Hi,

My friend and I are doing Lejog next year.

We will be carrying our own gear including tents etc.

My current road bike doesn’t have lugs for panniers so I need another bike.

Any suggestions?

Ive had a long haul trucker in the past which was great but it was just good at touring.

I’m kind of thinking of something like a salsa fargo or surly ogre so I can also use it as a 29er to give it a purpose when I’ve finished.

So I’m looking for some suggestions and also opinions on how they are as a long distance bike.

29er with road tyres or a cx or gravel bike?

This site is pretty good for listing them.

http://www.cyclingabout.com/complete-list-offroad-expedition-adventure-touring-bikes/

Thanks

I see thousands of Lejog/Jogle bikes every year. Folk manage it on all sorts – fast carbon roadies, Bromptons, ancient/classic steel framed things, MTBs with slicks, heavy BSOs. I’d just buy whatever style of bike you fancy anyway rather than concentrate on this one trip. No need to go for drop bars unless that’s what you specifically want.

As above. I did my first E2E on a rigid MTB with slick tyres and front/rear panniers. Two years ago I did an offroad E2E on….a rigid MTB with bikepacking gear and knobblies. The bike is largely incidental, I’d put more effort into devising an interesting route that avoids traffic.

Obviously long-distance road and long distance offroad are two very different things. How do you plan to do Lejog?

I bought a Genesis Vagabond because it’s basically a 29er ATB and as such will travel medium-lengthy stretches of road comfortably. It doesn’t excel at road-touring though. For long distance road I would ideally want a longer stretch and different gearing. But I prefer to live with the ‘do-it-all’ compromise of a drop-bar all-terrainer simply because I wanted one simple bike to tackle the wide variety of terrain which is typical of my riding/transport needs.

Unless you are looking to beat records then I suggest any bike that is comfortable all-day long. If it was me I’d probably drop less than half a grand on a decent used 531ST touring bike. Galaxy, Dalesman etc. Most comfortable touring bike I ever had was a British Eagle Touristique. Like a magic carpet, even on our crappy roads. On tarmac, the Vagabond is a close-second for comfort, as I do find it very comfortable with 2″ tyres – but with 35c it’s a different beast and the Touristique was appreciably more comfortable on the tarmac. On unpaved roads the Vagabond (or similar) would of course smoke it (2″ rubber and discs-brakes). For long-distance light gravel/road (mixed riding) I’d probably still choose the old steel tourer.

That all said, for LeJog at least I’d be more concerned about saddle-choice than bike-choice 😉