Retro fitting a road bike for touring

[gsjulich]

I have a mib '80s Schwinn road bike that I've replaced with a newer Trek. I still like the Schwinn, it fits pretty well. I've been wanting to get into touring, mainly brevets, and was thinking about using the Schwinn. I'm wondering how big a pain in the butt it would be to convert from 700x23 tires to something more along the line of 32s with fenders. I'm guessing that I'll need to swap out the front fork so that I can change out the brake system to fit the wider tire and fender. Are there any other concerns or things to think about? Is it going to be worth my time to modify the Schwinn, or should I just start looking for a touring specific bike?

[brucew]

Your best bet is to look for a touring bike.

While you may be able to swap out the fork, swapping the rear triangle to fit bigger tires is an expensive proposition.

The geometry differences between road and touring frames is important. It's been my experience that typical road bike geometry becomes a bit squirrely in the handling department under commuting and light shopping loads. I wouldn't want to fight it over long distances with two or three times the load. Meanwhile, my light touring bike becomes more stable with each additional pound.

[gsjulich]

Bruce, That's kind of what I figured, I just wanted to make sure of that. Thanks for the input.

[InfiniteLoop]

Bruce nailed it. The differences can seem very slight but they do make a huge difference (yes, that is an awkwardly worded sentence).

[Andy M-S]

Bruce nailed it. The differences can seem very slight but they do make a huge difference (yes, that is an awkwardly worded sentence).

However--before giving up, take a close look. It's possible that a bike from the mid-'80s (when riders were riders and tires sometimes had clearance) might do the trick. I'm not familiar with Schwinn's work from the '80s, but it's possible. On the other hand, these guys may be right and you best bet might be a Surly Long Haul Trucker.

[wooglin]

However--before giving up, take a close look. It's possible that a bike from the mid-'80s (when riders were riders and tires sometimes had clearance) might do the trick. I'm not familiar with Schwinn's work from the '80s, but it's possible. On the other hand, these guys may be right and you best bet might be a Surly Long Haul Trucker.

Yup. I've got two bikes from the mid 80s, both built for racing crits. Either one will take 28s. And for fenders try some SKS raceblades.

[Kerry Irons]

I have a mib '80s Schwinn road bike that I've replaced with a newer Trek. I still like the Schwinn, it fits pretty well. I've been wanting to get into touring, mainly brevets, and was thinking about using the Schwinn. I'm wondering how big a pain in the butt it would be to convert from 700x23 tires to something more along the line of 32s with fenders. I'm guessing that I'll need to swap out the front fork so that I can change out the brake system to fit the wider tire and fender. Are there any other concerns or things to think about? Is it going to be worth my time to modify the Schwinn, or should I just start looking for a touring specific bike?

You can easily measure your clearance to see what tire size will fit. Within reason, tires grow in height and width as the size increases. If you have 23 mm tires now and want to install 32 mm, you need at least 9mm clearance between the top of the tire and the brake bridge or fork crown. For comfort, you would want more like 13 mm and if you want to install fenders you probably need another 5 mm on top of that.

[gsjulich]

Kerry, I don't think the clear space between the fork is the problem. the space above the tire...I'll have to double check that. The current brakes are too narrow for a wider tire and fender. I was mainly concerned about haveing to swap out brake systems. The current brakes are side pull callipers. Is there a componant manufacturer that makes side pulls wide enough to clear a larger tire?

[Andy M-S]

Kerry, I don't think the clear space between the fork is the problem. the space above the tire...I'll have to double check that. The current brakes are too narrow for a wider tire and fender. I was mainly concerned about haveing to swap out brake systems. The current brakes are side pull callipers. Is there a componant manufacturer that makes side pulls wide enough to clear a larger tire?

Most systems can be adjusted to the wider tire and fender; you may need to release the cable and adjust things a bit. If you can take a photo of the tire and rear brake from the rear near the brake bridge and post it here, I think you'll get some more definite answers.

[gsjulich]

Andy, I don't have the bike in my possetion...I sold it to a friend 4 years ago, but I'm working on getting it back. I'll see what I can do about that pic.

[Kerry Irons]

Kerry, I don't think the clear space between the fork is the problem. the space above the tire...I'll have to double check that. The current brakes are too narrow for a wider tire and fender. I was mainly concerned about haveing to swap out brake systems. The current brakes are side pull callipers. Is there a componant manufacturer that makes side pulls wide enough to clear a larger tire?

I'm confused that you would have brakes with long enough reach to have this kind of vertical clearance but you think the width of the brake is less than 32 mm. My current short reach brakes have about 50 mm of side to side clearance. Sometimes when installing fenders you have to do a little trimming around the brakes regardless of their width or reach because of the shape of the arms as they come to the pivot bolt. I'm not sure you're analyzing this situation correctly.

[froze]

There are people touring on bikes made for road "racing" that don't have the eyelets for touring racks. They simply adapt the bike to handle racks, and on this site go to item #3: Fit Solutions for Tubus Bicycle Bike Racks And look at the Tubus stay mounting clamps.

Keep in mind, a racing geometry frame is not designed to be as comfortable on constant day in and day out riding as a touring geometry frame would be, also the frame is not as beefy as a touring frame so you would want to not carry as much weight...but that is the trend now anyways. With lighter camping gear on the market today one can tour and be quite comfortable with just 40 to 50 pounds of gear instead of the old standard of 70.

However, the bike is older, those older racing bikes were not made out of the flimsy thin walled steel racing style bikes today, so it will hold up and be more comfortable then today's steel road bikes. And the older bikes had more tire clearance meaning you can put wider tires on it and maybe even put those plastic snap on fender up front, you won't need them on the rear due to the panniers being back there protecting you from spray.

Would it be better to look for a touring bike? sure, but if funds are tight and you just want to go without the added expense then what I said if a good workable low cost option.

[gsjulich]

All, sorry for this lag in my reply. I was able to get over to my friend's place a snap some shots of the bike. I think I may have miss stated some things. I am curious to try some brevet events (not really touring) at some point. Not knowing wether or not brevet riding is something I'll enjoy, I wanted to give it a go on a rig that doesn't cost much. Converting a comfortable bike seemed like the logical choice to me. The current brakes on the Schwinn are deffinatly wide enough for larger tires. I was hoping to avoid deflating the tires when I have to remove the wheels from the bike (25mm is a tight squeeze when passing the pads, even when the adjustment screw is turned). I didn't put a ruler on them, but it looks like the height will be an issue if I want to put fenders on. I'm guessing some trimming will need to be done per Kerry's suggestion.

[gsjulich]

Pics of the front and rear brakes are in my album "Schwinn 754"

[Andy M-S]

Yeah, those arches look pretty tight...which is kind of surprising. It could be that the brakes themselves are large... You could likely fit 25mm tires with fenders if you used a skinnier brake (RX100s can be had for cheap, and work just fine). OTOH, you may need to look for something else...

[atpjunkie]

standard road bikes are not designed to be stable at speed with a bunch of extra weight

if you really want to tour get a tourer

[Villareal27]

Thanks for the input.