Raleigh will celebrate 125 years in the bicycle business in 2012, making them one of oldest and best known bicycle manufacturers on the planet. The 1940′s version of the post-war Raleigh Clubman was a bicycle used for all manner of riding – from multi-day tours to road racing and time trials. Today, the modern Clubman has changed remarkably little. With its current geometry, Reynolds 520 steel frame, and distinct fork shape intact, Raleigh has worked hard over the years to maintain many of the bicycle’s original characteristics, while at the same time combining it with the modern components one would expect in a quality commuter, sport touring, or long-distance bicycle.

As its name suggests, the Clubman is an excellent bike for commuting and club rides, but can also be used to handle the demands of short and long-distance bicycle touring. While the retro characteristics of the Clubman may not appeal to everyone, those who appreciate the bike’s classic styling will feel that the Raleigh Clubman not only gets them where they need to go, but does so with some old school speed and fashion.

Frame & Components

The Clubman is built on a steel frame, which means comfort and flexibility on long-rides, as well as the rigidity and strength that is needed when you load up the bike with a decent amount of gear. The bicycle’s frame also has several steel braze-ons. It’s got a pump peg, chain holder, and the mounts needed for attaching a rear rack. There’s also front and rear fender mounts, two pairs of bottle cage bosses, and a drilled chainstay bridge.

Up-to-date components like Shimano’s latest 2×10-speed Tiagra transmission with a 50/34 crank set and 12-30 rear cassette will surely be appreciated for their deft shiftability.

While the Clubman can be used for various types of cycling, the most recent models of the bike tend to be more oriented toward speed and racing. However, the Clubman is really an all-rounder, Audax, randonneur, fast tourer, or whatever you want to call it kind of bicycle. It has a 39½”/1,000-and-odd millimeters wheelbase, 72° head angle allied to an almost 2″/50mm fork rake, clearance for 28mm tires and mudguards, with caliper brakes and all the eyelets you could wish for. The bicycle even comes with a Brooks leather saddle!

Attaching a rear rack to the Clubman is a breeze, but equipping the bicycle with a front rack is much more difficult, as there are no braze-ons in the front fork for your typical front rack mounting.

The Raleigh Clubman does, however, comes with pedals and toe clips, which will fit most people just fine, but will need to be replaced by people with larger shoe sizes. In fact, the pedals and clips, while very much appreciated, are usually replaced in a short amount of time by most serious Clubman owners.

Two other items that may soon need replacing are the bicycle’s handlebar tape (which seems to rip and fade rather quickly) and the bicycle’s two tires, which are more suited for local commuting than they are for long-distance touring.

Finally, the wheels that come with the bike can handle a fair amount of riding, but they aren’t the highest quality wheels in the world and may need replacing after only a few thousand miles.

Purchasing & Costs

The suggested retail price of the Raleigh Clubman is about $1,100 USD. You’ll need to contact a Raleigh dealer in your area to test drive, purchase, or special order your new bike. If, however, you can find this bicycle for sale at the end of the touring season, you can usually grab it for a hundred or more dollars less. The price of the bicycle, therefore, makes it one of the more affordable lightweight touring bikes on the market.

At around 24 pounds the Clubman rides fast and handles like a racing bike, but can put up with the weight you might add to any other touring bicycle. For those who like to ride fast and light, the Clubman is the ideal bicycle. While the gearing isn’t there for strenuous uphill sections, stronger cyclists can usually remain in the seated position until a 16% grade, with anything steeper than that requiring a standing struggle or an embarrassing uphill walk.

The Clubman’s steel frame gives the bike some bend, which can be a little nerve-racking at first. However, it is this flex in the frame that soaks up the smaller bumps in the road and provides you with the comfort you need on longer rides. Going down large hills, the bike handles like a dream and is incredibly stable. The Clubman likes to go fast and that is exactly what you can expect to do with it!

The best and worst thing about the Raleigh Clubman is the compact Shimano Tiagra 50/34 crank set. You’re likely to develop a love/hate relationship with this choice in gearing. While the high gears are very much appreciated on flat and downhill sections, climbing can be a struggle. But once you reach the top of the pass, you’ll forget all about the pain your just endured and will be glad you’re still riding your Clubman.

