For years, I’ve been a semi-serious cyclist, but I longed for a true touring bike. This is rare in the world of cycling: Poll cyclists, and I’m sure you’ll find a Trek Madone is at least thirty-times more lust inducing than a Surly Long Haul Trucker.) Three years of searching on eBay led to nothing. One day, at a particular time in my life when I had a little extra money, I noticed that Nashbar had a new steel-framed touring bike with everything I was looking for. Now, I’m all about supporting the local bike shop, but this was an absolute steal, listed at $999 but selling for $650. The only problem was that they were still on order from Asia, so they’d be backordered just a bit. Perhaps another problem is that, since I’d be ordering from the inaugural shipment, there wasn’t anyone on the Internets who could give me a review of the bike. Preliminary talk said it looked similar to a Windsor Tourist or a Fuji Touring.
I emailed Nashbar to see if they could give me an estimate on how long the sale price was valid, and they responded with the usual “No one knows that information — our prices change daily. Order now so you don’t lose out.”
I emailed Nashbar once more to inquire about frame sizing, and, surprisingly, received a quick response from some guy at Performance Bike, the parent company of Nashbar. He sent me the specs and geometry that weren’t even available on the website yet.
I did some measuring, found my probable ideal frame size, and plunked down my Mastercard and purchased the little known Nashbar Steel Touring Bike before the $650 price went away. Surprisingly, something went a little screwy with the Nashbar checkout process and they only charged me about $10 for shipping.
About three weeks later, FED-EX delivered a giant box, more than a week before I was expecting it. As I was tearing into the box, I noticed that some of the components were much different from what was described on the Nashbar website. About a week later, I finally checked the website again, and sure enough, the new specs were listed, along with a new list price: $1400.
I guess there’s something to be said about ordering while the product is still being spec’d at the factory. I’ll discuss the upgrades later, but the biggest change is that it arrived with Shimano 105 components, a nice improvement over the Sora setup on my Guerciotti.
You know you think I'm sexy
I’ll have to take it to a shop for them to give it the once-over and suggest upgrades, but right now, I’m pretty pleased with it. When the money becomes available, I’m immediately going to upgrade the pedals (perhaps something from Velo-Orange), add stainless steel water bottle cages, and perhaps look into a nice leather B-17 saddle from Brooks.
But for now, I just want to ride it. Let me put down the Cheetohs and give it a whirl.
biciclettalento 