What’s The Best Touring Bike? (Updated 2024 Edition) (2024)

Touring bike buying advice is a popular topic, so I update this post regularly to keep the details current. If you find any out-of-date information, consider leaving a comment to let me know. Thanks!

Choosing a new touring bike can be pretty stressful for a newcomer to cycle touring – especially when you start looking at the pricetags.

So it’s no surprise the most common question I’ve been asked in 18 years of running this blog is some version of the following:

“Help! What’s the best touring bike for my upcoming cycletour?”

It’s a perfectly understandable question to ask, because there are a lot of options out there – but answering it calls for a bit of context.

Your choice of touring bike should be mainly informed not by online reviews or paid-for content by sponsored bloggers, but by the kind of tour you’re planning, your unique physiology, your riding preferences as a touring cyclist, and – an oft-forgotten factor – what bikes are geographically available toyou.

So the “best touring bike” for a young Brit planning a low-budget tour in Europe would be totally different to the “best touring bike” for an experienced American planning a once-in-a-lifetime, multi-year adventure from Prudhoe Bay to Tierra delFuego.

Similarly, the best bike for a rider measuring 5 feet (152cm) tall, who also has reduced neck mobility, would be different to the best bike for a fitness enthusiast trying to win a bikepacking race like the Tour Divide.

And if you ask fellow cycle tourers on forums like Reddit what they think is the best touring bike, the answers will inevitably reflect what’s worked best for them, not what’ll work best foryou.

(Yes, I am a fellow cycle tourer, but I’m not just going to tell you what touring bike I ride, any more than I’m going to tell you what colour pants I’m wearing!)

Simply put, there are diverse answers to the question of what is the “best touring bike”.

Luckily, touring bicycles are a mature product with decades of heritage. And despite the the confusion created by the rise of bikepacking as an industry buzz-word, there are still plenty of good commercial touring bikes on the market today. These are bikes that have been designed to meet the needs of a broad range of touring cyclists, and are readily available through local bike shops and dealership networks around theworld.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at the best of them. The list below showcases some of the most time-proven touring bikes being made and sold in 2024, across the full spectrum of budgets, as well as a few lesser-known models to demonstrate what touring bikes for riders with specialist requirements might looklike.

Perhaps you’ll find your perfect touring bike here. Perhaps you’ll realise you’re looking for something else altogether. Or perhaps you’ll find something more interesting to read among everything else I’ve written about cycle touring and bikepacking.

This is not an exhaustive list of every single touring bike on the market.

I’m a veteran bicycle traveller with 18 years of real-world experience, and my goal is to help you make the right choice, not to churn out AI-written spam to get on the front page of Google and generate affiliate commission.

My hope is to give you a taste of the diversity of touring bikes available today, rather than overwhelming you with unexplained jargon and things to click on. The journey of buying a new touring bike is not a short one. Reading this post will just be the beginning!

The list of touring bikes below is arranged in ascending price order. I’ve mentioned the worldwide availability of each bike, roughly speaking, and the manufacturer-suggested retail price (MSRP, aka: RRP or list price) in £/€/$ as applicable.

(Many good touring bikes previously on this list have been discontinued, including the Adventure Flat White, Dawes Galaxy, Revolution Country Traveller, and Surly Long Haul Trucker, to name just a few. That’s life!)

Cube Touring

Summary: Feature-rich flat-bar trekking bike
Availability: Worldwide
List Price: £800 / €730 / US$760 / CA$1,090

The entry-level touring bike from the major German bike maker Cube is the affordable and simply-named Cube Touring. The basic model in this extensive range is currently one of the cheapest off-the-peg touring bikes on the market, and is widely distributed across Europe and North America.

If you’re used to the appearance of British or American designed tourers, you’ll notice some big differences, such as the flat handlebars and adjustable stem, the resulting upright riding posture, and the front suspension fork, as well as other details like a kickstand, a hub dynamo, and LED lights as standard. These are all fairly typical features of touring bikes from German and Dutch makers, where utility and comfort takes precedence.

To cater for a diverse customer base, the Cube Touring range comes in several frame variations and sizes, including the classic diamond frame (5 sizes), women’s specific with a sloping top-tube (3 sizes) and a step-through frame for riders with impaired mobility (3 sizes), all in a choice of two colour schemes.

