Touring bikes for £1000 ??

A lad at works father is looking for a touring bike and has been told to look at the Dawes Galaxy 520?

Ive looked at it and the kits seems a bit crap to be honest but I dont no much about touring bikes.

Is there anything else in that price range that would be a better buy?

Cheers

Steve

salsa vaya? £999

If he did want a Galaxy, Spa cycles have got big discounts on them.

Ultra Galaxy with 853 frame and discs @ £1090

They’ve also got a Raleigh Sojourn @ £690 which I think is what Steven Abraham is using for the mileage record.

Why does a touring bike have to have 700c wheels and drop bars?
People that actually go touring and carry a lot of gear (weight) tend to find that something MTB based is more suited. I’ve looked and looked and looked and I can’t find a finer touring bike than my On One Inbred.
It’s tough, it’s comfy, it can carry as much weight as I can load onto it. I could build one from the ground up with 9sp Deore, disc brakes (Rim brakes on steep hills with a full load? No thanks) rigid fork, tough wheels, Matathon Plus tyres, racks etc for a grand fairly easily I think.
A touring bike doesn’t need to be flashy, it needs to work and not break….
Sure, if you’re going away for a couple of days in B&Bs with just a change of clothes, you don’t need the capability, but what I call a proper touring bike isn’t really available off the peg….
🙂

EDIT
I don’t have the pic available right now, but a collegue’s mum has the most fantastic touring bike. It’s a custom Roberts, so not cheap, but it illustrates the point perfectly. 🙂

Ive looked at it and the kits seems a bit crap to be honest

If he’s after a touring bike to actually go touring then a big requirement is dependable, robust kit that you can fix/replace anywhere, this often means staying lower down the groupset range than you would normally look for say a posh road or audax bike.

eg, bust an 11sp 105 mech or shifter in the middle of nowhere and the LBS might not have the appropriate part in stock, but a basic 8/9/(10 ?) speed setup is a lot more likely.

Galaxy’s are great tourers, stable, good load handling ability and very robust, but there are other options available. Even with the above in mind decent kit is so reliable these days you can look for better spec if you want.

All comes down to what you actually want out of the bike and ‘tourer’ can mean many different things to different people, SPA not a bad place to start looking though.

+ What Poddy said, If I was off out for a few weeks of travelling I’d be taking my old steel Kona…

genesis tour de fer is one heck of a bike. proper good vfm.
or buy a surly and build it how you want. just rebuilding mine after a fantastic bloke on here (cheers robdob) saved it from the knackers yard.

Genesis Tour De Fer. I’ve just ordered one. 🙂

eg, bust an 11sp 105 mech or shifter in the middle of nowhere and the LBS might not have the appropriate part in stock, but a basic 8/9/10 speed mech is a lot more likely.

Exactly.
I’m purposefully sticking with 9sp on our tourers. It’s cheap, tough and works very well.

Look at a Ridgeback X3, That’s what I bought Mrs PP for touring. I lowered the gearing to 22/32/44 and 12-36 cassette, added rack and mudguards and it’s bang on. Probably under £800 all in at RRP

EDIT
This is how we roll… 🙂
Not a very clear shot of the X3 but you get the idea, and the idea of how much weight I’m carrying

IMG_3527 by PeterPoddy[/url], on Flickr

Europe? Galaxy. In fact, buy secondhand for 500 and spend the rest on lose living, eer, I mean the holiday.

Outside of Europe you may find more 26″ parts available.

Have a look on sjs,lots of thorns on there £999 and under,depends what he want though and how far he want to go,9 speed triple all the way for touring bikes (for me anyway)

Thorn Raven tour here. I think they do a non-Rohloff version, lovely frame. But I’d rather go cheap or go all out, myself.

On a related matter..

If I was building a 9 speed triple tourer…

Genesis Tour de Fer or Surly disc trucker frameset?

on my 3rd surly. started with a 56cm to small, then a 60cm, pinched, now a 64cm perfect.

would love a genesis.

People that actually go touring and carry a lot of gear (weight)

are doing it wrong 😉

Why go touring and carry all the clutter of your normal life with you?

I try to keep it to 7Kg max, with stove and tent.

I’ll take my Vaya with 7Kg over your Inbred for repeated 200Km days camping thanks.

http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/road-bikes-c5/touring-bikes-c41/salsa-vaya-3-touring-bike-2014-p810

on my 3rd surly. started with a 56cm to small, then a 60cm, pinched, now a 64cm perfect.

would love a genesis.

