3 Things You Should Know Before Buying For A New Touring Bicycle
Mar
Before you buy a touring bicycle, you need to read this: www.touringbicyclebook.com
A Bicycle Touring Pro reader named David sent me an email asking a bunch of questions about buying a new touring bicycle, cycling the Northern Tier bicycle route in the United States, and traveling by bike with a dog. Rather than spend the time to email him back with a long list of answers, I suggested we connect on Skype and have a conversation – which I recorded (with David’s permission). By watching and listening to this conversation, I hope that you too will learn a little something about the process of buying a new touring bicycle. Enjoy!
Here are the 3 major things you need to know about shopping for a new touring bike:
- Your local bike shop probably doesn’t carry even a single touring bicycle (unless you are really lucky and live in an area where bike touring is common or popular).
- The people working at your local bike shop probably don’t know much (if anything) about touring bicycles. Most bike shops make their money by selling road, mountain bike or hybrid bike models. Touring bicycles are a special breed and they require a special amount of knowledge.
- Your touring bicycle is the largest, most expensive piece of equipment you will need for your bicycle touring exploits… and the bike you choose to use will vary depending on the type of bike tour that you are planning, the roads or trails you plan to cycle on, the distance of your tour, the amount of gear you wish to carry, how far you want to cycle each day, and a whole host of additional factors (which I detail inside “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles“). Just because another individual chooses to ride a particular brand/model of touring bicycle, that DOES NOT mean that bike is necessarily the best touring bicycle for YOU.
To learn more about touring bicycles and what you need to know before you go out and buy a touring bike of your own, I suggest your read “The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles,” which has helped thousands of people all around the world find the best bike for them!
I have been thinking about doing a tour of the pacific northwest, but my bicycle is a bit old. I want a new touring bike before I commit to a tour of that magnitude. I didn’t realize that I couldn’t find one at my bike shop. I will have to check some good online shops to find the perfect bike for me.
You need to read this book, because there aren’t really any shops that sell touring bicycles online. Or… very few touring bikes are sold online, I should say.