The ‘semi-integrated’ rear rack, which is held in position by the mudguard/fender, is unorthodox, and the seat stays and front fork don’t have standard mounting points, complicating any modifications to the bike’s luggage-carrying capabilities. Riders looking for an entry-level touring bike that can be upgraded in the future may also decide to pass on the Cube Touring for these reasons.

The rest of the specification is impressive at this price. The entry-level Shimano V‑brakes and drivetrain components are sensible. As with any bike, you’ll want to fit your own preferred saddle, but the inclusion of ergonomic grips, lights, fenders and a kick-stand makes the Touring more or less ready to hit the road right out of thebox.

All that said, the bike’s strongest selling point is the price. The recent disappearance of several popular entry-level touring bikes has left a gap at this end of the market – one that the Cube Touring happily fills.

• Check out the full Cube Touring range on the Cube website.
• Find your local dealer in Cube’s online directories of stockists in the UK and Europe, the USA, and Canada.
• Don’t buy this bike online. Support your local bike shop (UK list)!

Decathlon Riverside Touring 520

Summary: Good value forward-thinking light tourer
Availability: UK, Europe, Australia
List Price: £800 / €800 / AUD1,800

There’s no denying the success of Decathlon’s no-frills approach to designing, manufacturing and selling sports and outdoor gear. The Riverside Touring 520 is the entry-level model among Decathlon’s touring bikes, and for many riders will be a welcome addition to the sparse options at this lower-budget end of the market.

The Riverside Touring 520 is based on an aluminium frame, whose geometry sits somewhere between the old-school rigid mountain bike and today’s trendy gravel/hybrid rides. The frameset sports a big range of mounting points for more or less any luggage configuration you might imagine, including a front lowrider or fork cages, a traditional rear carrier rack should the semi-integrated stock rack not be to your tastes, and no less than five bottle cages.

The riding position of the Riverside Touring leans towards relaxed and upright, with the sloping top-tube helping with mounting and dismounting, and flat bars with so-called ergonomic grips and bar-ends atop a stack of head-tube spacers, all pointing to a bike designed with the casual or newcomer rider in mind. Comfortably wide 1.75″ tyres will be equally content on asphalt and gravel at the 700C (28″) wheel diameter.

Looking at component choice, Decathlon have specified a 1×11 drivetrain (ie: a single front chainring driving an 11-sprocket rear cassette); unusual on a tourer where riders tend to benefit from a wide and fine-grained range of gear ratios. The hydraulic disc brakes are also an unorthodox choice for a touring bike.

Both will annoy traditionalists, especially with the reduced choice of gear ratios and the near-impossibility of repairing hydraulics on the roadside. But a quick scan of the many customer reviews of this bike suggest that these concerns are academic. In the regions of the world this bike is likely to be used, spares and repairs for this bike will be abundant. And if you want to take it further afield, you can always fit cable disc brakes and/or a regular drivetrain.

Certainly one of this bike’s great strengths is how widely available it is for test-riding, Decathlon having hundreds of locations across the UK, Europe, Australia, and increasingly further afield, including Turkey, India, China, and the list goes on. Indeed, I can easily imagine a first-time tourer with a reasonable gear budget walking out of the store with not just the bike but a full set of luggage and maybe some camping geartoo.

There are only four frame size options, however. Taken together with the wheel size, this may prevent those with short body lengths from finding a good match with the Riverside Touring 520.

In summary, while Decathlon have leaned pretty far into the crossover between classic touring and the gravel bike trend, there’s little to find fault with at this price – and there’s considerably more scope for upgrades here than other entry-level touring bikes in thislist.

• Buy the Riverside Touring 520 in the UK from Decathlon.
• The bike is also available from Decathlon branches across Europe, Australia, and beyond.

Fuji Touring LTD/Disc LTD

Summary: Sporty steel-framed light road tourers
Availability: UK/Europe/USA
List Price: €1,000/1,500

Japanese manufacturer Fuji’s entry-level touring bikes are the Fuji Touring LTD and Disc LTD. The cheaper Touring LTD is the flat-bar model with rim brakes, while the Touring Disc LTD features drop bars and cable-actuated disc brakes with integrated shifter/brake levers.

