Stasia’s partner James just broke his Long Haul Trucker. He has used it as his daily bike since he got it in 2008, and toured across the county with it as well. The seat tube near the bottom bracket snapped, making the frame pretty much useless. 1 He is obviously bummed, but he’s moving on and looking for a replacement bike. Stasia asked if anyone knew about any good shops to buy a new bike (they were loyal to Seven Corners, which shuttered last year). Not only that, they’re looking for something similar to what the Long Haul Trucker can do.
That started me down a rabbit hole. They wanted a shop in inner SE, where they live. Bike shops in SE used to be a “no duh”, but with several shops closing over the years, the selection has gotten scarcer. And while there’s still a diversity of bike shops, the small shops that will sell new touring style bikes is pretty small these days. Not only that, the selection of touring bikes has also dwindled. Finding one is about as difficult as finding a Practical Bike these days. What exactly happened?
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Before I go any further, I should define “touring bike”. People can and will tour on all sorts of bicycles, but the classic, traditional touring bike didn’t really become a thing until the 1980’s. In the decade or two before then, most people would tour on what could be considered a sport-touring bicycle, which had a more relaxed geometry than a racing bike. This was what most of the young’uns touring the Bikecentennial Route (now the Trans-Am) did in 1976. But the classic touring bike was a refinement: stouter tubing for strength, 2 a longer wheelbase for stability, an even more relaxed geometry for day-in, day-out comfort, cantilever brakes for better stopping power with a load (the ability to accept wider tires was a definite bonus), and copious brazed-on mounting bosses for easy installation of racks, water bottle cages, and other accessories.
The classic touring bike had its hayday in the 1980s. But the 1990s was the nadir: the boomers who were touring in the 70s and 80s were older and had responsibilities. Gen X unfortunately did not pick up the slack (at least not yet), as we either didn’t know about bike touring, were too broke to take the time off from work to do it, or a combination of both. (Raises hand) Plus, mountain bikes quickly stole the thunder from both touring bikes and traditional road bikes–why spend weeks to months on a bike adventure, when you could just have a fun mountain bike session after work? A few brands still made touring bikes, but many shops still had a surplus of 80’s touring bikes that didn’t sell. There was no demand for a restock.
Then traditional touring bikes had a resurgence starting in the aughts. Those Gen Xers (and early millennials) started thinking about the planet and low-impact, low-cost ways to travel and adventure, so there was a market again. Surly introduced their Long Haul Trucker (LHT) sometime early in the decade, and it quickly became the standard-bearer for “touring bike”. If you didn’t know that much about bikes, but wanted something you could ride around town, commute, go grocery shopping with, go on long rides, and yes, tour, it was the bike you were told to get. That’s how I got mine, and I’m assuming that’s how James got his. The LHT wasn’t exactly the type of bike that made bike nerds swoon, but it made a lot of people become bike nerds. That’s how I became one. 3 It’s the type of bike that one could claim changed their life, as one commenter did on this post when Surly announced the Long Haul Trucker was discontinued in 2020. It definitely changed my life, even if I did eventually grow out of it.
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The first thing I searched for in the quest to help James find a new bike was to search for a Surly dealer. While the LHT is gone, the Disc Trucker is its souped-up replacement, a fitting steed so I thought. It felt like there was a time that any bike shop in town had a smattering of Surly stock, now only a handful were authorized dealers, and most of them fell into the category of “we may have a few on the floor, but we’ll probably have to order what you want for you.” The only shop in the city 4 that seemed like it would have a good on-hand selection of Surly bikes is River City Bicycles, one of the “Big Two” shops in town. Now there is nothing wrong with River City–I’ve bought things from them over the years and even had the 2.0 work on the Heavy Duti done there. 5 But it’s not that small bike shop that gives you the warm and fuzzies, the type you feel like you can build a rapport with.
