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Touring Bicycle
A touring bicycle is designed for comfort, durability, efficiency and, in most cases, load-carrying capacity. Touring bicycles fall into two major groupings:
- Loaded-touring bicycles, the classic "touring" bicycle is intended for self-supported travel, including camping and, in some cases, cooking equipment. A loaded-touring bicycle has:
- A fairly laid-back fork angle for comfort and stability.
- Long chainstays, for stability, and to provide clearance between the rider's heels and the rear panniers.
- A triple chainwheel crankset, with a granny gear.
- A wide-range cluster, with a large sprocket as large or larger than the granny chainwheel.
- Sturdy wheels with wide (32-35 mm) tires.
- Cantilever brakes, to allow clearance for wide tires and fenders.
- Multiple braze-ons for bottle cages, racks, fenders, spare spokes, etc.
A well-equipped loaded-touring bicycle will usually have:
- Drop handlebars
- Full fenders.
- Front pannier rack (usually low-rider style.)
- Rear pannier rack.
- Lighting system (usually generator-powered.)
- 3 or 4 bottle cages, for water and cooking fuel.
Increasingly, loaded touring is being done on modified mountain bikes, which share many characteristics with loaded tourers.
Some riders prefer to use trailers instead of panniers to carry their camping equipment.
- Light-touring, or "credit-card" touring bicycles are intended for inn-to-inn tours, randonnées, or organized tours with sag-wagon service, in which the rider will carry perhaps a large touring bag or handlebar bag. A light-touring bicycle may be a modified road-racing bicycle, or a bicycle made for the purpose. It will usually have:
- Conservative road-racing geometry.
- A triple chainwheel crankset.
- A close- or medium-ratio cluster.
- Medium (25-28 mm) width tires.
- Clip-on aero bars.
- Clipless pedals.
- "Sport-touring" bicycles are not, strictly speaking, touring bicycles at all. This is a term normally used to refer to the general-purpose "ten-speeds" (later 12-speeds) of the '70's and early '80's. These bikes were marketed as general purpose machines, and millions were sold. Millions of them are now rusting away in the back of the garages of middle America. These bicycles are characterized by:
- 630 mm (27 inch) wheels.
- Drop handlebars
- Double chainwheels, usually 52/42 or 52/39.
- 5 speed freewheels, usually 14-28 teeth.
Since these bicycles were most often sold to people for whom drop handlebars were unsuited, many of them added features to try to make the bicycle more appealing to the casual cyclist, without losing the "racer" look:
- Extension levers for the brakes.
- Stem shifters.
- Foam handlebar padding.
Note: the term "sport touring" is sometimes used to refer to a "light-touring" bike by cyclists too young to remember the 10-speed era.
