In the early 1990′s, there weren’t nearly as many available touring bike models as there are today. It was during this time that mountain bikes were becoming mainstream and the image of the rough and tough off-road rider was attracting first-time cyclists to the sport/activity in a way that had never occurred before.

At the time, the touring bicycle was at the opposite end of the cycling spectrum and hidden in the shadow of the mountain bike. The touring bike, therefore, was a minority purchase.

For British cyclists in the 1990′s, there were two main touring bikes to choose from:  The Raleigh Randonneur and the Dawes Galaxy. Both were iconic touring bicycles with steel frames and forks, Brooks leather saddles, Continental tires, and paint jobs that would never go out of fashion. But here we are in the 21^st century: The Raleigh Randonneur is no longer and Dawes now sells three different models of the Galaxy touring bike.

The question is… What makes the Dawes Galaxy such a popular seller? How does its design compliment the long-distance cyclist? Does the Galaxy truly live up to its reputation? And most importantly, should you purchase one for yourself?

What Makes The Dawes Galaxy Ideal For Bicycle Touring?

The Dawes Galaxy family, which today includes the Galaxy, Super Galaxy, and Ultra Galaxy, is a range of off-the-peg touring bikes that are ready to use straight off the showroom floor. Manufactured in the far east, but sold mainly in the UK, they come equipped with rear carriers (also known as “racks”), mudguards (“fenders”), bottle cages and are fitted with a group set that, even at the lowest price point, is capable of handling any terrain. After purchasing a Galaxy for yourself, just add a set of panniers and you’re ready to hit the road!

Similar to most touring bike models, Dawes uses steel framesets (frames) on their bicycles; Reynolds 631 butted tubing on the Galaxy and Super Galaxy, and Reynolds 853 butted tubing on the Ultra Galaxy. Steel is a good choice for touring bike models because it gives riders a comfortable yet responsive ride with the bonus that running repairs are a possibility if the worst were to happen and your frame were to crack or break. ‘Butted’ simply means that the frame tubes are thicker at the ends where they are welded together (which makes the weld stronger) and thinner in the middle (which saves weight). If you tap a butted tube with your finger, for example, the sound changes as you move from thick to thin tubing.

Every frameset in the Galaxy range has braze-on mountings for front and rear carriers, mudguards and water bottle cages. These ready-made fixing points offer a secure home for heavily laden carriers and almost anything else you might like to bolt on. All models have two bottle cage fittings, with an option for another below the down tube – a handy place to put the fuel for your cooking stove.

A Tubus carrier is fitted on the rear of each bicycle. These are super high-quality racks normally only seen as an aftermarket purchase, but come included with each Galaxy model.

The Galaxy’s chromoly front fork is ready to accept a front carrier if necessary (but a front rack is not included with each bike). That said, anyone contemplating a self-supported tour would be wise to consider fitting front carriers as they not only they let you carry more gear, but they make the bike more stable, and therefore easier to ride.

Finally, a pair of SKS full-length mudguards help to keep you and the bicycle clean.

The wheels, brakes and drive train on the Dawes Galaxy are also designed with the long haul in mind. After a good quality frame, all bikes benefit from a good pair of wheels. With touring bikes, reliability is the overall aim of the wheel builder as the fatigue that heavy loads and rough roads bring to these components is the touring cyclist’s greatest problem. Even the basic Galaxy has Shimano hubs, stainless steel spokes and double wall alloy rims. In an effort to make the ride more comfortable, and to offer a little insurance to the wheels, the bicycle’s tires are wider than what you find on a traditional road bike, which helps the bike to carry your extra weight and absorb bumps in the road. Finally, all three Galaxy models are equipped with 700×32 Schwalbe Marathon tires. The Schwalbe Marathon is a popular choice among long-distance riders because of their reliability and low wear rate.

The basic Galaxy has a Deore rear derailleur married to a pair of Dura Ace bar end shifters, whilst both the Super Galaxy and the Ultra Galaxy have Tiagra STI gear levers and upgraded front and rear derailleurs. The gear shifters mounted on the bars are great for first time cyclo-tourists because you can still control the bike while changing gear. One of the first surprises that newcomers get is how unwieldy a fully laden bike feels; leaving go of the handlebars is initially a very daunting maneuver.

