Originally Posted by
StephenH
There's not a rigid definition. For example, you'll find touring bikes differentiated from road bikes, but elsewhere find they're a type of road bike, etc.
Saying a road bike is a bike that you ride on the road just makes the term fairly meaningless. I rode my Worksman cruiser on the road, but nobody would class it as a road bike. Ditto with lots of mountain bikes.
I beg to differ. A road bike is a bike that is designed to ride on paved roads. This is an inclusive definition that includes touring bikes.
By this criteria, the bike in question is clearly a road bike. On the other hand, a mountain bike being ridden on the road is not really a road bike, just as a road bike being ridden on trails is not an off-road bike.
It's not complicated.