Clubman Conclusion

The Raleigh Clubman is a superbly useful, uber-cool, daily rider which comfortably gets you to your destination with both speed and style. For the price, the Raleigh Clubman might just be the perfect fast commuter. While the bicycle’s components could be a bit stronger, at the end of the day, the Clubman has a superb riding frame with decent parts and enough style to get you a regular admiring glances.

The Clubman is a great bike for people who like to travel fast and light and prefer to ride without three main chain-rings. Getting rid of that small ring, however, means that you’ll need to be in good shape to get the most out of the Clubman. And if you aren’t in shape now, you’ll get in good shape after a few weeks on this bicycle.

Overall, the Raleigh Clubman is a 7 out of 10 as a touring bicycle and a 9 out of 10 and a daily commuter.

About The Author: Jason Cazier works in California and likes to take long vacations to wild places around the world. Jason’s first long-distance bicycle tour was a 2,500 mile ride across New Zealand on a Raleigh Clubman. He is now planning his next bicycle touring adventure.

Got a question or comment about this bicycle? Leave a message below and let’s talk some more!

For my upcoming bicycle tour across Europe and Africa, I needed to find a bike that was not only comfortable, strong, and capable of handling the demands of long-distance touring, but I also needed a bike that could be ridden in both on and off-road conditions.

Because I will be spending about six months of my upcoming bike tour cycling on paved streets and bicycle paths in mainland Europe, and another six months or more pedaling down dirt and gravel roads in both Iceland and Africa, it was imperative that I find a bicycle that could handle the demands of both on and off-road travel.

That’s when I began looking at the Co-Motion Pangea, a high-end touring bicycle made by Co-Motion Cycles, a small bicycle manufacturer located in Eugene, Oregon (USA).

I’ve seen the Co-Motion Pangea (and the rest of the bicycles made by Co-Motion) in the past at a few of the major bicycle trade-shows in the United States, and the high-quality craftsmanship of these vehicles has always blown me away. Every bike in the Co-Motion line-up is of the highest quality and stunningly beautiful. But it is the Pangea touring bicycle, with its 26 inch mountain bike wheels and optional S&S couplers, that has had me saying for the past several years, “That’s my ideal touring bicycle!”

When I started planning my upcoming bike ride across Europe and Africa, I began to realize that none of the touring bikes in my current stable of bicycles would be capable of handling the off-road riding that I was planning for my upcoming trip. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the Co-Motion Pangea, my tradeshow dream bike, had all the qualities I was looking for in my next touring bicycle.

Here are some of the qualities that make the Co-Motion Pangea a touring bicycle standout:

Custom Fit

Co-Motion goes out of their way to provide you with the best fitting bicycle they possibly can. Before you order a bike from the company, your measurements are taken and based on these measurements, it is determined whether one of the standard size Co-Motion frames will work for you, or if you need something a little different. Based on my measurements (I’m very tall and very skinny), it was determined that I would need a large 62 cm frame.

Steel Frame

Like most good touring bicycles, the Co-Motion Pangea is built on a strong, yet comfortable steel frame. Like I mention inside The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles, steel is the ideal metal for use in a touring bicycle because it provides you with the strength and stability you need to carry heavy loads, while at the same time giving you the flexibility needed for sitting in the saddle for long periods of time.

Drop Handlebars

If it weren’t for the dropped handlebars on the Pangea, you might just think that this bicycle were made entirely for the mountains. But the drop handlebars on the Pangea are there to provide you with the multiple hand positions you need when touring for days, weeks, and months on end. When it comes to long-distance bicycle touring, having a multitude of hand positions is vitally important to your comfort on the bike and your ability to continue cycling for extended lengths of time.

Bar-End (or optional STI) Shifters

When it comes to shifters, Co-Motion gives you the choice of equipping your bicycle with either bar-end shifters (which are easy to adjust and repair on the road and are preferred by many in the bicycle touring world) or to upgrade to STI integrated brake and gear shifters (which are more common in the world of bicycle racing). While many of my touring bicycles in the past have used STI integrated shifters, I opted for bar-end shifters on my new Co-Motion Pangea.

