Touring Bikes
Hi all! I am currently toying with the idea of getting into bike touring. I have a Trek 2100 WSD road bike that I use to commute, but it doesn’t have any racks. I’m thinking I could either keep this bike and use it for commuting (adding a rack for panniers) and get another bike that would be dedicated to touring, or get a touring bike that doubles as a commuter. I am leaning towards the latter. Where I’m getting stuck is, these bikes are unisex and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of reviews from women out there on these touring bikes I’m looking at. Do any of you bike tour? I’m thinking I’d be primarily on roads (right now I’m thinking of going to Glacier National Park and Vancouver BC as my first tours) with an occasional gravel road or gentle trail mixed in.
On my not-so-short list of touring bikes are: - State 4130 All Road Gen 2 - Poseidon X Ambition - Kona Sutra - KHS TR-101 - All City Spacehorse Microshift - Marin Nicasio+ - Marin Four Corners
From my deep dive into Tom’s Bike Trip blog, it seems I would ideally want Shimano components as they’d be universal and easier to replace wherever I’d travel, and just overall an easy bike to fix myself. However, there seems to be pros and cons with all of these bikes and none of them check ALL the boxes for me (and I haven’t ridden any in person which would be the next step in this path towards purchasing one, I already have an LBS picked out that has most of these). As an aside, I’m trying to stay below $1500 price range.
I guess my questions are, (1) do you have any recommendations on touring bikes or touring experience with any on this short list and (2) should I sell my current road bike and double up with my touring bike as a commuter? Any thoughts / advice / guidance is welcome :) Thanks in advance!!
Edited to include links!