What is the Most Popular Touring Bike in the World?

[Tangled Metal]

Not English style! Same with French and their porteur racks I think. Plus their silly idea of more weight on the forks than rear rack. Don't they know the English / Anglo saxon / Western europe (read as English and American) way is right.

[mjr]

We saw quite a few Dutch Style shoppers on tour in Belgium. Simple shopping style pannier by basil our similar too. I doubt they're the world's most popular though.

I suspect that if we're going to draw broad brush "styles" rather than individual bikes, the most popular shape bike for touring is going to be something like a Dutch shopper or old English roadster, having been cloned pretty much everywhere in the last 70 years: relaxed position, swept bars, rear rack and single-speed or hub gears. Just the sheer numbers present in mass-cycling countries will mean that a lot of them get used for touring.

As to specific bike models, I'll be surprised if it's not the Trek 520 because of the numbers of them I've seen in Europe and that it's Trek's longest-produced model by some way, introduced 1983 and now Trek's only touring bike. If it's the Surly LHT because of the numbers in the Americas and Pacific area, then that's a shame - I really don't like Surly's bikes at all and don't understand how they have a fan club

As to what Germans are touring on: is VSF the only one that's unusually popular there and otherwise it's similar names to elsewhere?

[Angstrom]

Sorry, but I think this is a really irrelevant question.

I just don't get the point. The real answer probably has nothing to do with quality of the bike but more with distribution, availability etc.

Along that line, when Decathlon comes out with their touring bike, it probably will be the highest selling one, given the sheer distribution power of Decthlon (they are the biggest Shimano customer by far). They do make good value products and I like what they do (usually), but will that mean anything if/when they are the highest selling touring bike?

[MarcusT]

Sorry, but I think this is a really irrelevant question.

I just don't get the point. The real answer probably has nothing to do with quality of the bike but more with distribution, availability etc.

Along that line, when Decathlon comes out with their touring bike, it probably will be the highest selling one, given the sheer distribution power of Decthlon (they are the biggest Shimano customer by far). They do make good value products and I like what they do (usually), but will that mean anything if/when they are the highest selling touring bike?

Decathlon did come out with full touring bikes, but they are offered only at their German outlets.

https://www.decathlon.de/p/trekkingrad- ... mc=8541983

I have never seen one on the road

[Bonefishblues]

Sorry, but I think this is a really irrelevant question.

I just don't get the point. The real answer probably has nothing to do with quality of the bike but more with distribution, availability etc.

Along that line, when Decathlon comes out with their touring bike, it probably will be the highest selling one, given the sheer distribution power of Decthlon (they are the biggest Shimano customer by far). They do make good value products and I like what they do (usually), but will that mean anything if/when they are the highest selling touring bike?

It's just a bit of nonsense about which we can have our customary debate/mild argument/disagreement. That's the point, such as there is one

[Tangled Metal]

I'd question the shopper type being the most popular. They're the one you'll see in Asian countries with a high cycle use perhaps but do they actually get touring use? The people using them aren't likely to be as free to tour for probably economic reasons. They're utilitarian bikes.

My suspicion, based on observations of people who've seen it/done it, people who actually tour in such countries use a more mtb style of bike. Plus I understand on other continents the 26"wheel mtb style bike is commonly used to travel on. No name bikes, or at least no name we'll recognise I wager. Eastern European countries, what do they use? I've seen hardtail mtbs kitted for touring online. Brands I had never heard of but the best selling bike brands in their countries.

Basically if you lump all those bikes with brand names we're unlikely to have heard of together under the style of 26" wheeled, mtb tourers then I bet they beat LHR, trek 520, Dawes, etc. And possibly beat them added together.