All three Galaxy models have Shimano cantilever brakes and wide ratio chain sets. Cantilever brakes derived from mountain bikes are the ideal choice for a heavy bike, and naturally a wide range of gear ratios are welcome too. The Shimano chain sets used on the Galaxy and Super Galaxy have ratios of 48/36/26 and the nine speeds rear cog is 11-32, giving a low gear of 21.5”, which should get you up any gradient. The Ultra Galaxy has an upgraded Sugino chain set with slightly higher ratios.

Does The Galaxy Really Come Tour Ready?

While any bike can usually fulfill a number of roles, the Galaxy has the potential to take on most tasks. Okay, it isn’t brilliant as a mountain bike, but as a commuting bike it excels; comfortable, weatherproof, it can carry all your shopping or clothes or laptop, and its not that slow either.

The Galaxy touring bikes do come ready to ride. You won’t have to buy pedals, a rear rack, bottle cages or mudguards. But keep in mind that there are three different models in the range and that the higher up in the range you go, the better these extra add-ons become. The Ultra Galaxy, for example, has the highest quality frame and the best components/equipment.

In order for the Galaxy to truly be tour ready you will need to buy panniers and a handlebar bag or a trailer. A set of lights would be a smart addition as well.

How Can You Purchase A Dawes Galaxy?

Apart from the USA, where there is a brand of the same name, Dawes has distributors in most countries. If there isn’t one where you live, FreeFlow Bikes in Glasgow is the company’s main exporter.

Dawes also has a number of specialist touring bike dealers throughout Great Britain who are able to help you. There is nothing like actually sitting on the bike to see how it fits, but if you know what size bike you normally ride that will be a help. Most professional shops will ask a whole bunch of questions to ensure that you buy the right size bike if you can’t be there in person.

Do You Recommend The Dawes Galaxy?

Yes. The Dawes Galaxy, Super Galaxy and Ultra Galaxy are dependable bicycles that can be used for commuting, touring and more. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I’d rate the Galaxy line a solid 8. I own two Galaxy bikes myself, my son has one, and I would buy another in the future if I had to.

Arthur Lamy is a tour guide in Jersey, in the British Channel Islands, who specializes in cycling and walking tours. Among the people he has shown around the cycle-friendly island is five-time Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault. He also writes articles, books and cycling/walking guides, in addition to writing a cycling blog for the local newspaper. For 30 years he ran a well-known local bike store.

Dear Bicycle Touring Pro and the cycling community,

On August 16, we reached the end of our cross-country trip in Astoria, Oregon after spending two and a half months on the Trans-America Trail. Apart from the simple rewards of bike touring, including a Mickey Mouse glove tan and the lure of an ever-changing horizon, it was the interactions we had with others along the trail that made this experience so memorable. Our bikes served as great conversation starters, and people willingly offered us their stories, advice, and even their yards to sleep in. When it came time to leave, they never failed to tell us about the “big hill” coming up. “It’s just awful,” they would say, “goes on and on forever…” We’d look at each-other and smile; after all, as any east-to-west cross-country cyclist will know, nothing can quite beat the Appalachian Mountains.

Headed west, we also passed through a constantly evolving agricultural landscape. As the “Localmotive Bike Tour,” we stopped at several Girl Scout camps and a YMCA camp to speak with kids about the benefits of local farming and organic foods. We also did our best to support local farmers by stopping at fruit stands on the side of the road and visiting local farms that raised everything from sheep to vegetables. The majority of our connections, however, came from interacting with local community members and referring them to our blog, which served as a great medium to share our mission with others. What we discovered while speaking with others along the trail was symptomatic of our nation’s struggle to redefine our relationship with food as a whole.

Ask a group of first graders where their food comes from, and many will answer “the grocery store.” Ask a corn farmer in Kansas where his food comes from, and he’s more likely to say California than Kansas. Not the answers you’d expect? What we witnessed during our trip is that the majority of food is produced by farms that have little in common with the Fisher Price model of our childhood imaginations – think a little red barn, farm animals, and a farmer with overalls and a straw hat. Instead, large-scale industrial farming is the norm, characterized by fields of a single crop spanning thousands of acres, pesticide use that harms the surrounding environment, and confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). However, we met several large-scale farmers who are taking initiatives to conserve the environment, such as minimizing water use, while still maintaining non-organic practices. While this still leads to plenty of questions about pesticide use, food security, and healthy eating, it is clear that the general mentality is moving in a positive direction.

