Guest Author - Kay Barnett

Different Types of Bicycle

Here's some more information on Touring Bikes and Hybrid bicycles. So if you’re beginning to cycle or looking to advance your riding, here we’ll be looking into the different types of bicycles and what they’re designed to do. This article looks into touring and hybrid bicycles. Discover more on bikes in this short guide.



Touring Bikes

A touring bike is designed for use whilst touring and/or commuting generally on roads. This bike is comfortably built so that it can be used on enjoyable leisurely pursuits and excursions, such as exploring or sightseeing an area or region, or even for leisure, exercise, or commuting.

These bikes are also designed to carry additional loads, such as any luggage and extra gear during a trip. This is often referred to as loaded, or fully loaded touring (whereby the cyclist carries all the additional amenities for their trip, such as food and even sleeping accommodation too). A touring bicycle can come in different models such as road, trail, recumbent and tandem. Touring bikes are quite similar to a road-racing bike in their design and look too, but are built to more comfortably accommodate the cyclist, rather than to achieve aerodynamic excellence.

There can be significant differences between different touring bikes. Touring bikes can vary with how they are built; they can be lightweight (but are generally a little heavier than road racing bikes) or a little heavier, to handle the more rough terrain and heavy loads, such as those bikes used in expedition touring.

Another difference in touring bikes is with the wheels. Touring bikes are often found built with 700C wheels; 26 inches, the same diameter wheel as a road-racing bike. But touring bike wheels are also built to allow for wider tyres than racing bikes, and so they have wider, more heavy-duty rims, helping the bicycle to deal with carrying additional loads. They can also have a wide gear selection to handle the difficulties in maintaining a good cadence with a heavy load for example.

Other features common in touring bikes are that they have road bike style curved handlebars, luggage racks mounted front/back to carry loads, including panniers, etc.



Hybrid Bikes

Hybrid bicycles are a mixture of specifications for more versatile use. Hybrids can be very similar to mountain bikes, but can also be designed with the features of a touring/racing bicycle.

Hybrids typically use the varied gear ratios that are commonly found on mountain bikes. This is so that they can be used to manage steeper gradients, and slightly rough off-road, dirt trail like terrain, but hybrids often lack the suspension handling for more bumpy ground, that mountain bikes can cover. Hybrid bikes can also be built to be used like touring bikes, adapted to carry luggage for instance, but tend not to be built to go as fast under such conditions as their touring counterparts. Manufacturers can vary the construction of an individual hybrid bike, which can make them ideal all rounders and great for general use.