Originally Posted by
Bacciagalupe
As others have mentioned: Let's not confuse your needs and requirements with those of the majority or totality.
To be clear, this doesn't necessarily mean you are wrong about what you want, only that what you are looking for turns out to be rather expensive, rare and specialized.
It sounds to me like your ideal bike would be something like this:
• MTB frame
• suspension
• clearance for 50mm tires + fenders
• Rohloff hub
• carbon belt drive
• hydraulic disc brakes
• S&S couplers
• drop bars
If you're routinely flying to do off-road remote tours, most of this makes sense -- though you could also just use a more standard MTB and a backpack and/or frame pack.
But most tourists tend to do longer on-road tours where limited resources are available. For them, a lot of these requirements are overkill.
(The carbon belt, by the way, is very new and as yet unproven, especially for those who want to do extended tours. Tourers tend to prefer reliability and repairability in the field over New Hotness. If your belt is damaged in the middle of nowhere, good luck getting it fixed in a reasonable time frame....)
By the way, the Rohloff is $1700ish for the part alone; S&S couplers usually add $1000 to the price. These two "modest" needs alone bumped up the price of your ideal bike by at least $2000.
Some good points--I used to ride an 80's Specialized Rockhopper converted to drop-bar which gave a comfy ride even with highly-inflated 1.5" slicks. But it was designed for an upright riding style, the geometry didn't work too well that way. So why don't production touring bikes have comfier wheelbase/angles/rake? No cost at all to design that in. Sheldon IIRC has written about the overly-stiff frame issue. Even in Europe where the road maintenance is often superior to the USA downtown areas often have cobblestone streets.
Rohloff is pricey for sure but OTOH for decades Sturmey-Archer made cheap & dependable IGHs. Shimano's 11-speed Alfine is a fraction of the Rohloff cost though it's not really for hard-core touring. But it's a positive step. I remember when derailer bikes became popular in the USA. They caught on quickly despite the higher cost--mostly due to fashion & marketing & not benefit to avg rider. I live next to a major bike path & see 1,000's of riders on 18 & 27-gear bikes. Vast majority of those riders don't know how to maintain those derailers & chains & have to rely on bike shops.
Belts are "unproven" & "new"? Gates makes belts for NHRA Top-Fuel dragsters & I can't imagine a more demanding application than that! The "middle of nowhere" arguments are problematic. Chains break too & I'm not sure how many Outer Mongolian bike shops carry narrow derailer chains. I've driven thru Mexico for 1,000's of miles & can attest that that aren't many bike shops of any description in the hinterlands. So a bike tourist with their dinosaur bike can hardly be confident of quickly & reliably obtaining replacement parts. Rohloff reliability is reputedly near-perfect. Why not have hi-tech reliable stuff & if there's a breakdown pay for a ride to the nearest town & have the part FedExed in?
If bike tourers would fuss a little more instead of accepting crumbs we'd see some improvement. Instead we pay good $$ for over-priced touring bikes that have barely changed for decades. OK, for right now Rohloff and/or Gates is expensive but OTOH there's no excuse for experienced tourers to defend old junk as being preferable. If pro racers can set market trends then perhaps tourers can as well since our needs are at least as close to avg riders'.