Any Cycle Tourists on here? Bike advice being sought.

[cbr6fs]

Most grips can be modified to accept bar ends, you just need to cut a hole in the end so they slide far enough down the bar to get your bar ends on.

Bar ends used to be popular but they seem to have gone out of fashion now.
As i'm not the type of person that cares about fashion i use bar ends and feel they do offer some advantage.

For sure they offer a few more hand positions which can be really helpful on some rides
As the go forward from the bars they work to shifting your weight forward slightly which gives you a slightly better position when climbing
Oddly enough one of the negatives that tends to come up on the cycling forums is people are frightened about hooking them on passing tree and branches, can't say as i've ever had that in what must be 22 years of using them.
In fact i have found that the ones with a little kink at the top have offered me some protection

For every one person that likes them though you'll find 25 that don't so it's really a case of finding what works best for you

I used to have some bars back in the mid 90's that had bar ends formed into the bar, they were huuugeeeeeeee things as well, i did find that you can have too much of a good thing.
Optimum for me are just short bar ends

Old pic but here is my setup on one of my bikes

Should say that drops do offer more hand positions and although i personally find straight bars more comfortable than resting on the hoods on drops, i have done many long rides on dropped bar bikes without any real problem.

Biggest advantage for me with straight bars is
1/ Leverage
You just can't get drops at anywhere near the width of straight bars, on quick handling road bikes they don't really need this leverage, but on slower geometry MTB's and tourers i find this extra leverage a help

2/ Your fingers are over the brakes more of the time and i feel i have more control over the steering when braking with straights

 

[Paul_B]

With drops I tended to ride using mostly 2 positions. The main one was on the hoods with my hands covering the brake levers - just as I cover the brake levers on my flat bar. The second is in the loop of the drops behind the brakes. I also found that I could easily cover the brakes from there. i never got the hang of moving the hands closer in to grip the flat part at the top, just felt to uncomfortable and not even safe. I occasionally used to drop onto the lower part of the bars. That was solely on longer rides or when my elbow and/or wrist was giving me pain. I would switch from hoods to behind hoods and back, with the length in oneposition at a time getting less until i had to try a third position. This was due to wrist and elbow problems i had (kayaking wore them out I think and they would give a crunchy feel after some time.

My first drops was a Dawes and had those pull up levers on the flat part that also worked the main brake levers. This was well before those brake levers you can now get with some lower end crossers and they weren't separate to the levers with the hoods but they had a bar that pushed down on the main brake levers which had the cable. It was a youth or kid's road bike of course.

When I transitioned to my flat bar a year and a half ago I was so unsteady and they gave me pain in my elbows and wrist. i seriously thought it was an expensive mistake. I nearly got bar ends then. I didn't because I didn't want to cut the existing spesh grips to fit and baulked at the £45 for decent grips with bar ends that i wanted. I got used to the bars (initially with the wide grip i felt unsteady and wobbled or couldn't control the bike as well as my old road bike) and learnt to get by. After it got stolen I realised i'd kind of been handed a good reason to spend more to get a decent drop bar bike. I think i will always ride a drop bar from now on (unless I have to hire something flat - think we probably do that if we tour the Danube cycle path as it is probably cheaper than getting there with bikes (2 bikes plus child trailer and possibly seat too).

BTW does anyone think I would have any issue with using a child trailer (possibly a cargo one later on) or a seat post clamp child seat with say a bike like the Whyte Sussex or the Fuji refresh or the Pinnacle Arkose? Would the trailer hitch (attached to the QR skewer - or other lockable skewer) be any weaker with these bikes than my crosstrail hybrid?

I've just looked at the Evans site at the Pinnacle arkose 1 for £700. The welds show clear melt flow on them and I think look a bit rough. They look a lot like Merida cyclocross 300 bike, i.e. very rough welds. Anyone know if Pinnacle are a reasonable make?? They are Evans own brand I think.

What about Fuji and Whyte brands? Are they any good?

 

[mrcharly]

Fujii are pretty well regarded - they make a track-compatible bike that is favoured for training on many of the velodromes.

The welds wouldn't bother me, tbh. Look for gaps between the weld and the tubing. I've seen reputedly decent makes with this issue.

Pinnacle, like most aluminium frames, are made in the far east. This is actually a good thing, the factories out there are very good at churning out high-quality metalwork very cheaply.

No reason why you'd have problems with a trailer hitch.

One thing; BB5 brakes are considerably inferior to BB7 disc brakes. Well worth the extra money getting the BB7, which are really easy to look after.

 

[Paul_B]

What is the difference between BB5 and BB7? Is the 7 a hydraulic or both cable? i guess the BB7 is dual sided not single sided which means no adjusting to even out wear.

 

[mrcharly]

Both cable, the difference is in the complexity of the caliper - there have been issues with BB5 calipers not working under high loading.

I don't know the minutiae of the differences, just that multiple friends who have used both find BB5 not as good as BB7. BB7 is the 'standard' decent cable operated disc brake, very widely used. I've not found any great need to adjust the ones on my bike and it took about 10k miles (in crummy dirty road conditions) before I needed to replace the front pads.

 

[Paul_B]

All the bikes at or just above my top budget all seem to have trp spyre or trp hyrd brakes. The first is all mechanical, the second mech/hydraulic. Heard good things about them. Mechanical is preferred for proper touring these days I think.

It's got to be decision time coming up. Get the cobwebs out of my wallet and spend my hard earned! Thank you everyone for your help. Much appreciated. I hope I'll bump into you on the road someday, a cake and a tea for you if I do! Tea shops essential on a ride I think.