Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on January 9, 2013 at 10:53am

That has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever seen for a variety of reasons...

You pay 6 grand only to be TOLD what kind of bike you have to get only to be limited to not only a very small selection of the EXCELLENT touring bikes out there on the market new but the preclude you from using a good condition vintage touring bike.  On top of that they limit you on the set up of each of the bikes; so if somebody wants to use a LHT set up as a 2x10 that mimics the gearing of the stock 3x9 LHT they are not allowed to use it.  The Disc Trucker is also out of the running because disc brakes are not allowed and you have to have a rear rack precluding front loading if that is what the rider prefers. 

Even if you have one of the above bikes you can't use it if it is over 2 years old because the require the bike to have been purchased in the last 48 months which raises an interesting question; does a borrowed bike meet their requirements?

Of course the bit of info about the whole $6000 tour makes a thread asking to barrow an high end bike to ride across the country even more obnoxious than it appeared in the first place.  You are dropping 6k on a bike trip but you are balking at spending 900 bucks on a decent new bike to do it on; in fact you are willing to spend money to borrow a bike, pay at least a hundred to tune it up and even more on racks only to spend 200 or more at the end of the trip to have it returned to pre-trip condition...

Why not just buy a bike and sell it after the tour? It'll probably put you at about the same cost. 

You can buy an Jamis Aurora for like $950 and it has a rack and fenders on it already and then sell it at the end for 3-400. 

Kevin is spot on; go spend 2k on a really sweet touring rig and some camping gear and go ride around the great lakes or some other part of the country with some friends and spend the 4k you save on booze, recreational pharmaceuticals or something useful...

Kevin C 4.1 mi said:

Required by who? 

Never mind. Found it. Overland American Challenge, yes?

So you are going on a six week summer vacation which will cost someone just under $6000 before tchochkes, and before airfare from Chicago to Charleston, SC, and from Los Angeles, CA to Chicago, and you can't budget an additional $500-$600 for a suitable bike? Is this for school credit? Is this just for fun? Why not just get yourself a $2000 touring bike and ride around the Great Lakes? It would be a lot cheaper.

Samantha said:

All of these touring bikes look awesome but I'm actually required to have one of the ones I listed in order to do the trip

Permalink Reply by Duppie on January 9, 2013 at 11:21am

Dug,

Do you know Samantha? If not how do you know that she pays the $6000 herself and then balks at the $600 for her bike?

I can see that her parents or someone else pay for the trip, but as part of that make her acquire her own bike. That is exactly how my parents used to do it. They paid for the majority of summer camp, but made me work to pay for part of it. I think Samantha is just figuring out a way to get a bike for the summer.

There is no need to ridicule her, I'd say.

notoriousDUG said:

That has to be one of the dumbest things I have ever seen for a variety of reasons...

You pay 6 grand only to be TOLD what kind of bike you have to get only to be limited to not only a very small selection of the EXCELLENT touring bikes out there on the market new but the preclude you from using a good condition vintage touring bike.  On top of that they limit you on the set up of each of the bikes; so if somebody wants to use a LHT set up as a 2x10 that mimics the gearing of the stock 3x9 LHT they are not allowed to use it.  The Disc Trucker is also out of the running because disc brakes are not allowed and you have to have a rear rack precluding front loading if that is what the rider prefers. 

Even if you have one of the above bikes you can't use it if it is over 2 years old because the require the bike to have been purchased in the last 48 months which raises an interesting question; does a borrowed bike meet their requirements?

Of course the bit of info about the whole $6000 tour makes a thread asking to barrow an high end bike to ride across the country even more obnoxious than it appeared in the first place.  You are dropping 6k on a bike trip but you are balking at spending 900 bucks on a decent new bike to do it on; in fact you are willing to spend money to borrow a bike, pay at least a hundred to tune it up and even more on racks only to spend 200 or more at the end of the trip to have it returned to pre-trip condition...

Why not just buy a bike and sell it after the tour? It'll probably put you at about the same cost. 

You can buy an Jamis Aurora for like $950 and it has a rack and fenders on it already and then sell it at the end for 3-400. 

Kevin is spot on; go spend 2k on a really sweet touring rig and some camping gear and go ride around the great lakes or some other part of the country with some friends and spend the 4k you save on booze, recreational pharmaceuticals or something useful...

Kevin C 4.1 mi said:

Required by who? 

Never mind. Found it. Overland American Challenge, yes?

So you are going on a six week summer vacation which will cost someone just under $6000 before tchochkes, and before airfare from Chicago to Charleston, SC, and from Los Angeles, CA to Chicago, and you can't budget an additional $500-$600 for a suitable bike? Is this for school credit? Is this just for fun? Why not just get yourself a $2000 touring bike and ride around the Great Lakes? It would be a lot cheaper.

Samantha said:

All of these touring bikes look awesome but I'm actually required to have one of the ones I listed in order to do the trip

Permalink Reply by Samantha on January 9, 2013 at 11:24am

Thank you all for your comments, but especially thanks to Duppie. You are right my parents are paying half and I have to raise the other half.  I have the finances of the trip carefully worked out, but it is hard enough to make the money I need as a busy student and athlete who can only work a part time job with fairly low pay, which is why I thought I would save money if possible. I know the trip is expensive and rather than asking people to bash the requirements, or asking anything about money, I was simply seeing if anyone happened to have a touring bike that I would be able to use. I realize that my best option is to try to find an inexpensive one instead and sell it after. I certainly didn't ask for opinions on whether I should do the trip-- I am going to do it, and I am aware that there are other amazing trip options, but this has been a dream of mine for a long time. I'm also going to close this discussion because it's not exactly going in the direction I hoped. Thank you again for all of your ideas, particularly the earlier replies. 

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