Best touring bike 2023: Buyer’s guide

[Traction_man]

thought this feature might be of interest

https://www.cyclist.co.uk/buying-guides ... uring-bike

[Paulatic]

mmm Can you believe a word they say?
I read their review for the Giant Toughroad simply because I have one. My first question to the reviewer is how do you get 27 gears from a 2x10?
My own review of the Toughroad SLR in case anyone comes along with interest. I bought my < 6 week old bike, in 2019, for £350 delivered. I didn’t get on with the bars and changed them to Geoff bars. I tour with it in summer on suitable tyres and in winter I shoe it with big knobblies for muddy forestry roads. It has proved to be an excellent all round bike and with 4 panniers it’s stable and capable.

[colin54]

From the text '' Full disclosure: we've yet to ride any of the bikes on this list '' !

[glucas]

To be fair I think it's an interesting list. Some specialist bikes for tough trails, and others suited for long distance tarmac.

The cube travel looks a great all round option - racks/kick stand/dynamo lights.

I have only done about 5 major tours so far and for me the most important thing is stability, comfort and ergonomics - getting your set up exactly right. Faffing around with straps/dealing with torrential rain/accessing food, water easily - these for me are the challenges! Any touring bike for me would need adequate mounting points/racks etc.

Thanks for posting.

[PH]

On the list of best touring bikes in 2023:
Thorn Sherpa
Discontinued years ago!

[mjr]

The cube travel looks a great all round option - racks/kick stand/dynamo lights.

I can see faults in all of them:
· the rear rack only has V shaped legs, which limits you to panniers with a back board and tightly-fitting clips, unless you want the bottom rear corner to be forever twisting into the spokes when you go over bumps. For the price of one more curve of metal, a B-shaped or "dog leg" rack would make it a better touring bike: the pic of the Condor has such a rack.
· the kick stand seems to be fitted to a welded-on plate on the rear stay, which will have a lower max load than an axle-mount or even stay-clamp one.
· the rear light doesn't seem to have any dynamo wiring.

Bonus grumble: the rear mudguard doesn't seem to have stays, with the front of the rear rack being the rearmost fixing, so it's short (rude to those riding behind you) and I've seen those mudguards snap behind the rearmost fixing.

I have only done about 5 major tours so far and for me the most important thing is stability, comfort and ergonomics - getting your set up exactly right. Faffing around with straps/dealing with torrential rain/accessing food, water easily - these for me are the challenges! Any touring bike for me would need adequate mounting points/racks etc.

I think you're right. If the mounting points and racks are adequate, then it becomes a question of luggage. The Cube looks like a "close but no cigar" on the racks. The Condor and the Ridgeback look better on that, but then don't have dynamo lights. The Genesis looks pretty nicely kitted out. Most of the others are shown without guards and/or racks.

The best touring bike is whatever you'll actually ride, though. Having the perfect touring bike in the shed isn't as good as getting out there on an adapted MTB.

[rareposter]

mmm Can you believe a word they say?

and

On the list of best touring bikes in 2023:
Thorn Sherpa
Discontinued years ago!

+1.
Lists like that are invariably rehashed from the year before which were themselves basic edits of what went before. road.cc is the worst offender, it's got articles on lights, disc brakes, groupsets etc that were originally written YEARS ago and have just been edited and amended constantly since then. I'd far rather an original article that then gets archived and a newly written one to replace it. Much easier for document management as well as far clearer to read for the average punter.

The best touring bike is whatever you'll actually ride, though. Having the perfect touring bike in the shed isn't as good as getting out there on an adapted MTB.

Very much this, as has been pointed out many times by me and numerous other posters on pretty much all the "what's the best [xxxxxxx] for touring?" threads on here over the years!

To be fair, lists like that can start to help narrow things down for the novice rider but they do also lead many people to believe that the listed item(s) are the only things worth considering.

[glucas]

The cube travel looks a great all round option - racks/kick stand/dynamo lights.

