Touring the world retro-style, what bike for the missus?

[henristig]

Hello lads!

It's been a pipedream for years now, but the bicycle hobo lifestyle is finally about to become a reality!

This fall my fiancé and I are setting out on an epic bike adventure. Starting from our home in southern Finland we will ride through the Baltic states and eastern Europe to the south to escape the winter. Then we will meander west, eventually reaching the south of Spain, where we will evaluate our journey so far and see if we want to continue to Africa, Asia or just go back home. I'm hoping for it to turn into an around the world adventure to be honest :twisted:

I'm thinking the initial leg will take approximately 9 months to a year to complete depending on how much we get sidetracked or enjoy staying in different places. The point is to make as few plans as possible and expose ourselves to all kinds of randomness and adventures along the way and to go wherever we bloody like really.

Money's tight as always, so we will be doing it on a shoestring budget of approx. 190€/month/person, mostly stealth camping and couchsurfing where we can. I've got most of the gear already as I'm a wilderness guide by trade and a longtime bike & retrobike enthusiast, but my fiancé is currently lacking almost everything.

It's been problematic finding her a bike as she is adamant on having a ladies specific frame that doesn't weigh a ton. And it would have to be cheap as well. I've talked her out of hub gears and a coaster brake so now we're trying to find her a small-ish (she's 5'4) ladies retro mountain bike but it seems very hard to come by any quality specimen over here. Would you guys have any suggestions of what to look for? What do you think about this old Trek 830 I came across locally?

The criteria are;
step through frame (her)
Upright position (her)
Cantilever brakes
Bosses for rear rack, preferrably front as well
26'' wheels
Preferrably 1 1/8'' headtube if we end up buying a touring specific modern fork
Wide enough gearing (granny gear)

I'll be touring on an old Alpinestars Cromega D560 converted to monster tourer with a Surly big dummy fork up front. here she is, I will get a 3x up front, bar end shifters and a shorter stem though, and some Schwalbe Marathons as well. I thought about taking my trusty Clockwork that's been with me through so much but I've kind of come to the conclusion that I want a slightly bigger frame than the 19'' Clocky for some extra stability.

 

[Trebz]

Re:

I would try and get the good lady to use a standard frame instead of a step through. They are hard to find and the ones available are mostly bottom of the range and very heavy. I use a 17" 1987 Specialized Rockhopper for my touring and it's perfect. Have a look:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... p;t=258143

 

[secret_squirrel]

Re:

It might be worth looking at proper ladies tourers and flatbar'ing one. You are much more likely to find a Reynolds 531 or similarly constructed one. Downside is going to be lake of comparability with your 26" er.

 

[henristig]

Re:

Thanks for your suggestions guys!

I tried selling her on a diamond shape last summer but to no avail :facepalm:

Found this nice little 16'' Kona Hahanna which I thought would suit her perfectly but she thought otherwise. She felt too stretched out on it as she's used to sit completely upright on her old girls' bike. I think it might be an image thing as well. Or some kind of psychological barrier about being able to ride a "mens" bike... You're right about the difficulty in finding a good quality step-through for cheap though! Found this german maker, Bottcher, that makes a super nice one for 1500€ but it's waaaay out of budet for us...

Would be easy finding a step-through in 28'' though as those are quite common over here. The rub is the bike would have to accommodate at least 1.75'' rubber though, preferrably even wider, as we probably will encounter a fair bit of rough roads along the way and she feels more confident all around with wider tyres.

My concern is also the spare parts compatibility as I'd optimally only want to run standardized parts that work on both bikes and having different wheelsizes seems like a lot of rubber to be carried as well..

Anybody know anything about that Trek?

 

[The History Man]

A turbo in the shed?






But warm for a coat.

 

[itscervo]

Try searching for a Mixte http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Muddy-Fox-Cou ... Sw2gxYt94e

 

[MatBH5]

Re:

What a wonderful trip you have planned.
I've spent a while trying to find a bike my better half is happy with.
A Pashley step through was so heavy it was hard to ride up hills, then an older mountain bike had too much length in the frame (she's about 5'3").
I've just found this 26" step through Roberts frame which has been a real hit. I guess it's like a mixte Roughstuff.
One thing surprising was that although she was adamant that drop bars would be too challenging ... she actually now prefers them to flat bars (the combined brake/shifters are a hit, too).
I know that you probably won't find a similar Roberts, but hopefully my experience around the frame shape, wheel size and bars give you some help.
(Photo is when I just picked up, so pre-clean up and service)

 

[Titiritero]

Re:

It's been problematic finding her a bike as she is adamant on having a ladies specific frame that doesn't weigh a ton. And it would have to be cheap as well. I've talked her out of hub gears and a coaster brake so now we're trying to find her a small-ish (she's 5'4) ladies retro mountain bike but it seems very hard to come by any quality specimen over here. Would you guys have any suggestions of what to look for? What do you think about this old Trek 830 I came across locally?

