Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB

Just found this thread, so I'll offer this for what it's worth.

I've ridden bicycles all my life, but no great distances, and never been really serious about them. Longest journey was about four weeks from London to Disney Paris and back, mainly spending time in the World War 1 cemetary areas of N. France. In 1998 if I remember correctly, on an old-ish road-touring Raleigh.

Then I had a brilliant idea. Go to Calgary in August 2001 to see a relative, buy a new bicycle there (to replace my old Raleigh - I assumed decent bicycles would be cheaper in Canada), then early in September head south to stay with the good weather and see where I ended up by mid-December, then fly home with the bike.

Well, first thing I found was that bicycle sales are very seasonal in Canada, and no shops had road-tourers in August. It was all off-road stuff. Road tourers are only sold in the spring. But I found a shop with some still in stock and one fitted me. It wasn't cheap but looked good and the salesman seemed professional in his recommendation. So I bought it, and to this day have never regretted it. It still gets me around here and abroad.

It's a Marinoni Turismo of 2001, made in Montreal, Canada.

First I set off north and reached the Athabasca Glacier where a cycling couple from Washington state demanded to know where I'd bought my bike. They insisted it was the best quality Canadian-made bike you could possibly buy and they had failed to find any in stock that summer. So they bought another well-known make (don't remember what), and sent the frames to Marinoni to be painted. That told me why their bikes looked so much like mine.

Then I headed south, roughly along the western foothills of the Rockies. Some of that journey was on dirt roads, but well-maintained.
I met many cyclists who looked at my bike and pointed out to me all the high-quality engineering and contruction features it had. (I've never been a great expert in bicycle engineering and construction).
To me, that journey itself proved what a brilliant purchase this bicycle had been, but it was good to get the approval of so many long-distance cyclists that I met on the way.

I reached Mexico (Nogales) by early December, truly a surprise to me to have travelled so far. But I still had time in hand so crossed the Rockies into Texas, El Paso, and visited Ciudad Juarez (Mexico again) and ventured down the Pan-American highway a little.

Then I flew home to London, the first time I had taken a bicycle on a plane.
Since then I have flown with it numerous times to Switzerland and Spain and it still gives brilliant service. It has flown now on about a dozen flights, always just packed in a large polythene bicycle-bag, and never suffered any damage. People who have flown their bicycles regularly, and suffered damage, tell me that my bike must be particularly strong not to have ever been damaged.

My last foreign trip was to Switzerland last year, and on the train to Gatwick Airport a few other cyclists were also heading for the airport. One was with his son, saw my bike, and proceeded to explain to his son all the finer quality points of my steel-framed bike to him. The son had never really seen a steel bike before but his dad sounded like quite an expert in their construction.

So my vote for the best road-tourer confidently goes to Marinoni of Montreal, a manufacturer I had never heard of until I happened upon a couple of examples in that shop in the suburbs of Calgary.

Just to round off, the same Calgary shop equipped my bike with aluminium racks and soft panniers front and rear, and the straps so that I could strap on my British cycle-weight tent and sleeping gear. Those racks and panniers are still fitted, in use, and going strong.