Advice on budget tourer

Hi folks,
I am looking to purchase a road bike, suitable for weekend excursions,
including
camping overnight. I guess I,d be looking round trips of around the 100mile
distance.
So I guess a touring bike would be better than my MTB.
Unfortunately my budget only goes to the £350 - £400 mark. I already have
tools,
lights, pump, lock etc, but I have no panniers. I was looking at the Raleigh
Venture,
which can be purchased online for under £300. It already comes with the
panniers.
My LBS isn't a raleigh dealer, and does specialise in more upmarket brands,
and the
prices that go with them, but I thought I,d pop in and ask anyway. The guy
said he
had just the thing come in recently and pointed to a Scott bike with 700c
wheels and
semi-road tyres, 24 gears etc,etc, priced at £349, and I pushed for a deal
with lights, rear rack, panniers,
spare inner tube and a couple of water bottles, and he came back with a £415
price,
which seems good. My slight concern, apart from going over budget slightly,
is that the bike in question,
and sorry I didn't take any notice of its model name, does have front
suspension,
and although it does have adjusters, I thought that was a no-no for road
bikes.
Sorry if Raliegh is a swear word to all you experts, but what is the general
feeling of the Venture?
Internet searches for this model have drawn up very little, so I guess its
not that popular.
Or does the Scott bike seem a better option?
Any advice would be appreciated,
Cheers,
Ian

"Texy" writes:

Hi folks, I am looking to purchase a road bike, suitable for weekend
excursions, including camping overnight. I guess I,d be looking
round trips of around the 100mile distance. So I guess a touring
bike would be better than my MTB.

Good plan! I've no idea what Raleigh bikes are like nowadays. The
last one I had was a Grifter Mk2 ;o)

You might like to consider a Dawes Horizon which should be a good bike
with reasonable equipment at that price point. Spa Cycles seem to be
doing a good offer on them at 360 quid.

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products....id=m1b0s21p437

Chris
--
Chris Eilbeck

On 19/08/2006 17:50, Texy said,

Sorry if Raliegh is a swear word to all you experts, but what is the general
feeling of the Venture?

I don't know about the Venture, but Raleigh is certainly not a swear
word to me! I have a 9-ish year old Randonneur, and it is a lovely
bike. (Looks roughly at the level of the current Pioneer Venture GTE)

I think Raleigh have a bad reputation because they are (were?) a British
company, and it is traditional to knock anything British as being
crap. If you like the Raleigh Venture, then don't be put off by the
brand, and don't be swayed by what your LBS is trying to sell you just
because he has it. When I bought my Randonneur, my LBS also wasn't a
Raleigh dealer, but he went to the trouble of getting one in for me.
I'm assuming you're looking at the Pioneer Venture at that price, and
for the money it looks good. I notice it has fork-mounted carrier
bosses, and that will be handy for camping touring.

Internet searches for this model have drawn up very little, so I
guess its
not that popular.

I assume you've checked the specs out on the Raleigh website?
http://www.raleighbikes.com/cycles.aspx

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

Texy wrote:
Hi folks,
I am looking to purchase a road bike, suitable for weekend excursions,
including
camping overnight. I guess I,d be looking round trips of around the 100mile
distance.
So I guess a touring bike would be better than my MTB.
Unfortunately my budget only goes to the £350 - £400 mark.

I'm delighted with my Revolution Country from the Edinburgh bike coop
(http://www.edinburgh-bicycle.co.uk/c....cfm?ID=22636).
I've had it just over a year, done about 3000 miles, and had no
problems at all.

stephen

Chris Eilbeck wrote:
"Texy" writes:

Hi folks, I am looking to purchase a road bike, suitable for weekend
excursions, including camping overnight. I guess I,d be looking
round trips of around the 100mile distance. So I guess a touring
bike would be better than my MTB.

Good plan! I've no idea what Raleigh bikes are like nowadays. The
last one I had was a Grifter Mk2 ;o)

My experience is even older :-)


The OP mentioned a Scott bike. I've never seen a Scott tourer, though I
could be wrong. Seen lots of their mountain bikes, some hybrids and some
road-racing machines. Therefore unsure what bike was being recommended as a
tourer.


You might like to consider a Dawes Horizon which should be a good bike
with reasonable equipment at that price point. Spa Cycles seem to be
doing a good offer on them at 360 quid.

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products....id=m1b0s21p437

Going purely by website specs, the Raleigh Venture Pioneer looks fairly
similar to the Dawes.
The big differences I could see were frame design; the Dawes being a
"compact" style, and looks to have the front wheel a bit further forwards to
avoid toe overlap (ie. hitting rear of front mudguard with toe on pedal).
The overlap difference may just be the photograph angle.
The Dawes says it has secondary brake levers (cyclocross style), thus giving
more brake position options. Someone not used to drop bars might find the
secondary brake levers a significant benefit (and they're not like the
crappy ones sold in the 1970s).
The unknown is the frame quality and frame weight (which is down to what the
maker ordered from the robot frame assembly factory in the far east). As
more people tour on Dawes than Raleigh these days, I'd be biased towards
Dawes.

