A touring bike is a bicycle that allows a cyclist to travel with everything they will need to survive. Things like camping gear and food that a cyclist will need while traveling long distances. Touring began to grow in popularity during the 1970s and 80s before mountain bikes were the next big thing. It waned in popularity but remained around until in recent years where it has begun to become popular again.

A touring bike looks more or less like any other bike. It has a longer top tube to allow for some increased stability that will be necessary after the bike is loaded down with more weight. Most touring bikes also come stock with a lot more options to store water bottles since on a long bike ride you will need a lot a lot of water. The also come with areas you can bolt on luggage racks so you can attach your saddlebags. They often offer these on both the front and rear wheel.

Another main difference between a touring bike and a road bike is a touring bike comes with a wider wheels and tires. Often times they will come with a 27 inch wheel instead of the common size on road race bikes which is a 700 centimeter size. The reason for the wider wheels is that they allow for more stability and traction through all sort of conditions. The reason for the 27 inch wheels is that while 700cm is standard for road bikes, most other bikes use 27 inch and in many small towns and remote areas a 27 inch tube or wheel is going to be all that is available to you.

The luggage racks that work with your saddlebags are removable so you can easily pack them. These racks called panniers, can be filled with anything you need to carry. Often times the cargo load can exceed 30 to 50 pounds and so a touring bike is equipped with a much wider range of gears and a much lower low gear for grinding up long hills with a lot of gear.

< ![endif]–>By Jeff Hendrix

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Handlebar cargo systems are nice, as they can be used to hold maps, instructions and easy to get to food supplies like bananas, fig bars, power bars and other high-calorie, high-carb nutritional foods, but a word to the wise, don’t overload these cargo bags, it can make steering tough and cause you to take a spill. How do you suppose I know that? Ouch. Most of the handlebar cargo packs are now much smaller, probably for safety and they are fine if you do not overload them. Try to find the most aerodynamic design to cut down on your relative wind footprint to reduce drag.

Rear mounted bags are not a bad option, but keep the load low using panniers. You see, if your gear gets too high, then your load can shift and drag against the bike or worse make you top heavy and threaten to topple you and ruin your whole day. You can put a small bag on top of your pannier platform, which will also prevent water from “rooster tailing” behind you as you drive thru puddles or in the rain. At high speeds the dirty road water will shoot right onto your back, making for quite an irritating ride, but with a small pack on top of the pannier platform this problem is solved. Still be aware that you need water proof cargo units, otherwise everything you take with you will be soggy, moldy and wet.

It is difficult to keep any load in place on a bumpy road, in high-winds or on high-speed down-hills. It’s better to over secure your load, than risk cargo failure. Before you start and at any breaking point, double check your load. If you are going to camp out in the open then take the lightest possible sleeping bag and have it ride directly behind you so that you can block the wind otherwise there is virtually no chance of it staying where you want it to be during a 100 plus mile leg. One bit of advice for those who choose the pannier systems, make sure your system secures both to the seat post or frame on the top and the rear axle frame assembly on the bottom. Why?

Well, because most of the pannier units can hold a lot of weight, 25-35 lbs, but if your system only connects to your seat post and it is made of carbon composite, it may break, it’s happened to me before, so head that warning. Additionally, if you have a carbon composite seat post and wish to run with a pannier cargo system, then change out that seat post for an alloy post, for about $100 you can get a stronger alloy seat post which weighs about the same amount anyway. Perhaps you will consider this when purchasing your cargo system.

By Lance Winslow

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