Any half decent bike will do!
I'm another Thorn owner...........The Sherpa(heavy duty expedition mtb) is tough as old boots and carries an immense load and doesn't look too flash either in satin black.
I've built my 610XL with straight bars front and rear racks and a 36/48 spoke wheelset with 2" Kevlar armoured tyres.
As above you can tour with pretty much any decent bike.......If it has a good rack and mudguards it'll keep you drier when its wet.........A good spread of gears and any tyre width from 28mm up will do.
I've ridden the 1300km Edinburgh-London-Edinburgh in 90 hours on a hand built Dave Yates 24.5" Audax(long distance) bike and a 100km offroad Audax with the same bike although I was a good bit slower than the mtbs.
I owned my first mountain bike in 1985 and could easily tour on my current Trek 6000 hardtail.
I also ride another Dave Yates 25" 'fixed wheel' with a 67" gear and have ridden up to 300km Audaxes with that bike aswell as some rough tracks
I've also owned Dawes Galaxies in the past and toured on them but prefer my Sherpa for the really rough stuff(Iceland!)
Last edited by farmer palmer; 27 Jan 2014 at 13:27.
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