OK, I'll admit. I don't go through the forum every day. You'll understand why I mentioned that when I'll say I ran across a subject about a "forever bike." This got me thinking - is there such a thing? Can it exist? I started going down memory lane (or memory bike path) to determine why some of my mounts were forever and others were not. Here then, is a compendium of what I've ridden over the years and why I still have it or why I moved on. 

Merlin Titanium Road (1999 - today)

You may say "Paul - this is a racing bike and is not for touring" and technically you'd be correct. The bike is designed for speed and maneuverability - I can click this thing into turns and it's oh-so-responsive. And hitting those small hills on a touring bike that sap speed? Not so with this - it carries speed into a hill and then you're up and over before you know it. So why did I throw reckless bags onto the bike and take it on a tour through the Outer Banks of NC? And fully-loaded with a tent and sleeping kit as well? And a stove, too, so what was I thinking? I don't know, guess to prove it could be done. So, forever bike? For its purpose, sure. But I'm limited to 700x25 tires as the front caliper cannot handle anything larger than that. And props to the Specialized Armadillo Elite tires - super good at avoiding flats.

Novara Randonee (2009 - 2017)

To get ready for my first multi-day tour from Boston MA to Bar Harbour ME I bought into the whole touring bike thing - long wheelbase, steel, bar-end shifters. Heck, this bike fit the bill at the time and with the 20% off REI coupon my wallet thanked me as well (either that, or the lower price convinced my wife to let me buy it). I could load it with panniers front and rear and have a trunk bag on the back - it was everything I thought I wanted. Until I realized I had to pedal all that up every...single...hill. I was a strong cycling but all that weight going up the hill, on a bike that was not a racing machine, made me rethink what I was doing. With this bike, I never really got comfortable riding it, even adjusting the weight distribution side to side and fore/aft. There was always a front-end wobble no matter what I did. Rim brakes were adequate enough and it came spec'ed with 700x28 tires. Replacing them with 700x35 smoothed out the ride more. Forever bike? Not for me. I sold it to a local rider who was going to ride the Pacific Coast. So I threw in panniers and other necessities to the rider. Never heard if they made it or not.

Bike Friday Silk (2012 - 2017)

2017 was the year I culled my stable. I bought into the concept of travel with a folding bike as I could travel and tour anywhere with the bike in a suitcase that converted into a trailer, and all my accessories in a duffel bag that went into the trailer when arriving at the destination. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. The bike rode surprisingly well. I took this on two tours, My first GAP/C&O and another from Augusta GA to Charleston SC in 2017 (that one is documented on another crazy bicycle journal website). While the concept worked well, I found I still had to check the suitcase and the duffel bag onto the airplane, and these two checked bags combined was about the cost of shipping a full-sized bike to my origin point anyway. So it didn't really become a cost savings. Convenience-wise it was great. Additional props to the Belt drive and internal hub on that bike. I made the decision to sell when during the 2017 tour I found myself on SC Rt 17, a 4-lane 60+mph divided highway with no shoulder and a rumble strip on the fog line. Not only did it force me to ride in the right-hand lane, the extra width of my trailer forced me farther into the lane. I put my faith in other drivers that day, I'll tell you. Forever bike? sure, if the width of the trailer doesn't concern you, such as riding rail trails, canal paths, or even country roads. I just preferred a full-size bike that I could ship ahead to my starting point.

Niner RLT9 Steel (2017 - today)

This became my main machine. Over 20,000 miles on this thing and still going strong after 12 tours. The gravel-bike geometry makes it a more endurance-like position so I can ride this for hours. 1x11 makes the shifting simple. I'm running 700x38 tires which soak up the road vibration, and all these things combined means it's a bike that I can take anywhere (and, I swapped out the front 42T chainring for a 30T which means a really low gear to climb in). In early 2023 I changed out the drop bars for flat bars to see how I liked touring in an upright setup. The flat bar brakes grip better than the "brifters" on the drop bars and the shifting is crisper. The bike has disc brakes so really excels at stopping. I put fenders on so I can basically ride through anything. And I have. Tubeless tires, so not really dealing with flats. Forever bike? Yep. Still have it. Don't know if it will go on another tour since I bought my new machine and this is kind-of where the "forever bike" concept come into play. The change in technology and capability over seven years got me to upgrade to my newest bike (ok, ok, maybe it was the marketing, too). 

Specialized Diverge Carbon (2023 - today)

Why did I drop the kind of cash I did to purchase another bike when my Niner was a performing very well? And doing everything I wanted it to do? Well, for some reason, Specialized put these on clearance so I saved quite a bike of money, and two, the changes in some of the technology interested me enough to try it out for 30 days. And you know what? I kept it. Enough to say that it's seen just over 2000 miles with me since last November. While my Niner is a great machine, there are some things about this bike that have superseded it. The front stem has shock absorption, the design of the frame helps with comfort, and the seatpost also flexes backwards with bumps to help smooth out the ride. Will this be forever? I'm not sure, but it's the current. 700x42 tires also help this latest bike to be the most comfortable I've ridden. It survived the most recent heat-wave tour with me. Then there's the gimmick of storing my repair kit inside the downtube (there's a door that opens behind the water bottle cage). Cool gimmick but if I put a frame bag on the bike it suddenly become less accessible. So cool on one hand but less so on the other.

Olmo Sintex SLX Steel

This is my first true racing bike bought in 1987 which I gifted to another racer when I bought my Merlin in 1999. Never used for touring, just for completeness of this forum post. And yes, I still have that jersey and can still fit into it :-)

That was a fun journey down memory lane. Thank you for taking us along.

I'm a terrible consumer. Blame my frugal spending if we have an economic collapse. ;-)

I have been doing bike tours since 1988 and have used only 3 bikes.

12 tours on a 1987 Trek 520.

Then 12 tours on a 1997 Speed Ross short wheelbase recumbent.

Then 30 tours so far on a 2007 Bacchetta Giro 20 short wheelbase recumbent.

There have been 3 other non-touring bikes during that time as well, and I still have one of them.

Paul in my case, it’s not ‘forever bike’ but it does seem forever that I’ve been travelling on bikes. 
 For over 30 years I only used one bike. A British built 1979 Ernie Clements Falcon Olympic 27” wheeled plain gauge Reynolds steel framed road bike. It was incredibly versatile and very durable.

I did numerous loaded tours on it, including two, multi-months trans-European tours. 

Over the past 16 years or so, I’ve gone from having that single, ‘do everything’  bike, to owning six  different types of ‘touring’ bikes which I use for different types of tours. So now it’s a  ‘Horses for courses’ set up, rather than having one bike I’d adapt for different tours.

My touring bikes range from 16” wheeled Bike Friday Tikit, to a 29er Curve Titanium off-road touring bike. My most used tourer nowadays is probably the 26” Thorn Sherpa. 

A few pics showing some of the bikes I use, and have used, for cycle touring: 

My touring bike list is pretty short:

My first overnight tour was at age 12 on a borrowed Schwinn Varsity  5-speed with a rear rack and enough rope to tie on a sleeping bag with another  pair of underwear rolled up in it.

Out of college I did American  Youth Hostel tours on a Schwinn hybrid with a rear rack and bungee cords. That lasted for many years pulling my kids in trailers on day trips, not much touring in those years.

I bought a Trek 520 in 94 or so, moved up to front panniers and that was my workhorse for 24 years.

In 2018, I realized I was doing shorter, lightly loaded, credit card style tours and bought a Jamis Renegade and bikepacking style bags. The 520 is now full time in the basement for winter riding on Zwift!