Disc Brakes

One of the things that makes the Co-Motion Pangea so unique its use of disc brakes, rather than the old-fashioned rim brakes that are so prevalent in much of the touring world. By equipping your bicycle with modern disc brakes, you can stop your heavy, loaded bicycle in a much shorter amount of time, control your bicycle with greater ease, and increase your safety while out on the road.

26″ Wheels and Tires

It is the wheels on the Pangea that make this bicycle really stand out against many of the other touring bicycles on the market. The Pangea, as its name suggests, is a bike that is made to go just about anywhere, and the wider 26 inch size wheels/tires on the bike allow you to use the bicycle for both on and off-road riding. Plus, 26 inch wheels and tires are a standard size just about everywhere in the world, which means that finding replacements parts will be a breeze during international travels.

Optional S&S Couplers

If you plan to travel with your bike a lot (like I do), you can even opt to have your Co-Motion bicycle equipped with S&S couplers, which are small metal fasteners that are welded to your bicycle’s frame that allows you to take the bicycle apart, fold it up, and fit it inside a case that is small enough to fly on many airplanes for free! Essentially, the S&S couplers allow you to enjoy the benefits of traveling with a folding bicycle, but with the joy and comfort of a full-size bike. I personally opted for the S&S couplers on my Pangea and I look forward to seeing how they perform.

Custom Paint

Finally, when you order a Co-Motion bicycle, you get your choice of thousands of custom paint jobs. When you buy a Co-Motion bike, you aren’t getting a mass-produced bicycle made by a company in China and re-branded by a western corporation. Instead, you are getting a totally customized, one-of-a-kind, touring bicycle made just for you, and you alone! Just look at all the paint color options that Co-Motion currently provides.

It is for all these reasons (and because the bicycle is so beautiful and well made) that I decided to use the Co-Motion Pangea on my upcoming bicycle tour across Europe and Africa.

Unfortunately, I don’t have my Pangea just yet. I’ve placed my order and I’m schedule to receive my new bike any day now. As soon as I finish cycling across Iceland, however, I should have a pretty good idea of what the Co-Motion Pangea is like as a touring bicycle and I’ll share more about the bike with you at that time.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about the Co-Motion Pangea, why I chose this bicycle for my upcoming tour, or whether you think the Pangea might be the ideal touring bicycle for your own bicycle touring adventures, leave a question or comment below and I’ll get back to you just as soon as I can.

The biggest question I get about folding bicycles like the Bike Friday New World Tourist is, “If the wheels are smaller than a regular bicycle, does that mean the bicycle goes slower or that you have to pedal it more in order to go as fast as a full-sized bicycle?”

The truth is, no, Bike Fridays and similar folding bike models are capable of going just as fast as your full-size bicycle (up to a limit).

The Bike Friday website explains it best:

It’s all in the gearing. A single turn of the pedals on a Bike Friday will cover the same ground as that of a regular wheeled bike — the small wheel just turns a little more. The gears on a Bike Friday are configured to match the ratios of a regular bike.

They continue by saying:

Small wheels climb better due to a smaller diameter that needs to be rotated.

Small wheels accelerate faster for the same reason.

Small wheels are more responsive — they turn and steer more easily — the feel is rather like having ‘power steering’ on your car.

Small wheels, having a lower surface area, have lower wind resistance in headwinds.

When riding in a group, small wheels enable you to get closer together and draft better.

The design of a Bike Friday allows a smaller and and lighter overall package than a regular bike, and smallness and lightness are factors in going fast.

While there is almost no difference between the speed at which a folding bicycle and a full-sized bicycle are capable of going, there is a point at which full-size bicycles become more efficient:

Tests have shown that up to 16 mph, the small wheel is more efficient than a big wheel. Between 16 and 33 mph there is little difference. Over 33 mph the gyroscopic effect of the big wheel makes it more effective. Most folks do not go over 33 mph.

I can verify that what Bike Friday is saying about the speed of their bicycles is true. I have traveled with the Bike Friday New World Tourist for more than four years and covered thousands of miles on the bicycle, and I go just as fast on the New World Tourist as I do on any of my other touring bicycles. If there is any difference in the speed of the bicycle compared to my full-size touring bicycles, it isn’t something I can noticeably feel.

