What sort of Bicycle do I need to tour in WA?

The terrain will dictate what sort of bike you use to tour on. If you are going off road or riding along badly corrugated roads, then a mountain bike will be needed. A touring bike may cope with some off road riding. If you are on a supported tour that only rides on surfaced roads, then a tour could be done on a road bike, as your luggage will be carried by the support vehicle.

I'm not an expert, and some of you reading this may already know the characteristics of each style of bike, but I will cover them here for those people who don't. The styles of bikes are:

• Hybrid (part mountain bike and road bike);
• Road;
• Mountain, and;
• Touring.

The characteristics of a Hybrid style of bike is that it is lighter than a mountain bike, usually has road tyres and has a more upright riding position. They usually have lugs for mounting racks and mudguards (fenders). Some may also have lugs on the front for front low rider racks. These bikes if good quality are usually good for lightweight touring, and some minor gravel roads. Their gearing is usually half way between a road bike and a mountain bike.

Road Bikes are usually light weight, and their thin wheels don't cope too well on gravel roads. Most of them do not have lugs to mount racks or mudguards. They are usually geared too high to carry loads up steep hills and have overlap between the wheels and pedals, which means that it's easy to hit your foot on the front wheel when turning at low speed.

Mountain Bikes have extremely low gearing (in most cases), and do not suit high speed riding on roads, as usually you have to pedal too fast to get any decent speed out of them. Mountain Bikes handle off road terrain quite well, and most have some lugs for mounting rear racks. Because most mountain bikes have front suspension, fitting front racks can be a problem, but it can be done. They are suited with their extra strength and low gearing to carrying heavy loads. Their wheelbase is quite short, which can lead to twitchy steering. The pedal height from the ground is usually higher to allow for clearance from the ground when off road.

Touring bikes fall into two categories. Lightweight and heavyweight. Most touring bikes have sufficiently low gearing for hauling heavy loads up steep hills, yet still having good gears for road riding. Most touring bikes have lugs to suit front and rear racks, along with mudguard eyelets. They also lend themsleves to modifications to suit a tourist. They usually have a more relaxed geometry, which makes the bike quite stable with a load.

I'm doing this sort of tour, what bike should I take?

As discussed in Types of Touring, there are basically three types of tours. I will add some extra ones, so the list is:

• Fully Supported Road;
• Fully Supported Off Road;
• Self Supported Road;
• Self Supported Off Road, and;
• I'm mad and carry the house with me on tour.

For a fully supported tour on surfaced roads, most people ride road bikes because all of their luggage and other needs are carried by the support vehicles. You can also ride any of the other sort of bikes as long as you don't mind taking your time, when compared to those on road bikes. At high speed, you may not have the gearing to keep up with those on road bikes. So take you time and enjoy the ride at your pace, because that's what touring is all about.

Fully supported off road tours usually require a mountain bike, and most tour companies supply you with one. They can also make recommendations on what sort of bike is required for the ride if you wish to take your own. The advantage of this type of ride is that your luggage and other needs are taken care off, so you don't need to try and fit racks and other accessories to a mountain bike.

For a self supported on road tour, it will depend on whether you are travelling solo, and what your eating and accomodation arrangments are. If you are camping and travelling with other people, you can share the load. For instance, one person can carry the tent, whilst another can carry the stove, and another carries the cooking implements. If you don't need to carry excessive loads, the tour can be done on any style of bike.

Those points highlighted above, can also be applied to a self supported off road tour. A road bike will not suit off road riding, and due to the fact that you will need to carry more gear whilst off road, a mountain bike will only be suitable for this type of tour. If the terrain is not too bad, a good quality touring bike would also suit for riding on gravel roads.

For those of us that are mad and travel anywhere with the house aboard the bike and in the BOB trailer, either a mountain bike or a touring bike is required. The touring bike comes into it's own as it is suited and designed for loaded touring. I have found that a touring bike actually handles better when it is loaded, than when it is unloaded. It is also more comfortable and is capable of handling some rough riding.

Whilst a touring bike will not handle mountain bike trails, they will usually handle most tasks asked of them. After many years of touring around on a mountain bike, I have found that the touring style of bike is much better than a mountain bike. A mountain bike limits the amount of places where you can place your hands, but a touring bike with drop bars has plenty of hand positions.

The geometry of a touring frame also allows the fitting of extra accessories, where as some mountain bike frames are built for strength required for downhill riding, so there is not much room within the frame for extras. If in fact you do travel with the house and furniture, you will obviously have experimented with different types of bikes and set ups. The best recommendation that I can make, is to have a look at what other people are using and adapt their ideas to suit your own needs.

To summarise, an ideal touring bike would have long chain stays to allow more clearance from the front of the rear panniers to the back of the heel when the pedal is at it's most rearward position. This will stop what is known as "heel strike".

Longer chainstays also give the bike a longer wheelbase which makes it more stable when loaded. A more relaxed steering tube angle is also desired. This allows more clearance between the toes and the front wheel when the pedal is at it's most forward position. This is commonly referred to as toe/wheel overlap and can be a problem on some bikes. The relaxed steering tube angle also puts the front wheel further forward and increases the wheelbase length.

Other ideal options would be three cage mounts that are usable, a pump mount, and somewhere to mount spare spokes. Full mounting points for front and rear racks, and mounting holes for full mudguards are another desirable element in a good touring bike.