Touring - Touring or Road

What Exactly is the difference betweeen a road bike and a touring bike?????

Okay, I am no expert, but here is the way I understand it!
A road bike is a light weight go-fast bike.
A touring bike may share a lot of the components of the road bike, but has a heavier duty frame with mounting points for bags, racks and so on that are not found on road bikes, and perhaps heavier duty wheels.
The dividing line between road and touring bikes can be pretty thin sometimes, and on some models of bikes, may not exist at all!!
Hope this helps!

Fujidude is right on all his points, but I would add that touring bikes can also have more relaxed frame geometry. This gives the bike a longer wheelbase for a slightly smoother ride, but can also comprimise responsiveness and handling which road bikes are known for.

Also, a touring bike usually has a wider range of gears, with three chainrings on the front crank instead two. The third ring is smaller for ease in going up hills and against the wind while carrying a heavy load.

Some manufacturers touring bikes are just a beefed up road frame with the extra chainring added, while others try to maximize comfort by changing the frame geometry, as I mentioned.

Are you thinking about getting a road or touring bike?

Moose

Hey wow!

Cannondude...meet Fujidude

Fujidude...meet Cannondude

:D

There are 3 types of touring bike.
fast touring bike : Basiacally a racer with fender threaded eyelets, used for long fast day rides.

Standard touring bike: More tyre clearance, thicker walled tubes, more braze-on fittings, longer chainstays, heavier duty wheels. Suitable for camping tours, hostel tours, trail riding, day rides and commuting.

Expedition touring bike: Often based on 26" wheels, but similar to a standard tourer, with more clearance. Components are often chosen for fixability in the field. Suitable for camping tours in places where roads are primitive.

Despite the extra ruggedness of a tourer, built to haul a camping load across a continent, they are usually lighter and more agile than the average hybrid bike.
See Bruce Gorden and Sakitt for some good touring bikes.

Hey
Ok I already bought a nike it is a Cannondale T700 hence the name Cannondude I am 16 and I am 6'1 and weigh aproximatly 210 I don't know how long the bike is If anyone could help me that would be nice.

Hi Cannondude! Well, I guess I am not sure what you want to know with the last question!?! Do you want to know the wheelbase, the top tube length or the frame size?? Hopefully you got your bike at a local bike shop (LBS) and they got one to fit your size. I may not be able to help you (don't know much about the brand-X bikes) but I bet someone here will be able to help!!:D

One significant difference between road and touring bikes that I didn't see mentioned is that touring bikes have the more rugged cantilever-style brakes. A fully loaded touring bike has a lot of momentum!

I can confuse the issue a bit in that my main bike is a 531 c fast tourer. has threaded braze ons for a rear rack (custom built you see) has a slightly shorter wheelbase than most tourers and less fork trail (my clips just clear the front guard) Would be called an audax bike in some circles but has done many thousands of miles and, when my wife gets the chance to pile her stuff on mine, has been very heavily loaded.

Oh, and when it was built, cantilevers were just coming in and had little spares supply so it has centrepulls! :):)

The REAL differences between Touring and Road bikes:
Touring bikes have:
longer chainstays
rack mounts front and rear
cantilever/v-brakes (usually)
heavier frame
wider gearing
clearance for fenders (usually)
There are also variations, such as the sport-tourer, audax, or radonne bike. A decent example of this is a Trek 1200, although MOST allow fender mounting on the front (unlike the Trek). These bikes are built for long, fast events, where you wold not carry a lot of gear, therefore, these bikes are lighter, and use more road componentry. Some even use generator hub lighting.

I would agree with you as far as modern tourers are concerned, but older tourers may not meet all these criteria. For example compare a 20 year old Dawes galaxy (centre pulls, no front rack) with a modern Galaxy (two racks, several bottle cage braze ons, and for a while hydraulic brakes!

Fuji Dude. I suspect you own a Fuji Touring bike, by your post. I bought one (2001)last Spring. Is a great bike for the money. I am about to put panniers on it and take off for 360 miles.( First real tour.)
So Bill what do you think of it? Fuji only makes one model touring bike I believe. As to the Fuji touring bike. I own a Klein road bike. That is really sleak. However, I think for a touring bike- the Fuji feels pretty good also. Without a load, do not feel it makes me work that much harder.

I checked out a fuji touring bike last year at a local retailer (since defuct). It was a good bike for the money, but boy, was it heavy!

True, touring bikes are heavy, because they are heavy-duty. They're made to handle the stress of carrying (or pulling) a load.

Moose