From Virginia to Oregon, we were consistently impressed by the efforts of individuals and communities to conserve resources, improve their kids’ school lunches, eat more locally, and build truly sustainable communities. It is certainly the case that local initiatives are gaining a stronger foothold across the country as people make the connection between the farms that produce their food and what’s on the dinner table. What we have now might not be perfect, but it’s a great place to start.

To the bicycle touring community that made this scholarship possible, thank you so much for your support and encouragement before and during our ride. Our experiences have inspired us to continue supporting local food programs and to share our knowledge of critical food issues. We will be giving $50 back to the Bicycle Touring Pro scholarship in order to help fund another touring group next summer, and will be donating $200 to a youth group along the trail in order to support the establishment of a community garden.

Best wishes and healthy eating,

Katie, Kerstin, and Lauren

To learn more about the Localmotive Bike Tour and see photos from the cross-country bike ride, be sure to visit the official website at: http://localmotive2011.wordpress.com

Deciding which touring bike to purchase is no small undertaking. When you’re going to be spending so much time and money on a bike, it’s important to get it right.

Over the past two years, my partner and I have used our trusty Long Haul Truckers to carry us up and over the hills of Wales, along the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia, across the Peaks and the Pennines of England, and – in our most extensive trip yet – around New Zealand’s beautiful South Island.

But before we did all that, we spent hours poring through internet forums, blogs and reviews in our quest for the ultimate touring machine. We also talked to friends who have been cycling touring and were a wealth of knowledge. A few of them had the Surly Crosscheck or the Long Haul Trucker and rated them highly.

We looked at the Dawes, the Thorns and the Koga-Miyatas among the many touring bikes on offer. But it was the Long Haul Trucker that kept popping up as the touring bicycle to have: a steel frame with all the braze-ons that you would ever need for v-brakes, racks, bottle cages and even spare spokes.

We already had a Surly in our stable, the Steamroller, which had done a good service as a fixed city commuter. The Surly 4130 CroMoly steel gives a comfortable and reliable ride, the paint job was smart, and we knew that we couldn’t go wrong with a Surly.

At Brixton Cycles in London we had a chance to see the Long Haul Trucker in the flesh. Beautiful, aren’t they? We had a great chat with the staff there, who are real Surly enthusiasts.  After some discussion, we found the right sizes for the two of us: quite comically I settled for the towering 58cm 2009 model in green, and my partner went for the diminutive burgundy 46cm, of which, happily for our wallet, Brixton had one left over from 2008 at a reduced price. We came away from the shop buzzing with ideas about how we’d build the bikes ourselves, to our exact specifications and needs. New additions to the stable were soon to be born!

The Build & The Ride

All the Surly bikes we’ve come across (the Steamroller, Crosscheck and now the Long Haul Trucker) are certainly not on the light side. But they are built to last – sturdy and rock solid.  The relaxed angles and the longer wheelbase make the Long Haul Trucker a simply brilliant ride.

Over the years, we’ve each tried many other kinds of bicycle, from custom-made titanium racing bikes to aluminum hard-tail mountain bikes. Admittedly, we’ve never tried a different model of touring bike, but the Long Haul Trucker has made such an impression that we feel we’ll never need to. Simply put, they are probably the most comfortable bicycles we have ever ridden.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker is not built for speed, but for carrying you and the kitchen sink. It really does handle and feel most at ease when you have loaded it up. This is, I’m sure, a common principle of all good touring bicycles.

We’re ashamed to admit that our other bicycles have more or less been put out to grass since we got the Long Haul Truckers. We have a couple of fixed and road bikes along with a MTB commuter. But, over the last two years, they have just been gathering dust, since the Long Haul Truckers are so comfortable and a joy to ride. While the titanium road
bike is a flighty thoroughbred, the Long Haul Trucker is a sturdy and reliable cart horse.