The only area where the Bike Friday and similar 20 inch wheeled bicycles fail to perform as well as full-sized bicycles is in traversing over large objects in the road, such as cracks, rocks and curbs. It is here that the larger wheels excel, due to the fact that their large circumference allows them to easily roll over certain obstacles in the road. Small wheels, however, have a harder time rolling over these same sized objects due to the fact that the circumference on folding bicycle wheels are so much smaller, and the proportions between the small wheels and the object that is being crossed over, is that much greater.

Watch the video above and you will see a few samples of how the Bike Friday New World Tourist performs at speed, in sharp turns, and going up and down a curb.

The Bike Friday New World Tourist is a folding bicycle capable of world travel. The folding characteristics of the bike allow it to be checked as regular baggage with most international airlines, thereby eliminating the excess baggage fees that are usually required when flying with a full-size bicycle.

The Bike Friday New World Tourist is a great little bike for fully-loaded bicycle touring, but one of the most common questions I get about the bike has to do with the folding and unfolding process. People ask, “”How long does it take to fold and unfold the bicycle each time you decide to use it?”

The truth is, the Bike Friday New World Tourist is not a “fast-fold” bicycle. While there are other Bike Friday and folding bike models that fold and unfold in a matter of seconds, the New World Tourist is not one of those bicycles – nor is it intended to be.

The first time you put the New World Tourist together and take it apart, it may take you anywhere from 30-60 minutes. After a few times of practicing the fold, however, folding and unfolding the bicycle becomes a whole lot easier and the time required for putting the bicycle together or taking it apart can be reduced to as little as 5-15 minutes.

Watch the video above and you will see how the New World Tourist is put together with the use of two quick releases and multiple Allen wrench connections.

This updated version of the book not only comes with 35 pages of additional content, but the online touring bicycle database that comes for free with the book has been enhanced with 16 totally new touring bicycles you should know about!

Why did I create “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles?”

After running the website here at BicycleTouringPro.com for nearly five years and after receiving thousands and thousands of questions from people just like you who wanted to know what to look for in a quality touring bicycle, I decided a few years back that I should put together everything I know about touring bicycles and compile it all into the world’s greatest resource for touring bike buyers.

Over the last three years, “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles” has quickly skyrocketed to the most popular piece of information on this entire website, and has helped thousands of people from all around the world find their ideal bicycle touring vehicle.

For people who are new to bicycle touring, the process of finding a touring bicycle can be daunting. You have to do a bunch of research, figure out what kind of touring bicycles are available, decide which bicycle features are important to you, negotiate the buying process, ask for advice as to which type of bicycle you should buy, and a whole lot more. At the end of it all, many first-time buyers still aren’t sure if they’re getting the right bicycle for the type of bike tour they wish to participate in.

This is where “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles” comes in and saves the day! With this book, all of the mystery has been taken out of finding and buying a new touring bicycle.

With “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles” as your guide, you will learn about the five major types of bicycle tours and the five major types of touring bicycles.

Did you know, for example, that there are several different types of touring bicycles and that each type of touring bike has been designed for a specific type of bicycle touring? And did you know that many first-time touring bike buyers end up purchasing a bicycle that was not designed for the type of bicycle touring that they wish to participate in? This can be a huge and costly mistake! That’s why “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles” talks about this at great length… and why it discusses a number of other important things you should know about touring bicycles before you go out and buy one for yourself!

Inside the book you will learn about:

• The five majors types of bicycle touring and the five different types of touring bicycles.
• How to determine which type of touring bicycle you need.
• Which metals are most popular in touring bike frames and why the metal you select for your touring bike is so important.
• How to get the right size bicycle for your body type.
• Which wheels, gears and handlebars you should have on your bike.
• What kind of shifters, brakes and pedals are best for touring bicycles.
• The process you need to go through when purchasing a new or custom-built bicycle.
• The best time of year to purchase a touring bicycle and save lots of money.
• Popular touring bicycle scams you should know about.
• And a whole lot more!

With 35 new pages of content and 16 new touring bicycles in the database, this new and improved version of “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles” is ready and waiting to help you find your perfect touring bike.