I can see faults in all of them:
· the rear rack only has V shaped legs, which limits you to panniers with a back board and tightly-fitting clips, unless you want the bottom rear corner to be forever twisting into the spokes when you go over bumps. For the price of one more curve of metal, a B-shaped or "dog leg" rack would make it a better touring bike: the pic of the Condor has such a rack.
· the kick stand seems to be fitted to a welded-on plate on the rear stay, which will have a lower max load than an axle-mount or even stay-clamp one.
· the rear light doesn't seem to have any dynamo wiring.

Bonus grumble: the rear mudguard doesn't seem to have stays, with the front of the rear rack being the rearmost fixing, so it's short (rude to those riding behind you) and I've seen those mudguards snap behind the rearmost fixing.

I have only done about 5 major tours so far and for me the most important thing is stability, comfort and ergonomics - getting your set up exactly right. Faffing around with straps/dealing with torrential rain/accessing food, water easily - these for me are the challenges! Any touring bike for me would need adequate mounting points/racks etc.

I think you're right. If the mounting points and racks are adequate, then it becomes a question of luggage. The Cube looks like a "close but no cigar" on the racks. The Condor and the Ridgeback look better on that, but then don't have dynamo lights. The Genesis looks pretty nicely kitted out. Most of the others are shown without guards and/or racks.

The best touring bike is whatever you'll actually ride, though. Having the perfect touring bike in the shed isn't as good as getting out there on an adapted MTB.

I will defer to your comments. I am always enthusiastic when I see a touring bike line up, as it seems a rare thing. But yeah, on the other thing, I don't subscribe to a glib analysis of what makes a good touring bike, as I'm guessing we all know, after 200 miles, all the problems will manifest themselves if you have a poor bike and set up. I actually love my Canyon Pathlite, but my problem is that I want the bags - handlebar + frame/panniers to all be rock solid (and waterproof) - with easy attachment. This is a different issue I know, but perhaps underrated.

[531colin]

I wouldn’t either choose or exclude a bike based on what carrier was fitted, carriers are pretty easy to change.
Seat tube angle on the other hand is to me more important and also harder to alter…YMMV!

[LittleGreyCat]

A lot of "no longer sold UK/US".
Why are these in a Best of 2023 list, then?

[TrevA]

Several of the reviews state “Bike no longer sold in UK/US” which is pretty useless for a UK based magazine, and it’s not even true. The Ridgeback Voyage is sold in the UK. Several of the pictures are out of date too, not showing the latest model. The latest Voyage has mini V brakes and under bar tape cable routing. I think this is a rehashed article.

[Nearholmer]

I think the photo of the Genesis is the 2020 model, and that more recent ones have been a different colour, with maybe tiny changes to the components. I bought one in spring 2020, over the internet because it was deep lockdown at the time, and it is a very, very nice bike indeed, but I only did one short tour on it because the geometry didn’t suit me (moral: don’t by a bike you’ve not tried for real, even during a lockdown!). It was such a nice bike I struggled to part with it even though it didn’t suit me, but eventually I swapped it for its nippier sibling the Croix de Fer, which works s treat for me (wouldn’t for very heavy load carrying though).

[MarcusT]

In all fairness they do say 'guide' and admit they have not ridden the bikes. It is a "guide" to merely let the readers know what is available in the touring world. Saying the 'best" may be a little inflated, but is decided on components and frame options.
It is what it is. I've seen far worse where people have labelled videos and articles such as "We've Reviewed the Best Bikes in the World" and all they do is read the manufacturers advertisement.

[simonhill]

Marcus has makes a good point. A "guide".

Perhaps this should be relabelled "Best Touring Bike Styles" giving potential buyers an idea of different types of touring bike styles. They can then go and explore the market.

Probably better than asking on a forum where you get tens of widely different often dogmatic views and counterviews running to nn pages which just confuses new prospective buyers.

[al_yrpal]

So many bikes shown without mudguards! Anyone who has toured seriously in all weathers will know they are essential. As for his riding in the Chilterns, off road plenty of challenging but highly enjoyable natural mud and chalk bridleways, a few sandy tracks and the only gravel is boring forestry commission fire breaks.

Al