge, depending.

Sorcerer

That is a great reply!

​​​​​​There's a lot of great equipment out there to try!

​​​​​​We have gotten into bike packing on dirt trails and while we use panniers usually, we are aware and use some of the latest bike packing gear especially on road tours as well.

Heel strike is something you're going to have to take into account fitting a rack and panniers. It is possible to find racks that are longer or locate further back. In my experience, moving a heavy load further past the rear hub makes the bike handle worse. Anyway it is a concern.

Without much more than a couple of straps (the silicone straps by Voile are excellent) a roll of gear can be fastened to the handlebar.

Stem bags are great for small things and are cheap. These are like little watterbotte sized (and can hold a water bottle) bags which attach behind the bars and next to the stem. They do restrict the turning handlebar, but for most riding they aren't in the way..

Finally I am one of those who recommends putting weight on the forks using something like the Salsa Anything cage or Topeak. We ause these on technical trails and they are great. It is possible to balance the load fore and aft.

Frame bags a great too, but finding one that fits right can be a challenge, depending.

Anyway, just get out there and do it! What amazese is that it's a totally cool process and it is possible to make changes to your gear and route as you go.