Bicycle Touring 101: MTB - Using a mountain bike as a touring bike

During my Round Lake Huron tour I discovered that most Cross Canada cyclists appeared to be using mountain bikes to tour. This was in sharp contrast with my experience the year before when going around Lake Erie. On that tour I met cyclists crossing the US and the vast majority of them were riding "touring" bikes.

Understandably I was curious about what it's like to tour using a mountain bike instead of a bike like my Trek 520.

Hoogie from New Zealand has been kind enough to step up and provide some information and pictures on his experience converting a mountain bike for touring and then using that bike for some interesting adventures.

The last major category that I am curious about is Expedition touring. I think of this type of touring as the type where you ride a series of technical singletrack trails or trails like the Great Divide ride while using a mountain bike. Hopefully at some point someone will step up!

Me! Roy Hoogenraad [aka hoogie] ... taken about 2000 on a day ride ... this is near Purakanui, on the Otago Coast just north of Dunedin, New Zealand.
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In the past when touring on my Trek 520, I really wasn't happy with the way it handled on gravel roads on the narrow 700C wheels. I found that it felt a bit skittery on gravel roads, defitniely not confidence inspiring. Don't get me wrong, the Trek is a still a good bike, but not for me on gravel or dirt. I had toured with some guys who had rebuilt some older model mountainbikes and they seemed to have no problems in the gravel or dirt roads, plus they could go exploring in the forests each evening too. The Trek really limited me to on-road touring only.

I have also toured on my aluminum framed mountain bike with a BOBYak, but it was really designed for racing rather than touring and it did get a bit uncomfortable after a long time in the saddle, plus it has front shocks.

Older model mountain bikes have in general the advantage of being steel framed, relaxed geometery, longer wheelbase, longer chainstays and have rack mounting points on the dropouts, whereas modern mountainbikes have a tighter wheelbase and more aggressive geometery more designed for carving around trees and cross-country courses, plus they now all have front shocks and no rack eyelets. Another observation is that older bikes still have the 1" headsets, and the quills/stems can be raised up much higher than you can get with a modern 1 1/8" threadless headset.

There are a whole lot of arguments over steel vs aluminum, I won't get into it here, but my preference is a steel frame for my touring bikes.

I hunted around for ages for an older model with large sized frame that I could use as a donor bike, then the plan was to strip it completely and rebuild it with a more modern groupset and new wheels. After months of searching I happened to look in the window of the second hand store across the road from work and spied a Giant Yukon with a 21.5" frame. I did some quick measurements and some bargaining and came out of the store with the bike for NZD$140.

The Giant appeared to have been used as a commuter for most of its life, and looked to have spent most of its time in a garage. Most of the dirt was general road grime with no rust evident on frame or components.

Giant on a day ride down the coast from my home. This is in everyday trim, ready to tour!
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It was perfect ... 4130 Cro-Mo steel frame and fork, long chainstays to keep panniers clear of heels, long wheelbase for all day comfort and there were double rack eyelets on both front and rear dropouts as well. I did notice that the downtube has been swaged/flattened at the bottom bracket to increase stiffness in that area.

The componentry was fairly basic, being largely comprised of Acera-X and Alivio, but it all appeared to be in really good nick, just needing a darn good clean, some TLC (tender loving care) and a bit of a tune up ... So over the winter months I cleaned down the bike, stripped off all the components and gave them a good clean and service, replaced and regreased the bearings and gradually put it all back together ... I think all I added or what it cost me were some new bearings [headset and both hubs], replaced the BB (bottom bracket) with one that came from my racing bike, some new brake blocks, new chain, new tyres [michelin wildgripper city 26x1.5"], and added some racks.

After completing it, I was thinking I should be riding this bike as a commuter while I gradually built up my supply of new bits before rebuilding it completely.

I was really happy with the way it rode. Unladen, it was comfy and handled really well, so after a few months riding the bike as a commuter and long day-rides, I started thinking "I wonder if I could tour on this bike the way it is?", or "do you really need to have expensive gear to go touring?" ... maybe it was just the cheapskate in me?

So after another good checkover and service, I packed up the bike as it was and headed over to Austraila for a tour in 2003 ... Starting off in Melbourne I headed off across to and down through the Grampians and along the Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne. I didn't even change the rear tyre after a 100mm nail went through both sidewalls on a training ride just prior to heading away on tour. I completed the entire tour with the tyre boot still in the tyre! Mind you, I did forget about it.

I also figured that if the bike got stolen or ruined, then I really haven't lost a great deal of money [when compared to my new XT equipped Thorn Nomad!] ... it also meant I slept well at nights, not overly worried about the bike locked to the tree outside the tent.

It fits! My Giant packed into the bike bag ready to take on tour.
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The bike performed flawlessly, only needing a minor tweak to correct a stretching [bedding in] gear cable. The headset seemed to be a little loose, but I retightened this when I came back home and this can be put down as my fault when rebuilding the bike after changing and greasing the headest bearings.

The Giant rides really nice and handles predictably when fully loaded. The frame also feels quite solid and didn't feel like it was flexing while pedalling or even dialing down hills.

I did manage to run out of gears going fully laden down a long hill with a strong tailwind at around 40mph, but all my other touring bikes would have done the same. I found the gearing to be perfectly adequate for my relaxed sedate style of touring, being a 21speed [3x7] with old fashioned gripshifters on the handlebars ... I find I only use a few gears on tour and there were enough low gears for grinding up the few steep bits, so I don't feel as if I was missing out by not having the full compliment of 27 gears.

I also found that there are way more tyre choices for 26" wheeled bikes and they are more widely available too.

I was able to tackle gravel roads in confidence and I could explore dirt tracks on my rest days [smooth tyres and racks allowing!]

It must be good, because I also used this bike to go on a short tour in Marlborough late 2003. Again, all I did was give it a basic service, pump up the tyres, load on the panniers and tent and then hit the road. and again, there were no problems with the bike at all.

All the new componentry that was meant to go on the Giant hasn't gone to waste though ... I have purchased a Thorn Nomad frame and built this up as an expedition tourer, however this Giant Yukon now resides at my accomodation where I work and still gets used regularly for dayrides and commuting ... it has racked up many miles and hasn't missed a beat.

Campsite in Blenheim, on the Marlborough tour, top of south island, new zealand.
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So, there you have it ... I didn't actually convert the bike to use for touring, I just found one that would be ideal for the purpose, added the extra bits you need [smooth tyres and racks]. I also proved you don't need to spend a whole heap of money to enjoy touring, or even needing to purchase a dedicated touring bike.

Although I would recommend that parts be upgraded if you are going to be looking at an extended tour, but the basics do just fine when starting out. You just need to hunt around some garage/yard sales or the second hand bike section in bike stores for one in good condition and go from there...

I picked up a mid-late 80's Specialised Stumpjumper and fixed it up for very little money, but it was a bit small for me so I gave it to my brother. And I helped a co-worker build up a suitable touring bike using another Specialised Stumpjumper frame as a base, and hunting around on internet auction websites for good quality second hand components or new stuff on special at online bike stores. Before we put on the components the frame was stripped and powder-coated in metallic silver with a clear coat, it looks better than new! Solid touring bikes built really really cheaply.