I'm looking at doing some extensive touring using a trailer. The idea is that I can lug my gear around in a trailer and then unhook to do some off road riding. A lot of the touring will be on road for reasonable distances – up to 50miles a day. Obviously the bike doesn't have to be overbuilt like a normal touring bike. As I want to use it for some off road duties I'm thinking a steel hardtail with say 100mm of suspension forks although there is a thought I stay with ridgid fork. If I put a load of spacers on the front then I can get quite an upright position. At the moment I'm thinking about an On-One Inbred or something similar like a Merlin, running slicks on the road but I'd probably have room to carry some Mtb tyres. Thorn do a similar type of bike with the Sterling but obviously its over built for what I want as I wouldn't be carrying panniers.
What do people think, am I on the right lines with my thoughts?
Any help advice would be much appreciated.
cheers

On the road two-wheel trailers are better than one-wheel trailers. With two wheel trailers (attached at the dropout) no meaningful forces are transfered to the bike other than a bit of drag. So the bike doesn't need to be special in any sense, as the bike isn't carrying any weight (and unlike with one wheel trailers theres no twisting forces through the frame either) other than it helps to have flat dropouts rather than cowled ones to get a good fit for the tow hitch.

So the bike can be whatever you are happy to ride for 50 miles on the road and blat about with afterwards.

I went with an inbred pretty much because I wanted a steel frame and a flat drop out – works out lovely. I'd just stick with a sus fork and lock it out on the road. A change of tyres isn't a bad idea, but don't let the load carrying capacity tempt you into carrying too much.

I went with an inbred pretty much because I wanted a steel frame and a flat drop out

this is what I'm thinking of – flat drop out, do you mean slot dropouts?
Also want to get the height of the bars up at the front but wondered about off road riding and how this would affect the handling?

BTW does runninng flat/slot drop outs mean only singlespeed, as I'd still like to run gears? Also can you run a rohloff with these?

does runninng flat/slot drop outs mean only singlespeed

No – he only means not cowled ones. Plenty of geared bikes have flat dropouts which work OK. Not that cowled dropouts can't be made to work with a tow hitch, but I had to attack the hitch with a file to make it fit in the ones on my Scott Genius. That's with a Chariot kiddie trailer, which has been towed behind anything from the full-sus Genius to a sub-15lb carbon road bike – doesn't really matter what you tow with as it's not putting any unusual loadings on the bike.

Aye, a lot of steel frames have the richie style cowled dropout (look at the back end of a cotic soul for instance), but the preference for attaching a hitch is something flatter. For which the (any) inbred is totally fine. Most, if not all alu frames should be fine as well. But theres a good chance whatever bike you already ride is fine too. Thats the point of trailers, you could tow with whippet-skinny road bike, a monster downhill bike or a brompton. You don't need to spec the bike in any special way at all, just have it as you'd like to ride it when the trailer isn't attached.

If you want to alternate between on and off road on your tour then I use a set of adjustable travel forks. Set them for longer travel (120 i think, they are a set of Recons) then lock them out on the road to get your head up a bit, but I actually prefer to reduce the travel off road. Don't sweat about it too much though, if the bike is comfortable its comfortable. Unless you usually set your bike up very aggressively head-down for off road then your usual setup will be fine for long days on the road. You want to be happy with your saddle, and something like a pair of ergon grips at the front helps, but otherwise just ride your bike.

The pleasure of touring is stopping, looking, doing things. So you might be covering 50 miles a day, but not 50 miles in the saddle in one go.

My top trailer touring tip is get a decent hip-pack like bag (I use one of the ortleib ones which is quite capacious). I allows you to keep all your valuable/delicate/important stuff together and to hand, so if you walk away from the bike it all comes with you. When the riding is stop/start just wear the pack, but on longer stretches just clip the pack around the pack on your trailer. That way the important stuff is still closest to hand.

cheers skidartist
at the moment I don't own a hardtail – two full suss and a roadbike which is very stiff – aluminium. So looking for a hardtail to ride when towing trailer but can still take off road – thats the plan anyway (although a thought that I may build up my old 4" full suss and just use that)

I cycle toured the whole of new zealand 4000km+ on a Rocky Mountain Element 100mm travel. Pulling a Bob Trailer. Just put plenty of air in the rear shock for the roads & you'll be fine

I cycle toured the whole of new zealand 4000km+ on a Rocky Mountain Element 100mm travel. Pulling a Bob Trailer. Just put plenty of air in the rear shock for the roads & you'll be fine

I know its an STW cliche but what tyres? 🙂

Tyres wise Schwalbe Big Apples work well – big air volume but quite a small contact area so they roll well, not super light but you're trucking, not sprinting. Very comfy and I've never had a puncture with them. If you're happy that your full sus bike is going to be reliable / servicable enough in the environment where you are riding (ie if you break something complicated you can buy parts and get them fitted) then why not ride it. The load is totally isolated from the bike with a two wheel trailer (with a one wheel trailer twisting forces are going through the frame so you might worry about wear and tear on the moving parts of a full sus) so if you are happy to ride the miles on the full sus then just do it. Spend the money on the trailer and kit, or on more holiday time, or on fabulous meals.

Anyway if you're going to buy something then an Inbred is a good choice for what you have in mind, comfortable enough for the miles, cheap and cheerful and strong enough to be sacrificed to the baggage handlers, train compartments and all the other indignities faced by tour bikes, fun enough when you unhitch.