oharescrubs

anyone else done/doing/thinking/hating/loving/confused with this?

here is my friends. im planning something along the same lines...

n4zou

You mean something like this?

oharescrubs

yea, like a mtn bike/hybrid frame made into a touring bike

cyccommute 

It would really depend on the bike. You need to look at the geometry of the frame closely before you proceed too far. Relatively new mountain bikes probably won't make as good a loaded touring bike as some of the older ones. Most of the new ones (around 2000 +) have shorter chainstays then older ones. The older ones tend to be rather heavy, too, unless you get into much higher level bikes. Touring bikes don't need to be superlight but they don't need to be pushing 40 or 45 lbs either.

Something else to consider is cost. Refitting a bike for touring can be pouring good money after bad. I've done many, many upgrades and, while it's fun and satisfying, it is never cheap. Not if you are honest about it anyway. If you sit down and really add up the cost, it often works out to be cheaper just to buy a new touring bike.

If you are going to pull a trailer, just about any mountain bike will do. Personally, for off-road touring or combination road/off-road, I'd probably use a mountain bike with a lockable front shock and a trailer before I'd use bags. If I'm going strictly road touring, I use bags.

As for the picture you show, it looks good but I'd probably investigate a different bar. That one locks your hands into one position which can lead to all kinds of numbness problems. A straight bar or a riser both with barends would be a better choice. I've ridden bikes with only one position and, unless you enjoy that pins and needles feeling when you hands go to sleep, I much prefer more hand positions.

cyclintom

How about my old school Cyclocross bike turned into a touring bike?

Monoborracho

[QUOTE=cyccommute] Refitting a bike for touring can be pouring good money after bad. I've done many, many upgrades and, while it's fun and satisfying, it is never cheap. Not if you are honest about it anyway. If you sit down and really add up the cost, it often works out to be cheaper just to buy a new touring bike. QUOTE]

+1 I've got too much money in this one from the mid-90's "old" Schwinn shop. This Schwinn Transit is almost unique, I've never seen another one, and it was part of Schwinn's last gasp to compete in the LBS market aside from the Paramount. The dimensions are almost exactly those of the Trek 520, with about one inch longer top tube and one-half inch higher BB. You can see it has a lot of miles on it and I can sit it all day, but if I had to do it over again....I probably would not.

jcm

'92 Trek 930 ( I thought it was a '93 til yesterday )

cyclintom

And you'd probably be wrong. I have seldom seen an over-the-counter touring bike that didn't need a lot of component replacements to make it optimal. Because of that and because touring bikes are pretty rare anyway, you end up building one up from scratch 9 times out of 10. And so the frame becomes only a small part of the equation. In short, you don't actually save anything by buying a complete touring bike.

So convert a bike if you like, or buy a touring bike from a major brand or get a LHT frame/fork and build a new one up yourself. It will all come out pretty much in the same catagory - what you want you can have.

rnagaoka

...loving it. That's one of the cleanest conversions I've seen yet. That black/silver combo is beautiful in my eyes. And those Surly racks are so...utilitarian. I'm wondering if those "North Roads" type handlebars really work to prevent hand problems?

jcm

Yes, a beautiful job. And, yes, North Road bars do help relieve hand numbness and general discomfort if you have trouble using a more stretched out setup with drops. In other words, if you have back problems or arthritis issues in the shoulders, neck or collar bones, NR's are a great solution. They also help a lot with carpal tunnel problems.

Drops do give the rider hand position options, but that's because with drops, you need them. Properly balanced between saddle and bars, you don't get fidgety with NR's.

See the Trek 930 above. Those are NR's and I use that bike for the occasional century at about the same frequency that use my 520. Until three weeks ago, I had NR's on the 520 as well. Now, it has Nitto B115 drops. The test is still in progress and the NR's are the standard to beat for me. I consider NR's to be the mosty ergonomically correct handlebars ever made.

hoogie

nice job!!!!

this is my giant yukon that i converted into a low cost touring bike ... this also appeared in the adventure cycling handbook

RayB

Some nice bikes guys. Here is my conversion of a Cannondale BB Hybrid. After using this for the past 4 years I would like to give a real touring frame a go to see how different a proper bike handles. I have had no problems with this. The flat bars killed me while on tour until I swapped them out for the trekking bar.

Losligato

Converting a Mt. Bike does not have to be expensive. We bought everything for the touring bikes we are using here in Southeast Asia either second-hand or from eBay...

Rowan

My old tour guiding MTB converted to touring mode. There wasn't much to convert, except for the front rack on the suspension forks.

centexwoody 

I agree with cyclintom & Mono: after riding my Giant '02 steel MTB Boulder converted to a road bike (stem extensions, bar extensions, new seat, etc.) Had taken a $ 300 bike and invested another coupla hundred in it until it reached the point that no more investment or changes would make much difference.

I decided to get an LHT & build it up. The difference in positioning was remarkable. At 6'5", the geometry of the MTB had 'accomodated' my size but the Surly truly fits me. I've ridden both off & on and find the touring bike is the one I WANT to ride, the MTB conversion is my backup. Haven't toured with the Surly, just commute on it for 50-60 miles / wk at this point. Will tour this coming summer.

