I recently read a 2016 thread 531colin started on frame stiffness, which was apparently prompted by his findings when designing and testing prototypes for Spa's titanium Elan. This was one of his comments towards the end of that thread:
Another contributor to that thread was james-o (viewtopic.php?p=994021#p994021), who designed bikes for Genesis and later for Evans, including the Croix de Fer and the Pinnacle Arkose. He posts more on the Singletrackworld and Bearbones forums, and I was struck by his various posts on the second page of a recent Singletrackworld thread on steel road bikes (https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topi ... hts/page/2), in particular his comments about how his views on frame stiffness have changed.531colin wrote: ↑20 Mar 2016, 7:41am the difficulty in designing a "tourer"......one bike can't be "ideal" for unladen riding and also loaded up with 4 panniers. I'm light for my height, (skinny) so I often end up riding bikes that are overbuilt. Somebody heavy for their height (muscular) might hit the opposite problem.
I would like to design a "light tourer", that would be a bike with low gears, good brakes and taking a sensible range of tyre sizes, but built light for day rides and B&B touring....but I think a "light tourer" would have an image problem, and the more different bikes you list, the more money you have sitting on shelves.
Brucey wrote so many posts about this subject that I find it almost impossible to search through them to find any particular one, but it was clear that he was in favour of frames with threaded 1" steerers, quill stems and traditional narrow clamp diameter bars. Currently if someone wants a light tourer like that, the choice is either to seek a nice second hand example on Ebay, or to get a custom frame made.
My own experience of different bikes is nowhere near as extensive as many on this forum, but I don't think any of the bikes or frames currently on the market are a substitute for a light tourer. Despite the objections that 531colin lists above, I think there are good reasons why a light tourer could be commercially viable:
- The differences between a light tourer versus the touring and gravel bikes currently on the market are large. In other words there is a significant gap in the market. Bike brands mostly compete with each other with similar product ranges, and sometimes with a lot of overlap between the various bikes in their line ups, e.g. Surly.
- Whoever introduces a light tourer will probably have the market to themselves. I think the market would be too small for the big manufacturers to consider it worthwhile adding a light tourer to their range, and an added factor which I think would discourage them is that a light tourer is not suited to complete builds using current groupsets or mainstream components. I think only Spa or SJS/Thorn are currently well placed to develop and sell a light tourer.
To be clear, by light tourer I mean a steel frame with (certainly in the medium and smaller sizes) a 1" steerer, 1" top tube and 1 1/8" down tube, clearance for ~35mm tyres with mudguards, and - as 531colin stated - designed for lightly laden touring.