I'VE DECIDED THAT IT'S TIME FOR A NEW TOURING BIKE to enter my collection, and for the existing one to move on to new hands.  This "journal" is intended to document the decision-making process I followed in arriving at my final choice.  If it helps at least one other person to make choices and selections that result in their getting a bike that pleases them, so much the better.

It's not my objective to make recommendations as to brands, options, "what's best", or anything else of the sort.  For one thing I simply don't have the depth and breadth of knowledge and experience, or the hubris, to claim any sufficient level of authority on the subject.

For another I have strong, long-held biases and perceptions that are quite probably somewhat different from many others.  They're based solely on my priorities and perceptions and experiences.  I'm likely to express them quite vehemently.  They are that and only that: my opinions. 

That doesn't make me "right" or you "wrong"; they're simply my opinions.  At least some of yours are almost certainly different in several important ways.  And that's fine, because you'll apply them to your bike, as I apply mine to my own bike.  The way I'll use my bike is probably not the same as how you'll use yours so what's important to me may be meaningless to you, and vice-versa.

In some cases I may state something as if it were fact, even though it's really opinion or unsupported by actual knowledge or research.  Although I've tried to expunge them, some examples have probably crept in unnoticed by me.  Any such statements that are wrong are my error alone.

And yet: perhaps the rambling musings in the following pages can provide a framework that will help you, a prospective touring bike buyer, identify and develop your own lists of needs, wants, and priorities.  What for me is a "must have" may be exactly the opposite for you, but the fact that I chose to write about it may cause you to think about something you'd never previously considered, and to reexamine your own preferences in a new and different (perhaps clearer and more deliberate) light.

You'll probably never ride my bike and I'm equally unlikely to ride yours.  Get what you like, and what you enjoy.  The more carefully you make your choices, the more likely it is you'll be pleased with the result.  If this journal helps in that process then I've succeeded in my objective for writing it, even if we end up on opposite sides of every choice.