So I just discovered a severe wraparound crack in the headtube of my commuter bike. (I’ve had the frame since high school, so time to move on anyway…)
My commute is in suburban Vancouver - Port Coquitlam to SFU, which translates into ~18 km with about 1500 ft of climbing (or descending…).
My old commuter was a road bike with 53/39 and 11/27 gearing, 700 x 23c tires. So basically a road bike, which was fine because the roads are in good shape, and the gearing was juuuuust enough to get me over the steepest parts of the climbs.
Can anyone recommend a touring-type bike to replace my old one? I’ve never shopped for touring bikes before so would like to know the best brands & what would constitute a good deal for a new bike with the following specs:
Disc brakes
I had Ultegra quality components on my old bike and would like something comparable. Would be willing to go down to 105 level I suppose.
Fenders (it rains a ton here) + a rear rack for panniers
Good quality durable wheels
Any other features or considerations I should think about? I keep my bike in my office at work, so I won’t be locking it up outside much.
There’s a whole new growing category of “gravel grinder” bikes that are like cross bikes but with road geometry. Niner has one, comotion has one, van dessel has the wtf, lots more too.
lots of them have disc brakes, fender mounts and clearance for fat tires but it doesn’t hurt to run narrower ones
Just go for a Kona Jake or the like. Perfect for commuting. Splurge on disc brakes for the extra stopping power. Otherwise, the Devinci Caribou is rather nice Canadian made touring bike that should be easily available where you live, with loads of gears for climbing.
Very few companies provide high quality wheels stock with their bikes which can be more of a pain with disk ready wheels as the market for road disk wheels is pretty small. Its all about what you want but as long as the roads on your commuter route are decent the wheels may be an area for compromise. Specialized makes both the Tricross and AWOL in models that meet your basic specifications at price points close to bikes previously mentioned in this thread.
I was in Cap’s Westwood yesterday and scoped out the Norco Threshold (http://www.norco.com/bikes/road/cyclocross/threshold-alloy/). It looked like a great option - good quality disc brakes, 105 components, cross bike with fender & rack mounts, and all for a reasonable price.