Mountain Bike for Travel/Touring

[Cabbey]

I'm planning my first bicycle trip, but I have some concerns about my trusty ride.  I've got a Giant NRS3 full suspension MTB and I wondering if I should invest in something else for trips and touring.  I like having the ability to ride across or through anything with my current bike, but I've noticed most folks on trips are riding bikes without any suspension.  Any suggestions?  Thanks.

[RussellSeaton]

A full suspension might be great for pure off-road, singletrack, rough touring.  Although Adventure Cycling recommends a hard tail mountain bike with suspension fork for its Great Divide route.  Probably due to the numerous miles of gravel and dirt roads and the extra reliability of hard tails and simple elastomer forks over oil/air forks on the full suspension bike or higher end forks.

For riding on the road, where most tours take place, suspension is not necessary.  It slows you down because it takes energy to squish those coils/struts/forks/etc. together.  Energy better used to get you up the mountain or to your campsite against a headwind.  Most people who use hard tail mountain bikes for touring put on skinny, slick, high pressure tires to reduce rolling resistance compared to lugged mountain bike tires.

I think if you are touring loaded, the urge to ride a loaded bike through or across anything will be seriously diminished.  When you have 50 pounds of stuff on your bike, or pulling a trailer with 50 pounds piled on it, you quickly learn to avoid riding through or across anything without considerable thought.  One reason is a loaded bike or one pulling a trailer is not very maneuverable.  You don't just power over things or quickly swerve around them.

My suggestion would be to try a 2-3 day tour with the full suspension mountain bike and see if it works for you.  The extra effort required may not matter much to you.  Getting a new official road touring bike is easy if you have the money.  There are many that work very well.

[Peaks]

Generally speaking, bikes without suspension are used on paved surfaces (roads).  Bike with suspension are used on unpaved surfaces (off road).  So, because most tours follow paved surfaces, you see mostly bikes without suspension on tours.  However, for rides like the Michigander and Erie Canal, I'm sure you will see lots more off road bikes, because there is a lot of off road on these tours.

Now, that's not to say that a bike with suspension can't be used for road touring.  If you look around, you will see all different types of bikes used for touring.  It's personal preference, and what bike you have.  

One suggestion for using an off road for a road tour:  Change tires to a smooth tire rather than the nobbies.  

[OmahaNeb]

In addition to changing the tires, I would make the following changes:

1)  Replace the straight handlebar with a butterfly shaped handlebar (see Bike Nashbar Trekking ATB/Hybird handlebar).  

This will give you more hand positions and get your profile lower causing less wind resistance.

2)  Possibly replace the cassette with a road size cassette.  The reason for this is to offset the smaller chain rings and give you a better ratio on your high gears.

[bikeman]

Cabby,
       I use a cannondale F600 with lockout front suspension. I would recommend a light weight Mtn bike with lockout front suspension and hardtail rear. The std mtb chain rings 44/32/22 and 11/34 cassette work fine for me. If your using panniers and carrying 40 plus pounds  have a bike shop evaluate your wheels for touring also consider your heels hitting your rear panniers. I had to buy a OMM rear rack that's offset to the rear to give me the needed clearance and I upgraded my wheels because the factory rims were built to be light weight. Since I already had the bike it was cheaper than buying a true touring.
Good luck.
Clyde    

Regards: Clyde
The journey is my destination.