Definitely there seem to be different
demographics wherein each has a different meaning of "touring bike".
I've had knowledgeable cyclists just a few years younger than myself take a look at my Holdsworth Special and proclaim it a turing bike based on it's single pairs of front and rear mudguard eyelets and it's extra inch of clearance between rear tire and seat tube (heck, it has long horizontal dropouts and thus
needs the extra inch there. Even the swap-meet seller described it as a touring bike on his description card, as it was also encumbered with a phalanx of Riv-style gear, including a standard XC Pro crankset.
True, the Holdsworth is a versatile bike with 73-degree angles, but it's from England and it rains a lot there.
Then again, they say the same thing about my Centurions, and even my Semi-pro has slacker angles and longer stays than the Holdsworth, so in truth it is really a sport-touring bike and not a racer. Tell that to the previous owner who outfitted it with a complete gen-1 Dura-Ace gruppo!
Anyone whose idea of a race bike was developed during the '80's or later might also consider a pre-1973 PX10 to also be a touring bike, and with those 72-degree angles they are somewhat correct.
So I think that it's just that race bikes have changed, even if my 1952 E.Christophe road bike (nearly the same bike as the same-vintage Automoto Champion De Monde) sports twitchy 77-degree angles for some reason.
But, in truth, many of these Craigslist sellers are just plain loose with their descriptions, anything to get people to be more likely to look at what they have for sale.
It's kind of amazing all of the different kinds of bikes that are listed as "road bikes", which apparently be applied to even a K-mart mtb with stock knobby tires. After all, a road bike is supposed to be worth more.
You wouldn't
ever want to go touring on this one, but it does have rear mudguard eyelets and long chainstays.
And BTW, it gives up very little in keeping up with a modern training ride.
Much more of a touring bike here (much heavier, too):
