Dawes ends Galaxy touring bike line after 49 years

Bike maker Dawes has discontinued the classic Galaxy range of touring bikes, bringing to an end a model that has been a favourite of touring cyclists since its introduction in 1971.

Gary Conway, senior product manager at Dawes parent company The Tandem Group, told road.cc in an email: "It’s with a heavy heart that the decision was made to discontinue the Galaxy range for 2021. Over the past few years sales have declined to a point where they were no longer feasible."

The 2015 Galaxy Classic blended retro styling with modern components

Cycle touring has always been a fairly small part of the cycling universe, and in the last few years the Galaxy must have come under considerable pressure from the new breed of gravel and adventure bikes and the trend of super-lightweight 'bikepacking'. If you can strap bags to any bike, why buy a dedicated tourer optimised for racks and panniers?

The Galaxy will be missed nevertheless. Conway says: "Typically however, since that decision was taken I’ve received numerous emails asking about the range and some very disgruntled members of the public who it seems had been saving up for years to finally bite the bullet and buy a Galaxy."

A 1984 Dawes Super Galaxy Touring bike from a road.cc small ad by Chris_P_Bacon

During its 49-year run, the Galaxy was available in a huge range of configurations. Early examples, like the 1984 model above, had frames in Reynolds 531 steel, centre-pull brakes and gear systems capable of being set up with very low ratios even if they didn't necessarily come that way.

Centre-pull brakes were necessary to reach round 1 1/4-inch tyres and mudguards but didn't actually work very well, and soon gave way to first cantilevers and then disc brakes. The mountain bike boom of the late 1980s made gear systems with triple chainsets available, and many Galaxy models through the 90s and on sported triples, like the Super Galaxy we tested in 2012.

2012 Dawes Super Galaxy — a classic 'steel frame with cantilevers and triple chainset' configuration

While steel was the material of choice and tradition for most Galaxy models, there were aluminium-framed bikes at the cheaper end in the last few years and a luxury titanium version that cost a cool three grand in 2009.

2009 Dawes Ultra Galaxy titanium. Shiny!

There were Galaxy tandems too, a popular choice among tandemists whose budget didn't stretch to custom frames or high-zoot American models.

However, the Galaxy story might not be completely over.  

"We do intend on bringing the Galaxy name back in a year or two," says Conway. In a way it's been yet another victim of the chaos of 2020. Bike suppliers are flat-out trying to keep current models in stock.

"Development is taking longer than usual while everyone is doing all that they can to keep up with demand on current models," says Conway.