Originally Posted by
Trakhak
Agreed, that whatever amount of touring bikes Koga sells represents a blip in the worldwide market. But they're apparently selling a satisfactory number, what with having six different models. So whatever the market is in Europe for touring bikes, they likely have a good chunk of it.
That number of models represents just their "trekking" (loaded/grand-touring) bikes, by the way. They have another bunch of flat-bar bikes that they call their "city" and "touring" bikes.
I won’t disagree. The real problem is that most people working in the bike industry from the lowliest mechanic to the designers are race oriented and push the race culture. Because they push race culture, the customer wants race culture although most of them would be better served by a utilitarian culture. Utilitarian bikes don’t
need to be monstrously heavy beasts but most of them are…because the race guys don’t like them. ‘Round and round it goes.
Also agree that touring bikes are underappreciated for their versatility. The only category that's even more underappreciated is that of hybrids.
I have a house full of bikes (it's a small Baltimore row house, so that's not saying much), but the one I've put the most miles on for the last couple of years is a 1995 Cannondale H300 hybrid. They used the same frame for their touring bike.
As did a number of manufacturers. It's funny to think of people visiting bike stores and bemoaning the lack of touring bikes while walking past a dozen hybrids on the sales floor. Where did the touring bikes go? That's where.
I rediscovered that lately. My daughter needed a bike for Denver and, possibly for a trip I’ve been thinking about. I happen to have a near endless supply of bikes from two different co-ops and a Trek FX hybrid came in that was her size. The more I looked at the bike, the more I realized that it was long like a traditional touring bike. Once I measured it, I found that it had about the same measurements as my Cannondale touring bike. I put drop bars on it and it became a
real® touring bike.
I would say that the hybrid is a bit less maligned than touring bikes, however. There are sure a whole bunch of them out there. Way more than touring bikes. But I get what you are saying. The racer boys don’t like them so they get short shrift.