We’ve even used our Long Haul Truckers as commuting bikes in London. They are slow and heavy but always get you there in comfort and with a smile on your face. It is no racer, but let’s face it, you’re not going to do a sprint finish when touring. Need to take lots of luggage, extra water and a stock pile of food when away from civilization? The Surly doesn’t complain. It just takes the load and keeps on going. You can almost hear it say “More luggage? Bring it on!”

Even at low speeds and fully loaded it handles very well. Nor is going up steep hills a problem. In the fastnesses of Wales and the Pennines we managed a few serious lumps – even a 25% incline – fully loaded, with the front wheel firmly planted on the ground.

I’m told I sound like a broken record when telling people about this bike, but it’s honestly the best way to describe it: It’s like riding a four-wheeled sofa. Heavy, but comfy as anything.

The Build & The Cost

We got hold of our two Surly frames at our local bike shop in London, Brixton Cycles. The 46cm was £50 cheaper than the 56cm, which set us back £350 since it was an older model (2008 rather than 2009). There are no substantial differences between the two frames aside from different lugs on the dropouts, and the colour: the 2008 frame was
only available in a rather fetching burgundy. Otherwise, they’re exactly the same. The 2010 model seems to differ from the 2009 frame in colour alone, and if there are further differences, they must be subtle as they’re not immediately noticeable. And, from discussions with other Long Haul Trucker riders, the ride quality doesn’t differ from model to model.

When it came to selecting the correct size, there were a few different schools of thought to consider. We took the advice of the bike shop to go for a smaller size than usual in a touring frame. The 60cm, and maybe even 62cm frame would certainly have fit me, but our man Barney at the local bike shop advised me to go for the 58cm in order to have
greater control over my steed when fully loaded, especially when getting on and off. I do have a rather long seat post and a raised stem. I didn’t even need to cut the fork down. What matters is that I feel comfortable on the bike, and so I’m absolutely sure I made the right sizing and set-up choices.  Even my partner took the size down from her normal size, 46cm, and she just loves riding her Surly Long Haul Trucker.

If you prefer an off-the-peg bike, you can get the Surly Long Haul Trucker built up from Surly for just over £890. We decided that we wanted to build our tourers from scratch, as we had particular ideas about our preferred components. For example, I don’t get on with drop handlebars or downtube shifters, and my partner prefers shallow drops and women-specific saddles. I also looked forward to the process of sourcing the parts and building up our new steeds. And then there was the practical benefit of helping me understand the bikes inside and out, and be prepared for any potential mechanical breakdowns while out on tour.

I built up our Long Haul Truckers with XT groupsets, 44, 32, 22 chainrings and a 11-34 cassette which gives us plenty of low gears for going up the steepest of hills. I chose the Hollowtech II bottom bracket, which I admit I was a little worried about at start (new-fangled technology!), but they are running just fine.

My bike has butterfly/traveller handlebars, which I’m still playing around with to find exactly the right set up. I’m almost there. The wheels, 700c,  I bought second hand from a friend who’d built them up himself with a HOPE XC rear hub and SON dynohub on Mavic A319 36 hole rims.

The smaller Surly was set up with women-specific shallow drop Bontrager handlebars and Ultegra STI shifters which work great with v-brakes when you use travel agents. The wheels, 26”, were built with HOPE front and rear hubs on Mavic A319 36 hole rims, by our very good friend and wheel builder.

Both bikes run Marathon Plus 35mm tyres which are pretty much bombproof, which is much needed for touring and commuting in London. Admittedly the tyres are slightly on the slow side (see a theme emerging here?), but it’s not speed we care too much about. Rather, it’s  durability and longevity that are important. The Marathon Plus ticks these boxes. As for the racks, we chose Turbus Cargo and Ergo racks because we’d heard good things about them and I was lucky enough to get them on discount through my work.

It’s a bit hard to state the total cost of the bikes. To be honest, we got rather carried away when building our new toys and didn’t keep a close eye on the budget. Plus, we did have some of the parts stored up already along with several great offers we managed to pick up online and through my work. The bike building project began in January 2009
and the first bike was fully built by June of the same year. If you have time to spare, gradually picking up bits and pieces through online offers can save you quite a bit of money. For example, we picked up my partner’s Ultegra shifters for half price, and got the Hollowtech II crankset for over £100 less than the street price.

