I sometimes refer to my touring bike as The Mule, since it shares a few important characteristics with mules. It's a good beast of burden. It's dependable. It's versatile. And while it shares elements of horses (fast road bikes) and donkeys (mountain bikes) it is neither of those things. It's in a class of its own. In a little more than four years, I've logged around 20,000 kilometres on The Mule.