Bike touring on an inbred

Thinking about selling my old steel explosif to get an inbred to do a bit of touring over the summer. Anyone toured with an inbred or just show me your photos, share your experience

I’ve not done any proper touring, but I took my Inbred for 3 days of Sustrans routes (quiet roads and tracks) last year around Inverness and Aberdeen.

I ride my Inbred singlespeed, so just changed the cog at the back for something road suitable (32-12 I think), put on some 1.5″ slick tyres, bolted on a pannier rack and set off. You can get away with most racks because of the way the brake is mounted, and I didn’t have any issues.

I have carbon forks up front, and had both pannier bags at the back, so it was a bit tail heavy to pick up and put on trains etc – there were a few comedy moments. Handled fine to ride though.

No photos here, but I’ll try to stick something up tonight.

Haven’t used one to tour, but I reckon it would be perfect. I’ve used an uncle John and a Kaffenback in the past, neither are proper tourers, but both coped well.

I’ve used mine to do a few bivvy runs ~50 miles at a time and without a lot of kit. Here it is with a rack and pannier (on one side only which made the off-road handling “interesting”):

Check out On One’s web site for an article on a guy who toured 29215km on an Inbred.

http://www.on-one.co.uk/news/teams-and-riders/q/date/2011/01/11/on-one-goes-to-mongolia

have toured on an old steel inbred in s spain, and did west to east across france on a ti 456, both set up with rigid forks, v cool,
just used a very bodged pompino for 5000km around europe, and still not sure abt the whole 26 vs 700 wheel debate…………..

I’m just building a commuter/tourer out of my 853 Inbred.

Basically, it’s just an MTB with a few changes

S/H rigid forks off a Genesis
Closer ratio cassette (11-25)
1.5in slicks
Rack
Mudguards.

The reason for this is when we went touring last year, I was pulling a trailer with camping gear on it, and it got downright scary trying to stop in pouting rain on steep Cornish hills!

I find an Inbred very comfy, they seem to fit me very well indeed, I can’t think of a better modern MTB frame to use, TBH 🙂

PeterPoddy – is your 853 one with slidey dropouts? If so, how are you fitting the rack?

No, it’s a geared one, one of the more recent limited edition ones, not the original 853s. The SS ones were slot drop I think 🙂

It has rack mounts

I did the Canal du Midi over a few days on a 456 and it was fine. The only thing I’d point out is that, because the chainstays are a lot shorter than a 700c wheeled tourer, your ankles will hit your panniers unless they can slide well back on the rack. I used a Topeak rack and Altura Dryline panniers.

I’m going to do LEJOG on the ti456 I’ve just bought. So I hope it’s ok. 😀

cheers lads hoping to head over to the isle of man in spring for a spin with a few friends

Can I ask why you aren’t just considering touring on the Explosif? Is it none disc brake and you want discs? Other than that I’m not sure why you would need to swap. The reality is that over the years people have toured on all sorts of bikes, it’s more about the attitude than the bike, like so much else. I’m sure I read about people who did some impressive tours on Ordinaries (penny farthings). Unless you are considering rea;ly extreme off road touring you will be fine. If you are thinking of single bag touring I’d recommend a big rack top bag or saddle bag and ruck sack Day pack size. Off road I wouldn’t be keen on having a single pannier cos of handling.

I’ve done some light on/off-road touring on mine and it’s well suited for such tasks..

Can I ask why you aren’t just considering touring on the Explosif?

My friend took his Explosif along on one of the tours and it was fine. The only small problem he had was a bit of rack clamp slippage as the Kona didn’t have rack bolt braze-ons but this wasn’t a major issue.

Explosif & Inbred in The Picos de Europa….

s2a you hit the nail on the head its an older blue explosif 98 like the one above with V’s and i want to a disc on the back.

you copy cats! 😉

i bought a slot dropout inbred specifically with the purpose of touring and commuting in mind.
its a 26″ one, but with a pair of 700cc wheels for road riding. (if i ever do rufty tufty touring i will use wheels off my XC bike)

after doing a 9000km tour on a £300 Kona Smoke (with a few upgrades admittedly) , I reckon any steel framed mtb with rack mounts would be perfectly capable.

my inbred (now a commuter) did a few hundred miles through germany absolutely fine for the most part. I did notice flex in the frame (large frame) when fully loaded – slow speed maneuvers mainly had a springiness to them. Also noticeable at high speed round bends. Not really a problem, but a little bit of a surprise at first!

I did 5500 miles on my ’95 Cindercone carrying 40kg of luggage

@ shedfull

I’m almost certainly doing the Canal du midi this summer – I wonder if you had any general tips

I’m guessing it generally pre3tty easy to navigate and cycle – my concern is which is the best way to get there – train via Paris? Flight?

Any help would be very welcome

Thanks Plum

Email in profile if that helps

That’s a lot of luggage!

OP This guy Started off getting a custom bike built and bought an inbred in the end.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzKj&doc_id=3525&v=6i