Are touring bikes old fashioned?Yes they are.* So are forums (especially Cycling UK). Long live touring bikes and old fashioned forums.
You get a lot of opinions, not just on forums, but everywhere. I proudly showed the bike I plan on getting, to a young Latvian with a lot of biking experience. I told him that I might end up in Africa and very remote areas, in my search for whatever one searches for while travelling.
Sue DarlowIf you meet the Buddha on a forum, read his thread.
The young man questioned 26" wheels. He questioned rim brakes, and gave me three bikes to test... all mountain bike types.
The idea is, why not have a 29" downhill racing wheel... super strong and can take anything. It rolls over anything, and climbs hills as easily as 26" wheels. I remained quiet.
Why not have disc brakes? Ease of replacement parts, I said. He said, "Why not just take a couple of extra rotors, and spare pads? Why ware out your rims? Don't trust bike sellers who are just trying to get rid of old stock?" I sensed a conspiracy theory coming on.
You had me at conspiracy theory, but that's probably enough detail. Let's skip ahead.
The world is noise... opinions. The world seems hard to fathom.
What's not hard to fathom as the thread unfolds is that the OP doesn't want just any bike, he wants
THE bike, and the choices are overwhelming. People do a good job trying to help him out. With myriad options can come paralysis.
You are never going to learn what you want, what you need, what you like by asking on forums - if anything you're going to get more and more confused and overwhelmed with it all. You are unlikely to find "perfect" by fretting on here about racks and tubing diameter and hubs and braking systems and...and...and…
Get a bike. Literally any bike
I shut down the decision. Went away. Hid. And am still hiding.
Truth is, I have quite a severe form of mental disorder. Not illness, for that could be medicated, but a disorder. Actually, a few. Its all very tiring, but I won't bore you.
He didn't. Bore, that is. People who are honest and uninhibited seldom do.
It's 15 degrees outside now, the sun is shining, and I am going to go out for a ride. While I am out, I will enjoy the scenery, the warmth of the sun on my face, the sensation of my bike gliding along, and the discomfort when I struggle uphill because I am so unfit. I won't be thinking about how much I paid for my bike, or whether it would be better with a different headset or whatever. My bike is 'good enough' and I just enjoy riding it.
The four noble truths:
- Not cycling is suffering.
- Buying the wrong bike can also lead to suffering, though try just changing the saddle first.
- There is a cessation of suffering, which is what it sounds like.
- For extra credit there's an eightfold path which has so many right turns you'll end up back where you started, and again for good measure. So did you really move – or have to? Koan alert.
My aim is to have a bike that I can just leave and perhaps never come back.

* No they're not.