What about the other big shop? Well, the chain that was the Bike Gallery got bought out by Trek a few years back, now it’s just another Trek Store that can be found around the country, selling only Trek and Trek related bikes. But during that nadir decade of the 90’s, Trek was one of the few companies that still had a touring bike in the lineup. The Trek 520 became the Pentax K1000 of touring bikes during that era: Much like newbies were told to buy the K1000 as their first serious film SLR, if anyone asked about what touring bike to get during that era, they were told to get a 520. (It wasn’t until the late aughts, when I bought my Surly, did the Long Haul Trucker take its place.) So would the Trek Store have a 520 for sale?
Alas, no. Trek has quietly discontinued that model sometime in the past couple years. Now if you search for a “touring bike” on the Trek website, you’ll get some flavor of aluminum or carbon “bikepacking” bike instead. Ugh.
The definition of “bikepacking” bike is a bit looser than a traditional touring bike. They usually have wider tires than a traditional touring bike, which is good, but everything else about them seems to be “because we say it’s a bikepacking bike”. How is it any different than a “gravel” bike, another loose term that is so very now? I don’t know. And since the typical bikepacking setup is about various bags strapped everywhere to the frame vs. racks and panniers, it’s easier to get away with this vagueness–I mean, what frame can’t bags be strapped to?
But what if you do want racks and panniers? This setup is better for day-in, day-out commuting, especially if you want to go grocery shopping. (I shudder to think how well that’d go when your hauling capacity is divvied up by several small bags.) What if you wanted a geometry suited for comfort around town and on long distances vs. maneuverability on rough terrain? Well, the selection of traditional touring bikes has dwindled in the past few years. We’re at that point again that we were in the early 90’s: Bikepacking bikes are the sexy new thing stealing boring old touring bike‘s thunder. And I’m not particularly happy with that.
Yes, there are still bike companies making some sort of touring bike. Besides Surly, their sister brand All-City makes the Space Horse, a more “sport” version of a touring bike. REI’s Novarra Randonee was another long-running touring bike that was also made through the 1990’s, the Co-op Cycles ADV 1.1 seems to be its replacement. Kona still has the Sutra. If you still want traditional rim brakes, Rivendell has the Atlantis and Appaloosa. And I’m sure I’ve missed a few. But none of these bikes (besides Rivendell) seem to be talked about in the reverent tones like the Long Haul Trucker was ten years ago. I worry that it won’t be long before some of these bikes get quietly discontinued like the Trek 520 did. Then if you want a traditional touring bike you’ll either need to find a used one or get a custom builder to make you one.
If that time happens (and I hope it doesn’t), maybe have a need a new generation of riders, who, in a decade or two, see the value in a touring bike and bring it back. Weirder things have happened!
1 Yeah, you can weld, but welds near the bottom bracket aren’t usually long-term solutions, it’ll either break again or there will be a break elsewhere near bottom bracket.
2 Though the tubing wasn’t that stout, especially compared to the touring bikes of the aughts and teens.
3 It didn’t work for everyone, as James doesn’t seem to be a bike nerd.
4 Universal Cycles is also a big Surly dealer, but now they are out in the west side suburbs, and their customer service has never gotten above the “meh” threshold for me.
5 Mostly because Jer was working there at the time, and I knew he’d be totally down with the project.
Urban Adventure League 
Don’t forget the Velo Orange Polyvalent! The Bassi Hog’s Back and Rachel would also make great touring bikes.
It is ironic that racks and panniers are making inroads into BiKePaCkInG, but of course this mainly started happening when those hideous carbon loops started becoming popular. Only when you can sell it as a racing tool does it catch on. But as you and I both pointed out, racks and panniers remain great https://thecompletebicycle.wordpress.com/2022/09/12/omg-just-use-a-rack/
Yeah, my list isn’t that extensive. The Polyvalent can make for a good touring bike, but I was thinking more about bikes specifically sold/marketed as touring bikes, whereas the Polyvalent’s angle is more a “do-all” bike that can tour.
