Touring Bicycle

A touring bicycle is a bicycle designed for long-distance travel. Typically, touring bicycles are a mix of mountain bike and road bike components, with special, heavy-duty frames designed to carry specialized luggage and other components specific to long-distance riding.

There are many different types of bicycle touring, and an equal number of touring bicycles suited to match:

Light touring (often called "credit-card touring" because cyclists stay at hotels, motels and inns instead of camping out) can be accomplished on a road bike with minimal alterations,
while heavy touring (often called "self-contained touring") requires stronger machines which can carry more luggage.
In addition, some touring bicycles are simply mountain bikes modified to carry luggage and camping equipment deep into the back-country.

In touring, speed is no longer critical as it is in racing. Instead, the ability to haul cargo is key. To go cycle touring you will need to have a bike which can carry luggage, and is equipped with a carrier rack and panniers.

Although many different types of bicycle can be used, many cycle tourists prefer to use special touring bikes which are specially built to carry large amounts of luggage, and can be ridden comfortably over long distances.

Touring bikes are designed to have stronger frames and wheels, lower gearing (useful for taking all that weight up a big hill), and better brakes (useful for taking all that weight down a big hill). Wheels have more spokes: 36 is a typical number. Other characteristics include tires with larger widths and a tread pattern for greater durability and control with improved traction on wet or poor roads.

Touring bikes are usually equipped with luggage racks front and rear, designed to hold panniers or other forms of luggage, as well as front and rear lights for increased safety and extended days in the saddle. The frame is designed to allow for easy mounting of panniers and fenders. Steel and aluminum are the metals of choice for the frame. A typical characteristic of a touring bicycle is a longer wheelbase, which increases stability at the cost of quick response (quick response being a characteristic more needed for mentally taxing bicycle racing rather than for relaxed long distance touring).

Because of the increased weight requirements and reliability demands, touring bikes typically use road handlebars and saddles for long-distance comfort, combined with rugged mountain hubs, wide-ratio mountain cassettes and heavy-duty rims to provide the durability, reliability and wide gearing essential for loaded touring. In addition, touring bikes require stronger brakes than typical road bikes, so they are often equipped with cantilever or linear-pull brakes, instead of the caliper brakes used on road bikes.

Thus, touring bikes trade off some speed for extra utility and ruggedness. This combination of features turns out to be very popular with commuters and couriers as well.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Touring Bike" and from http://www.treadly.com

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