The other popular contender is the Edinburgh Cycle Coop "Revolution
Country", which is usually a tad cheaper than the Dawes list price, but
broadly similar specification. That said, Spa's discounted price on the
Dawes is probably lower than EBC's list price.

Overall, if buying by mail, I'd go with the Dawes from Spa, but my first
choice would be a trip round local bike shops to see if someone can come
close to Spa's price.


- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

"Texy" wrote in message
...
Hi folks,
I am looking to purchase a road bike, suitable for weekend excursions,
including
camping overnight. I guess I,d be looking round trips of around the
100mile distance.
So I guess a touring bike would be better than my MTB.
Unfortunately my budget only goes to the £350 - £400 mark. I already have
tools,
lights, pump, lock etc, but I have no panniers. I was looking at the
Raleigh Venture,
which can be purchased online for under £300. It already comes with the
panniers.
My LBS isn't a raleigh dealer, and does specialise in more upmarket
brands, and the
prices that go with them, but I thought I,d pop in and ask anyway. The guy
said he
had just the thing come in recently and pointed to a Scott bike with 700c
wheels and
semi-road tyres, 24 gears etc,etc, priced at £349, and I pushed for a deal
with lights, rear rack, panniers,
spare inner tube and a couple of water bottles, and he came back with a
£415 price,
which seems good. My slight concern, apart from going over budget
slightly, is that the bike in question,
and sorry I didn't take any notice of its model name, does have front
suspension,
and although it does have adjusters, I thought that was a no-no for road
bikes.
Sorry if Raliegh is a swear word to all you experts, but what is the
general feeling of the Venture?
Internet searches for this model have drawn up very little, so I guess its
not that popular.
Or does the Scott bike seem a better option?
Any advice would be appreciated,
Cheers,
Ian

If you're a beginner, then a LBS (if it's a good one) is a good idea.

Scott do a wide range of bikes. Was the one you saw flat-barred? If so, it
may have been a
Scott Sportster P4.

If you want front suspension, why not, although you'l get better value.
lightness and efficiency by not having it...

Peter

bargains to be had over at cycle promotions:

http://www.cycle-promotions.co.uk/touring.htm

if you are very big or very small, i like the look of the Saracen
Panorama 2004.. but they only have extreme sizes. good prices in
old-season horizons..

Paul Boyd wrote:

I think Raleigh have a bad reputation because they are (were?) a
British company, and it is traditional to knock anything British as
being crap.

Their reputation was good before they stopped making bikes in Britain. Now
they don't even assemble bikes in Britain.

~PB

in message , Texy
') wrote:

I am looking to purchase a road bike, suitable for weekend excursions,
including
camping overnight. I guess I,d be looking round trips of around the
100mile distance.
So I guess a touring bike would be better than my MTB.
Unfortunately my budget only goes to the £350 - £400 mark. I

Edinburgh Bicycle Co-op do a well regarded tourer for that money, the
Revolution Country, and seeing that I believe that deep linking now
works on their site you may find it he

http://www.edinburgh-bicycle.co.uk/c...l.cfm?ID=22636

The
guy said he
had just the thing come in recently and pointed to a Scott bike with
700c wheels and
semi-road tyres, 24 gears etc,etc, priced at £349, and I pushed for a
deal with lights, rear rack, panniers,
spare inner tube and a couple of water bottles, and he came back with a
£415 price,
which seems good. My slight concern, apart from going over budget
slightly, is that the bike in question,
and sorry I didn't take any notice of its model name, does have front
suspension,
and although it does have adjusters, I thought that was a no-no for
road bikes.

Front suspension on the road needs to be done /exceedingly/ well if it's
to be of any use. Cannondale do suspended road bikes - the Silk Road
series - which are allegedly very good. But at £350 all up the best
you're going to get is elastomer - the Silk Road fork alone costs more
than that. And telescopic elastomer forks are very little use and add
weight.

A rigid carbon fibre fork is worth having on a road bike, because it
gives just a little bit more compliance than a metal fork; but until
you're spending very serious money indeed suspension on a road bike is
indeed a no-no.

Sorry if Raliegh is a swear word to all you experts, but what is the
general feeling of the Venture?

Raleigh have gone through a very bad period indeed. Various people are
saying that their bikes have started to get better again, but it'll be a
while before I'd trust them as a brand.

Or does the Scott bike seem a better option?

No. Go for the Edinburgh Country, or a second hand Dawes Galaxy.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; An enamorata is for life, not just for weekends.

in message , Paul
Boyd ') wrote:

I think Raleigh have a bad reputation because they are (were?) a
British
company, and it is traditional to knock anything British as being
crap.

When Raleigh were a British company, they were most definitely not crap.
The bikes built by the Special Products Division were superb (I've owned
two), and the ordinary production line Nottingham-built bikes were
pretty good (I've still got two, one twenty-three years old, the other
about fifteen). But since they became a marketing company for the
cheapest Chinese and Vietnamese crap they can find, they've been dire.
Word is they're starting to improve again - but they /needed/ to!

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

'there are no solutions, only precipitates'