That’s quite a difference in size between the Surlies (if that’s the plural of Surly). Personal question here 🙂 How tall are you? Inside leg?

So you reckon a Tour de Fer is ‘better’ or because its British?

Surly would be my first thought if the budget is “around” £1k. We have a fleet of them (Disc- and Long-Haul Truckers) for people to try, we use them for cycle-camping tours, and definitely recommend them.

Genesis Tour de Fer, or Ridgeback World, would be my recommendations if they need to be fully kitted out (racks, mudguards etc) for no more than £1k.

We’ve done (more than) a bit of touring ourselves, happy to advise/discuss if it helps.

fourbanger – Member

People that actually go touring and carry a lot of gear (weight)
are doing it wrong
Why go touring and carry all the clutter of your normal life with you?

I’ll take my Vaya with 7Kg over your Inbred for repeated 200Km days camping thanks.[/quote]

People who are doing 200km a day are doing it wrong…. 😉

40-50 miles a day max, lots of cakes stops and sitting on benches admiring the view is my kinda touring… Sounds like what you are doing is more like Audax type stuff?

ton – Member
on my 3rd surly. started with a 56cm to small, then a 60cm, pinched, now a 64cm perfect.

would love a genesis.

I’ll pop round to your work to show mine off when I get it! Sorry it doesn’t come in your size….

Love my Vays…

I bought a Surly Long Haul Trucker frame and forks to use with the 8speed parts from my old hard tail. It is so much fun to ride and even though it is heavier than my ‘proper’ road bike, it feels livelier. I went for the standard Trucker frame as my old MTB had rim brakes but I’d have gone for the Disc Trucker if I’d had different brakes. The 26″ rims make a little difference but give a huge range of tyre choice.

People who are doing 200km a day are doing it wrong….

40-50 miles a day max, lots of cakes stops and sitting on benches admiring the view is my kinda touring… Sounds like what you are doing is more like Audax type stuff?

100-150km is more typical and pleasant for me! We had a pretty tight schedule to get across France. We still managed first and second breakfast, 3 course lunch with wine, afternoon tea and big evening meal everyday. Getting going in the afternoon was pretty brutal as was packing the tent at 6 in the morning to fit it all into daylight hours!
Anyway, that was on a pomp, but I’ve bought the Vaya subsequently and it’s just the right tool for touring.

Dawes Galaxy.

They aren’t that fashionable, and look a bit out dated, but they almost have legendary status for touring.

Go for the best frame material you can get for the 1k budget (853).

Above all else, it needs to be comfy, fit the rider well and be able to carry stuff.

That’s quite a difference in size between the Surlies (if that’s the plural of Surly). Personal question here How tall are you? Inside leg?

So you reckon a Tour de Fer is ‘better’ or because its British?

Posted 22 hours ago # Report-Post

it is only 3” difference over the 3 frames.

I bought the surly because I weigh a ton, and it is a strong sturdy frame.

I just think the tour de fer looks very nice as a complete off you go package.

I’ve been looking at these Oxford Bike works bikes recently. They seem to be very well thought out, with the spec based on what actually works, rather than what is fashionable. Customisable as well.

Various models are available, from just below to above your limit. Something a bit different.

http://www.oxfordbikeworks.co.uk/models/model-1e/

Dawes Galaxy.

They aren’t that fashionable, and look a bit out dated, but they almost have legendary status for touring.

I dont think the newer Dawes Galaxys get great reviews, I think they tend to rely on the “legend”.

Spa cycles own tourer got a good review in the CTC rag, although its only just under the 1k mark.

SPA cycles steel tourer

I have a Spa steel tourer – excellent value for money. Designed by people with bags of touring experience. If you’re near Harrogate, visit their shop and they’ll let you take one out for pretty much as long as you want.

Here’s mine with drops, now converted to flat bars, for more upright, genteel touring – https://twitter.com/TwoWheelsWood/status/478954903386472449

I’ve been looking at these Oxford Bike works bikes recently. They seem to be very well thought out, with the spec based on what actually works, rather than what is fashionable. Customisable as well.

I’ve looked at these in the past and keep coming to the conclusion that I could make something very similar with my 1992 Kona Fire Mountain (which currently has v-brakes, bar ends and an ahead stem) for not very much money.