When choosing a touring bicycle, many factors come into play: technical, related to the bike itself; logical, which depend on the type of trip and personal experience. There are however 5 main features to help you avoid making the wrong purchase, and we have covered each one in detail. Here they are.
1) Type of trip. This first distinction is the basis for your choice of bike: if the intended route is all on asphalt, then go for a road model. Similar to a city bike, it has a sturdier frame, usually made of steel, designed to offer an upright riding position, suitable for spending long hours in the saddle. It is generally equipped with a luggage rack, numerous attachments for bags, has a wide range of gears (often the triple front chainring), and disc brakes.
If you are travelling on dirt roads that are not too bumpy, you'll want a gravel bike, similar to the road model but with sturdier wheels and wide, knobbed tyres, which offer comfort and grip on all terrains. The advantage is that it achieves a good compromise between on and off-road, being fairly agile on rough terrain but also smooth on the asphalt.
If the route includes challenging off-road sections, the right choice is a mountain bike, which allows you to tackle them safely thanks to the suspensions (front and rear) and the wide-section knobbed tyres. These, however, will make it heavier on asphalt routes. The frame is usually made of aluminium or carbon.
2) Comfort. You'll spend most of your day riding, so it's important to be comfortable in the saddle. You need to choose the right bike size for your body, so that you can ensure the correct position of the torso, the handlebar, which must be comfortable to grip, with multiple points to hold on to, and the pedals. A key element is the saddle, which must deliver a comfortable ride over time. It should not be too hard to avoid numbing, nor too soft, as it may cause skin rubbing and unbearable irritation. The choice of model is not an easy task, but by relying on your trusted store you will be able to find the best combination, thanks to the experience of the staff as well as the availability of technical tools designed specifically for this purpose. This also applies to the choice of bike size and saddle-pedals-handlebar triangle adjustment, which must be carried out with the appropriate equipment and not simply by visual adjustment.
3) Reliability. On the road our bike is subjected to constant stress: you ride it for many days with a load and you can easily overcome uneven sections, even on asphalt. It is therefore a good idea to buy a quality bike that can guarantee durability in all parts: frame and accessories, including wheels. Touring bike frames are usually made of steel or aluminium: steel is more comfortable than aluminium because it is more elastic and is easy to repair in the event of breakage. Aluminium saves some weight, but it is not only rigid but also more fragile and sensitive to wear and tear over time.
A common, but rather annoying, problem on the road is punctures. It is therefore better to opt for quality tyres, with an adequate structure, in the version with a special anti-puncture reinforcement band and start the journey with new, more efficient tyres. Choose the model that best suits your needs, whether a road, gravel or mountain bike: the intermediate on/off tyres are available in various models, more or less knobbed depending on the surface to be tackled in order to optimise grip on difficult surfaces smoothly.
4) Load capacity. Most touring bicycles come standard with a rear rack, designed to support the bags, two side and one centre. For long-term journeys, two additional bags can be fitted to the front fork, but with a heavy weight that will strain your ride. This classic solution is now complemented by bikepacking: a more agile and lighter bag composition that provides a slimmer silhouette, useful off-road, and better weight distribution (albeit at the cost of a limitation of total capacity).
5) Personal preparation. Experienced riders can easily choose the bike, model, size, accessories, and opt for the most specific and performing versions. Considering that you are travelling with your load, and that you will have to go uphill, even if you are fit, it is still good to choose a crankset that enables very agile pedalling: being forced to stop and walk a stretch due to a too hard gear can ruin the pleasure of the trip.
An excellent solution to solve this dilemma, which sometimes does not have a definite answer, is to opt for an e-bike. The best version is with the central motor, which is more powerful (usually 250 Watts), and you have to check the range, which is on average 120 km (but varies depending on the use of the motor). An e-bike is slightly stronger and heavier than a traditional bike, making it more stable with load, and this extra burden is more than paid for by the motor's thrust. This great convenience has revolutionised the cycling world because in addition to being available to all, it has offered the opportunity for those who are not physically fit and families to take part in trips.
Today there are road, gravel and mountain e-bikes, and the previous considerations apply to these as well.