The criteria are;
step through frame (her)
Upright position (her)
Cantilever brakes
Bosses for rear rack, preferrably front as well
26'' wheels
Preferrably 1 1/8'' headtube if we end up buying a touring specific modern fork
Wide enough gearing (granny gear)

Nice trip you are planning, congratulations for taking the first step!

I was looking for exactly the same kind of bike you are, and I found a Trek 820 for 45 EUR only a couple of weeks ago (see more here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=330081&start=20#p2723072), so of course I totally recommend the 830 you’ve found. My wife’s birthday is on Friday and this bike will be one of her presents to replace an old one that has requested retirement. I’ll start working on it, with the idea to convert it in a do it all bike (commuter-tourer-light mtb), whenever she gives me the approval that she likes the ride on the new one.

Most people will try to discourage you saying they are heavy, not rigid enough, etc. But if you are in Finland, and anyone living in a country with a strong bike culture will testify, step-through frames are used everywhere for years with great results. So if your fiancé wants that, she’s the one to be riding on it for hours on end during the trip and needs to be comfortable on it. Many reputable brands like VSF, Koga, Roberts, etc. build step-through frames, they wouldn’t if they thought it’s an inherently wrong design.

A few tips from my own search:
-it’ll be hard to find a high quality and light frame, since step-throughs are not the most popular, and the ones you can find won’t be cheap. However, I don’t think this is too relevant. The Trek 820 I bought, despite being low range, it’s fully chromoly (Tange in the main tubes), with ’93 technology, and still weights just 13.1kg. I doubt a Surly LHT is any lighter. If used for touring, 1 kg up or down will make little difference on the overall weight.
-as you can see on my linked post, step-through frames offer shorter reach, higher and wider handlebar as the diamond-frame equivalent. I think that’s exactly what your fiancé is looking for. Plus they are much easier to get in and out when loaded.
-most used 26” step-through frames you will find are on the low range of the early 90’s bikes. Brands that always had some models in their catalogues are Trek, Specialized, Scott and Wheeler. It’ll be hard to find them with 1 1/8” headsets though, most will be 1”. But for example Trek has been doing their 820 in step-through for years, even now, so if you find a late ‘90s, it’ll very likely be a 1 1/8”.
-you’ll have no problems to install rear racks. For front racks, the fork won’t probably come with bosses, but there are plenty of solutions to improvise
-for granny gear, it’s cheap to get a 7sp cassette in a 13-34 combination. The crankset is probably a 48-38-28, but for 30 Eur you can buy online a modern Acera with 42-32-22. And if you buy the model with chain cover, you have the perfect bike to ride with long trousers! That is my plan too.

 

[henristig]

Re:

Many thanks for the advice guys! Ok, so inspired by your comment, Titirintero, we went out to see the Trek yesterday, and to my surprise the bike far surpassed my expectations - not to mention my fiancés'! She's always been picky when it comes to bikes and she's never had anything fit her quite right so I wasn't expecting much enthusiasm from her... but coming back from the test ride on the Trek I've never seen her grin like that on a bike before! Her smile was literally a mile wide, it was truly a beatiful sight! She said she'd never felt this good on a bike before, like it was love at first sight. The riding position felt perfect to her and I'm so relieved! I hope your wife finds it as comfortable as my better half did!

On top of that the Trek had been owned from new by an old git out in the countryside who'd probably never ridden it more than a few miles. The picture didn't really do it justice as all the parts were in top shape and original down to the brake pads, and the bike looked almost brand new to be honest. No grime or dust in the hard-to-clean places, minimal wear on the brakepads and drivetrain, gears working as smooth as they did 20 years ago, all bearings running smooth and tight and almost no marks on the frame! I was also surprised by how light the bike was. Having picked up a fair share of these ladies low-end city bikes I almost stumbled backwards while applying the force I'd become accustomed to while picking these things up. It weighed damn near the same as my Clockwork in commuter mode. Blimey! In the end my fiancé ended up paying the full 120€ for it because the old bloke was so nice and she was so over the moon about the bike. Though can't even knock her for that, I'd have done the same

Only thing to do now is to change out the old brake pads which have gone hard and then go out and ride! Tonight we're taking the Trek out for its' maiden voyage!

Ta!

 

[Titiritero]

Re:

Congratulations on the buy! I think you've made a great purchase.

In the Trek Vintage website (http://www.vintage-trek.com/trek-fisher ... lemond.htm) you can find the technical catalogues to see the specs. I believe your model is a '94, but worth checking.

If your bike is anything like the 820 I got, the only thing I'd recommend to upgrade is to get double-wall rims, as the ones from factory are single wall, ok for commuting and light off-road, but probably not the best for fully loaded touring.

I don't like the low-range gripshifts, but if yours work, enjoy them while they last... Anything else, you can always change it along the way if it breaks, since your first plan is to cycle in Europe, plenty of bike shops along the way, and good testing ground if you finally decide to continue further.