But others will tell you their own stories as illustrated below. I myself saved for a year & took the leap to a genuine touring frame & do not regret the investment at all - the pleasure and comfort of the LHT has been worth the ca. $ 1500 I've got invested in it.

cyccommute 

Most of the production touring bikes that are readily available could hit the road tomorrow with little modification. A Cannondale T-series is tour ready, with proper gearing and equipment. The only addition needed would be a low-rider rack. The gearing is very suitable. The Trek 520 is tour ready, even if it has a little too high a gear. Change the rear cluster to a 14-34 and add a low-rider and it'd be ready for a cross country trip. The same holds for the Fuji Touring or the REI touring bike.

None of the bikes listed are necessarily optimum and each might need their own tweeks to make them worthy but the tweeks are only going to amount to a few tens of dollars.

I'm not trying to argue against building your own touring bike from anything you have but I just want to caution that it's not necessarily a cheaper way to go.

Rowan

I agree with all the sentiments in this post. Buying off the shelf is always going to be cheaper than building up with the same level of componentry -- it's simply a case of economies of scale.

HOWEVER, much also depends on the experience of the owner. A new touring rider will take pretty well whatever is presented and ride with it. It's only after doing X number of miles that some of the shortcomings or personal preferences might become evident, and then the tweaking might start.

The four fundamental areas of change on an off-the-rack bike would seem to me to be: Seat (I would swap out the original immediately for a Brooks); wheels (the best quality rims, DT Swiss of Wheelsmith Spokes and likely LX hubs); rear rack (Tubus for me); and brake pads (Koolstop originals).

As to building up a bike, the cost of the wishlist items would be as much as the frame, and would go along the lines of a Cro-Mo frame (something like a Thorn) and with 26" rims, drop bars and maybe with S&S coupling; a Rolhoff 14sp rear hub; Schlumff Mountain Drive; a SON dynohub up front; Velocity Dyad rims with DT Swiss spokes; canti brakes; Tubus rear rack; Brooks saddle, and French-style front rack, bag and panniers. The Thorn is not a given, as there are plenty of solid Cro Mo MTB frames with good dimensions from the 1980s still kicking around in Australia, in which case the add-on bits definitely would be WAY more expensive than the frame

MrPolak

Based on my research Trek 700 Multitrack series have same frame geometry as Trek 520. The Trek 700, 720 and 730 have decent asian frames, with the Trek 750 having a double-butted high-end frame made in USA. Trek 750 has pannier bosses on the fork but lacks a 3rd bottle mount - a nitpick IMHO.

Trek 900-series mountain bikes about '97 and older with no suspension forks make great conversions. Again, the 900-930 have decent steel frames, with the 950 being the top-of-the-line double-butted lighter frame.

All of the above will take mountain bike triple cranksets, mountain hubs and derailleurs. Keep the 7-speed cassette and derailleur for what some people say is an indestructible combination. You can mount a 48-38-28 triple crankset (square-taper type), a new front Shimano LX derailleur to give yourself awesome gears. Add some trekking "butterfly" type handlebars for all day hand comfort.

You can apply above logic to many older MTB with a steel frame.

Keep in mind that it matters not so much what you ride, but that you do.

cyclintom

I think we're agreeing. A Cannondale tour-ready bike isn't cheap. Nor the Trek version either. I'm not saying they're expensive. What I'm saying is that generally speaking you're pretty much going to spend between $1K and $2K for a touring bike if you're being careful. You can get it cheaper or a whole lot more expensive but thinking you're going to build one on the cheap without ever having done it before is not going to happen unless you're really a whiz.

DavidARayJaxNC

Thats what I ride. a 920 and it has a great light cromoly frame. I am lucky that I happened upon th efame and fork set. If you can get one at a good price you should take it.
Also Mr. Polak, didnt they introduce the 900 series in 92 or 93? I may be mistaken. SET ME STRAIGHT

cyccommute 

I certainly agree. However, a T-800 can be found for some below $900 if you are lucky. My current favorite inexpensive touring bike is the Fuji Touring. MSRP is $900 and I got a NOS for my daughter in 2005 for $500. It's a good bike for $900 but a great bike for $500. It will last a good long time or at least until you want to upgrade to something much better

n4zou

I agree about the handlebars myself. I have retained the stock handlebars on my Specialized CrossRoads due to the fact I have no hand, arm, or back problems with them. I had ordered Trekking bars from nashbar to put on the bike when converting it and there sitting in a closet. In the interim I have rolled up over 3,000 miles on the bike with the stock bars. If it ain't broke, don’t fix it. My bike fit's my geometry exactly and the trekking bars are not required, for now anyway.

cyccommute 

You are only thinking about skeletal issues with the bars. I'm thinking about nerve issues. I've ridden bikes with flat bars that lock you in one place similarly to the bars pictured (I know you can move your hands around a little on those but "little" is the operative word here). Taking 6 weeks to get the feeling back in my hands was a far more frightening proposition then some discomfort in my neck and shoulders on the bike. It's not a case of being balanced on the bike but rather being able to change the position of your hands to get blood flowing back to the ulnar nerve. That's why I suggest people have more hand positions. More hand positions can be acheived with drops or with flat bars and barends.

DavidARayJaxNC

I started using NR bars recently and I find that with bar ends on them. YEA THEY LOOK WEIRD. They can offer 4 good hand positions. Including if you have brake levers , placing them near the first turn in the bar and then use those as hand rests. That is the most comfortable for me. It feels just like when you rest up on the top of drop bars.

Rowan

Reducing compression of the ulna nerve, rather than getting the blood flow, I think.