Hi there,
I am completely new here, I have tried to have a read around first before posting. Apologies if these seem stupid questions
I have never done any bike touring before, but have always been into mountain bike riding & a bit of road biking, and I like doing day rides, but love exploring places. I want to start out touring, probably by myself (as I don't know anyone else into it!)
I have a friend in NZ, and was considering trying to ride round the South Island of NZ for a month this (NZ summer), and have already seen one guys guide on it.
I think it is achievable with just a set of rear panniers/rack & mount, with maybe a light rucksack. Would probably be a mixture of camping/hostels
There is some info I am trying to get an idea on though.
1) Converting a Kona Kula Delux mountain bike to carry extra weight
I have a 2009 Kona Kula Delux. Its a decent lightweight XC bike, with a scandium frame (which I am worried about, it's not a normal frame material), with Mavic Crosstail rims. There are no dedicated rack mounts. From reading around, I understand that you could probably mount a rack with P-clips to the frame. I am trying to get an idea of the weight limit though! I weigh about 80kg.
The other issue is the chainstay length. These are currently 415mm, and I am not sure if this will cause an issue with them being too short. I would have thought if I moved the pannier bags too far back to compensate, this could make the handling strange
2) Bike security
Having never really bike toured before, how to you try and maintain security? Yes I know you can lock the bike up, but are most people comfortable doing it at hostels/hotels/campsites, and are they accommodating about it? I know some touring bikes can be really expensive, how do people give themselves peace of mind leaving say a $4000 bike unattended (even if locked) overnight? Also how about in the daytime? If you leave the bike for 10 mins to go in a shop, do most people take all the panniers etc with them?
Thanks in advance.
Tim