Velo Orange only dipped their toes into the “true trad touring bike” pool only once, with the Campeur. It seemed like a nice bike, but the model’s life was pretty short, from 2013 to maybe 2015-6. Even though VO had trafficked in “retro” style stuff at that point, they probably saw the writing on the wall.
If you want to waste a good 15 minutes or so, read this thread on the Campeur on Bike Forums. So many posters could not get past the fact that the Campeur had a traditional threaded headset:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/849059-velo-orange-campeur-touring-frames-another-option.html
What are these “hideous carbon loops” you talk of?
Here it is https://www.tailfin.cc/product/pannier-racks/carbon-racks/carbon-rack/?v=7516fd43adaa
Ugh.
A truly bizarre thing about VO threaded bikes was all over the reviews, I’m not sure if you noticed. There wasn’t a single review I’ve read, for instance, of the previous generation Polyvalent, that didn’t say BOTH that the ride up front was wonderfully compliant AND that they wish it didn’t have a quill stem. But of course it was the 1″ steerer and quill stem that give it that ride quality.
It’s like their wires crossed and they shorted out. They knew they liked the ride, but were convinced it had to be changed because they really really like swapping bars, and felt threadless just had to be better. (Threadless is fine, of course, but only Crust is brave enough to make 1″ threadless bikes)
This is the problem with progress without thought. Yes, a threadless fork makes it easier to swap bars. But then there’s all these spacers, and if you cut the steerer tube so that you don’t have a serious stack of spacers above/below the stem, you then lose your ability to raise the bars any higher. And if you DON’T cut that tube and leave the stack of spacers above the stem (like I did with my LHT), then you’ll get the inevitable style police snarky comments about it. And as you remarked, you can lose something in ride quality.
When I got my Bantam I got a threaded steerer, because I liked the aesthetic quality and didn’t foresee swapping bars repeatedly. (And even with threadless swapping bars is not fun.) Right off the bat I got the “Why are you getting a custom-built bike with a threaded steerer…in 2015?” Back off, people. It’s my bike, not yours.
Wow, I love this post! If nothing else, at least James’ bike breaking inspired a sweet history of bikes (and bike shops) here! 🙂
I would look at the Bassi Hogsback. They are gaining popularity in the Northeast and are from Montreal. It’s like a 1980s bike with multiple brazeons with traditional horizontal top tube and can accommodate disc or caliper style brakes. Choices are out there.
Thanks for the tip.
And I agree that “choices are out there”, but they require much more looking for than say ten years ago, when I could easily create a list off the top of my head.
I ended up with my custom Rivendell in 2000, because I had hatched a desire to buy a “real” touring bike and could not find anything remotely resembling a touring bike in the bike shops where I live. (It was also, I promised my wife, the last bike I would ever buy, because it was so expensive. Apparently, I lied, but my intentions were good.) One of my subsequent purchases was a 1984 Trek 520. It’s an interesting beast – seemingly, to me at least, more of a racing than a touring bike. It has thin tubing and 27″ tires. There is not enough room for fenders. It more closely resembles the Bikecentennial touring bikes than what I think of as a touring bike, but it rides well, though I don’t ride it often.
It’s a shame that there is another lull in traditional touring bikes. They are robust and make almost as much sense as a commuter as an old three-speed. I think I’ll take the Rivendell on the Santa Fe Century this year, (and leave the vintage Raleigh at home this time around).
I know that the 2000 version of the 520 was definitely closer to what we now think of “touring bike” than 1984. While I say that the touring bike was perfected in the 1980’s, I don’t exactly mean 1980, it was more mid-decade and varied from manufacturer to manufacturer. I’m guessing that since Trek was a much smaller company back in the early-mid 80’s, they might be a bit more conservative when it came to touring bikes. I know that even at the height of touring bikes, about 1986, that companies were still using 27 inch wheels vs. 700C, which many road bikes had moved to. It wasn’t until the later 80’s when 700C wheels with canti brakes became pretty much standard on all touring bikes.