But I’m pretty sure if you go into a shop and order what we have, you are going over the £2000 mark for each of these bicycles. That said, I’m sure that the off-the-peg Surly would be a great ride still and a great starter tourer to build up when you can afford to upgrade.

The Small Things

The paint job is good quality. I have used my Surly heavily over the last two years and of course there are a few scratches, but the paint job is still sound. I had read that the paint job on the burgundy coloured Surly wasn’t the best. But, we have not had any problems with ours. There was a rather big scratch inflicted by the journey to New Zealand but no paint job would have survived that.

The smaller 46cm frame is rather compact so you can only have one 750ml bottle in the three cages. The one on the seat tube can just about hold a 750ml bottle, and it’s a bit of a faff to get the bottle out and in. The one on the underside of the down tube can only take a small bottle as there is no room for it because of the front wheel.

Since the Long Haul Truckers are on the heavy side, you will be a bit pushed keeping your packed up bicycle within your luggage allowance when flying. We try to add a little bit extra into the box, such as your sleeping bags and tent. But with the Long Haul Truckers you don’t have many extra kgs to play with.

The standard sized bike box you can pick up from your local bicycle shop, is a tight fit for the 58cm frame. Even with front rack and mudguards off your Surly will be bigger than the box. I had to take the forks off as well in order to get it all into the box. The 46cm frame, however, fit nice and snug into a standard cardboard bike box.

My very first ride on the Surly Long Haul Trucker was quite an epic one: a ride called the Dunwich Dynamo, a 110’ish mile long ride over night from London to a beach north east of London. Around one thousand people take part every year in the summer. It was pretty much thrown together in the morning before the ride, a quick spin in the carpark
to see if it worked, loaded it up and off we went.

After around 40-50 miles my shoulders started to hurt. I then raised the stem one spacer and the pain started to go away. And that was it for the rest of the ride. It was just so comfortable. When I got back onto the bike after a quick swim and breakfast it was not painful.

When people see the Surly they are really interested and only tell you good things about it, either from their own experience or from what they have read or heard. I recall that at 4am on the Dunwich Dynamo, I was passing two ladies on a hill, and we all were rather tired at this point. One of them asked me, “Is that the Long Haul Trucker, with the
long wheel base?” This made me smile, gave me a boost and made me rather proud that I had picked such a well thought of and famous bicycle.

The only thing that has broken on the Surly is the rear wheel which was second hand. After nearly 10,000 miles in total, the rim cracked. I think it handled it responsibilities very well since I’m not the smallest of people and do carry a lot in my panniers, including a heavy tool kit, while commuting in London. And we did ride on some rather rough gravel roads in New Zealand. Otherwise they just roll along taking in whatever you throw at them.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker: In Summary

You’re not going to win any races riding a Long Haul Trucker. But it does exactly what it says on the tin. It carries you long distances, with all your worldly possessions (well, almost) in comfort and style. It just gets better the more you load it up.

I’m now coming up to 8,500 miles on mine and when it’s clean it still looks like a new bicycle. In the meanwhile, our other bikes look out jealously from under the washing draped over them; they’re just glorified laundry hangers these days. We were warned that once we’d joined the Long Haul Trucker club we’d have trouble weaning ourselves off… and it’s true!

I know for sure that these lovely, dependable Surly Long Haul Truckers will be in our stable for many years to come. It’s testament to the comfort and quality of the bikes that we really can’t think of anything that we want to change about them. We might just top up the paint job when it’s needed. In the meantime, there’s a lot of world left to explore, so we’ll just keep on Long Haul Trucking.

About the Author: Henrik Risager (aka “woollypigs“) is a pootling touring cyclist, who discovered the delights of cycle camping in 2009 and has since toured with his partner in Wales, England, Croatia, New Zealand and his native Denmark. He always stops for cake and daydreams about where the next tour will take him.

If you have ever done a multi-day bike tour, you have probably needed to do laundry at some point in time. The question is: What do you do when you are in dire need of some clean clothes, yet there is no laundromat or even a shower or sink near your campsite?

