Rockhopper or Palisades Trail for touring ?

[widowmaker]

1997 Specialized Rockhopper or 95 Marin Palisades Trail for touring ????

I'm going through a drastic and I must admit very cathartic culling of bikes and pretty much all my collection of collections in my life.

I've got a 97 Rockhopper which I've used on a good few overnighters and found it fine........but lurking in the loft is a 95 Marin Palisades Trail which I bought for the same reason (before the Rockhopper) and it keeps calling to me.....build me......I'm better that that old Specialized which is where Retrobike is too blame for getting me thinking...so anyone used them both for touring ?

Geometry wise they appear the same but I was thinking of how they would be fully laden with 15 kgs of gear on.

Are they chalk and cheese or as I suspect swings and roundabouts, help me out

 

[averagebiker]

Build it up and keep which one suits you better.......or keep both

 

[widowmaker]

But then I'll have 2 bikes that I get attached too

I'm still try to get to 2 bikes, it was 18, now it's 6 and only space for 2.

Bugger you Retrobike.

 

[grahame]

I think it is actually quite a personal and subjective thing. Before I discovered Breezers, I enjoyed riding early '90s Marins and found they fitted me well. Specialized Rockhoppers were OK (strange as they looked to be almost identical dimensions and geometry) though, for me they had less "thing". Treks and Specialized Hard Rocks I found too short in the top tube. Konas (heresy coming up) I just never got on with. I had a '93 Kilauea and then a '94 Explosif. I could not get either of them to feel "right".

So, I'm afraid you are going to have to build up the Palisades Trail, ride it back-to-back with the Rockhopper and then make the decision based on which you prefer.

 

[widowmaker]

Thanks Grahame

I guess it also comes down to should I settle with the one I get on with and would be happy to ride or sample the delights of the Marin

 

[hamster]

Not much to choose between them, and I know I am at least partly to blame! You know what I have, but people have ridden round the world on Rockhoppers. I'm with Grahame, try both...one will have the mysterious 'it' which will feel right.

 

[widowmaker]

I guess it's human nature, and party Retrobikes fault that I'm always looking at what others are riding thinking , what if ??

Or should I just keep the one that's built that I'm happy with, that does all I ask of it without fuss (which I guess is what touring bikes should do) ..or......or....

 

[Guinessisgoodforyou]

I'm with the build both, you can always sell the least suitable. Both are quite desirable.

 

[widowmaker]

You lot are a bad influence

I did ask though!!

 

[CassidyAce]

They might be a bad influence but it's all good advice. It's very much an individual choice. I have a 1998 RockHopper and a 1996 Palisades Trail (which was alloy, not steel that year). They're filling the same niche, so one might go and, if so, it will be the Palisades Trail. On paper, they're very similar, and I like the Palisades, but there's just something about the RockHopper that I loved at first ride and that's never gone away. It's not my lightest bike, nor my most expensive bike, but there was/is a 'chemistry' between the bike and me that means, without question, it's staying. And that 'chemistry' is really all I look for in a bike. For you, it might be the Palisades, the RockHopper, or something else, but when you find it, you'll know it.