Road bike recommendations

The Equilibrium has all the mounts.

Plus dads love Campag.

The Condor sounds like a good shout.

This might also be of interest: http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b17s21p2554

I think it's the steel part you will struggle with. For example I have a Pinnacle Dolomite 6 as a commuter, it's just a hair under 10kg, aluminium with mudguards and has mounts for a rear rack.

Yeah but the Dolomite isn't a light bike innit. Pretty hefty for alloy.

Get a Fratello. Nice, innit.

+1 for the Fratello. The old ones were really nice and the new ones look just as good. I thought the Equilibrium has braze ons for 'guards?

Re the braze ons for touring, I'm assuming your dad just wants mudguards and the ability to run a rear rack?

I toured on a carbon road bike with a bit of creativity. So if it's just a case of having the option for ocasional touring I'd definitely focus on finding an enjoyable road bike that you can easily put a rear rack on. That plus a big saddle bag and bar bag should give the option for all you need for touring. Obviously bike packing is an option, but I'll just go ahead and pigeon hole your dad as being conservative / traditional and that he'll want a rear rack and panniers.

Get Croix de fer. If he likes that. And is doing proper touring (but if he's credit card touring, get a carbon road bike and use bike packing system, way better)

Get some nice wheels built.
Put a low trail fork on it if you want.

I over took roadie douchbags on mine, loaded up with panniers touring. Both up and down mountains.

It's a good bike. It's the rider that matters.
I really miss mine, was a great everyday bike.

Yeah, I just toured on an equilibrium with saddle bag and rando bag, but I think he wants a bike that's more touring-focused, or at least has the capability without any work arounds - so full set of braze-ons (equilibrium, for no good reason I can discern, only has one set on the back) and probably a steel fork for risk-free front rack is a must. I think the Fratello (with swappable fork if necessary) fits the bill pretty well for him. If he can get over the innovation of discs the CdF is another strong candidate.

Something like this is just what I've got in mind. He wants to do proper self-sufficient touring, so front and rear rack plus a frame engineered for appropriate stresses and strains is a must. I've ridden one of these a few times and they feel pretty bomb-proof so with proper wheels I'm sure they'd do the job. I don't think he'll be racing you up any hills tho - I saw your TCR achievements!

Brother Kepler? frameset is £379.

Sound like the Croix de Fer is a perfect choice, 2016 model is very well specced too.

What fork is that on your old cdf?

Such a good looking bike.

@owl I guess the main thing is getting him to try out a few. Personally I'd always err towards making sure the bike is fun when you're not touring.

Good bike eh?

If you're price sensitive, this isn't for you. If you're looking for the ultimate blend of amazing craftsmanship and proven desigh (we build many other rando bikes too so we know what works) a Rene Herse may be for you. All Rene Herse frames at this time feature handmade lugs (bottom bracket is an option). Making a set of lugs is about as time consuming as making a complete basic frame! Unlike the high-end audio industry, we won't tell you that a Rene Herse will do amazing things that other bikes won't. But we will tell you that a Rene Herse frame may be far more useful and at least as pleasing to look at (for us anyway) as many artworks that are a magnitude of order more expensive.

Thorn low trail.

If I were doing it again, i'd just get one made. It was/is a big heavy/mass produced.

A cheaper alternative: http://store.oceanaircycles.com/products/rambler

Already got a cheap orange bike.

^^^ So the derailleur is a 1930's Nivex.

The bike

1 Attachment

I don't remember signing into your account.

Would explain a lot.

http://www.slowtwitch.com/Tech/Thoughts_on_science_perception_4571.html

Interesting reading.

there is an older article about different steels used to build bikes, and barely anyone could tell the difference.

'We were shocked to find that the entire difference between the special, longer wheelbase, layup optimized, cobble specific frame, and the standard road frame (which everybody could tell you was WAY too stiff to ride on the cobbles) equated to a whopping 4psi of tire pressure'

I lolled

Low pressure motherfucker!

That's pretty interesting.

I love that the advice is to get a bike with a really nice paint job. I can live with that, I think.