Some might be happy to just wear the least dirty article of clothing. As a woman, and a person who prefers not to smell offensive to others, I would rather not wear dirty clothes. Okay, the pair of pants and t-shirts worn in camp can be worn a few times before washing. However, bike shorts and some undergarments really should be laundered more frequently. Of course, that is merely my opinion.

If you are of the same opinion as I am, here is a handy way to take care of that little laundry problem. First a few (three to be exact) supplies are needed: a plastic bag, some sort of detergent, and a water source. Remember when you stopped at the grocery store to resupply? You kept the plastic grocery sack, right? Besides the many other uses (camp trash bag, saddle cover and dry seat at a wet picnic table), plastic grocery sacks make excellent washing machines (I use the term “washing machine” loosely)!

Here’s what you do: Take the dirty clothes and put them in the grocery sack. Don’t worry if the sack has a hole (they are rarely hole-free). Fill the sack with water (preferably from a spigot). Add one of those laundry detergent “sink packs” (such as Tide) or some other form of soap. If you want to be environmentally correct, use a biodegradable soap. Agitate the laundry around in the bag just like the washing machine (hopefully the hole in the bag is not too big). After a suitable wash “cycle”, hold the bag and let the water drain out. Now, refill the bag with fresh water for the rinse, swish it around and drain as before. You may want to rinse a second time. Now you can wring the clothes out and hang up or drape over a picnic table.

If you want to continue with the spin ‘cycle”, and don’t mind getting a little wet (or looking a little strange), you can spin the bag over your head rapidly. As much fun as this sounds, I would recommend doing this portion of the cycle away from the campsite and other people.

There you have it – a way to do laundry without a laundromat, shower, or sink.

Do your clothes get sparkly clean? Not exactly, but they will get you by until you can get to a proper laundry facility.

Photo by mysza831

Kerstin, Katie and Lauren of the Localmotive Bike Tour were the recipients of this year’s Bicycle Touring Pro travel scholarship and the girls are just now setting off on their three-month long journey by bike across the United States.

Along the way, Kerstin, Katie and Lauren will be stopping to talk with Girl Scout troops in the areas they are passing through and sharing with the young girls they meet along the way the importance of eating locally grown foods and getting regular exercise.

As the recipients of this year’s $800 dollar travel scholarship, I asked Kerstin, Katie, and Lauren to write something up for the readers of BicycleTouringPro.com, so that they could share just how they are feeling now that their epic bicycle tour across the United States is finally underway. This is what the girls had to say…

* * *

After almost two years of planning, the time has come for us to leave on our TransAmerica Bicycle Tour. We have been so busy planning, it wasn’t until about three days ago when we were all on the phone that Katie burst out “I just realized…we are biking across the entire country!”. It really is just starting to hit us because, while others balk at such a trip in its entirety, we see it in day-long segments: 40, 50, 60 miles at a time. While the distance is impressive, it is the day to day experiences we hope we will appreciate.

Already it had been so rewarding to have explored the Cumberland Valley in central Pennsylvania, where our college is located. We have been able to see so many new streams, forests, and farms just by hopping on our bike and making our way beyond the usual college student’s territory. This, we hope, will be how our tour across the country will be. We hope to see the land and people in a way that would not be possible with a car or plane trip.

Of course, we are not without worries and questions. Are we bringing enough gear or too much? Will we be able to walk after a week of riding this much? Will we be caught in one of the seemingly frequent tornadoes? (Our hearts go out to those who have been affected by the terrible storms in recent weeks). But again, these questions will be answered day by day and there is only so much planning we can do.

Perhaps that is one of the most appealing aspects of a long-distance bicycle tour. Unlike with the fast-moving world around us, where we can easily drive another 100 miles if we need to or almost always have instant Internet access, a tour might require more patience and acceptance of the unknown.

That being said, we are psyched to get on the road and see what is ahead. Thank you to all of those who have made it possible to get even this far.

- Lauren, Katie, and Kerstin -

To learn more about the Lauren, Katie and Kerstin and the Localmotive Bike Tour, please visit the girls’ website at: www.localmotive2011.wordpress.com