They’re both built on a Reynolds 520 cromoly steel frameset, with classic touring geometry and all the usual mounting points. Both bikes feature 36-spoke 700C wheels on Shimano hubs, and mudguards/fenders and a reasonably solid rear rack as standard, but no front rack or lowrider (you can of course add onelater).

The Touring LTD has a Shimano Alivio V‑brakes and a 3×9‑speed chainset from the midrange of Shimano’s mountain-bike series of components, while the Touring Disc LTD has a 3×9‑speed Shimano Sora chainset with slightly higher gear ratios, making it more oriented towards lighter-weight road rides, as well as the ubiquitous TRP Spyre cable-actuated disc brakes found on so many touring bikes. For the extra money, the Disc LTD has a generator (dynamo) hub built into the front wheel which is already hooked up to the integrated front headlight – a nicetouch.

The Fuji Touring LTD and Disc LTD come in no fewer than seven frame sizes, allowing precise fitting and fewer compromises for short or tall riders.

In summary, both models represent high ambitions in a good-value package aimed at a rider who wants a classic, no-fuss steel-framed touring bike, with the Disc being the sportier and more road-oriented of thetwo.

• Find a list of global dealers on the official Fuji website.
• Don’t buy this bike online. Support your local bike shop (UK list)!

Ridgeback Expedition

Summary: Beefy yet comfortable long-haul all-rounder
Availability: UK
List Price: £1,350

Launched in2014, tweaked in the years since and now thoroughly tested on longer trips, the Ridgeback Expeditionisa strong contender for best value expedition touring bike on the market.

The current model shares design principles with many more expensive touring bikes designed specifically for worldwide expeditions beyond the developed world: wide-range 3×9‑speed mountain bike gearing, chunky 26-inch wheels, and a comfortable upright riding position. Unusually for a British tourer, it comes with flat bars and bar-end grips for a variety of hand positions. Cable disc brakes are now fitted as standard (the first incarnation had drop bars and V‑brakes).

The Ridgeback-branded integrated grips and bar-ends are modelled on the very popular but expensive Ergon range. The latest version of the Ridgeback Expedition also sees a brazed-on kickstand mounting plate added to the non-drive-side chainstay (though not an actual kickstand).

In many ways, as well as being excellent value for money, the Ridgeback Expedition is one of the most full-featured off-the-peg bikes in this list for extremely demanding trips where comfort and durability over time are paramount. Upgrade the rear rack, add a front lowrider and your favourite saddle, and you’ll be ready for the most remote of the planet’s backroads.

• Read my full review of the legacy 2014 Ridgeback Expedition here, and check the comments for feedback from long-haul riders.
• Like the rest of Ridgeback’s range, the Expedition should be available from any authorised Ridgeback dealer.
• Don’t buy this bike online. Support your local bike shop (UK list)!

Ridgeback Panorama

Summary: Classic British fully loaded drop-bar tourer
Availability: UK
List Price: £1,600

The Ridgeback Panoramais a British-designed, Reynolds 725 cromoly-framed, disc brake-equipped, classic touring bike with a durable selection of 3×9sp drivetrain components from both road- and mountain-biking ranges.

Its road-oriented frameset is prime for being built up into a fully-loaded, long-haul, asphalt touring machine. Both a front lowrider and a rear rack are fitted as standard – Tubus lookalikes, not the genuine articles, but still a welcome addition for fully-loaded riders who are just getting started.

Potential weak points on the Panorama include the integrated shifters/brake levers, which break away from the principle of separating possible points of failure (although you could theoretically swap them out for bar-end or even downtube shifters). The wheelset components are also nothing to write home about; get the spokes re-tensioned before taking this bike on a long-haul tour.

In spite of these question marks, the Panorama has been around for a long time and is very much tried and tested:, after which they completed their round-the-world trip on the samebikes.

• The Ridgeback Panorama is available from these authorised UK dealers.
• Don’t buy this bike online. Support your local bike shop (UK list)!

Surly Disc Trucker

Summary: Customisable road/gravel adventure bike
Availability: Worldwide
List Price: £1,600 / US$2,050 / CA$2,800

Back in 2012, when the jury was still out on disc brakes as a reliable choice for long-distance touring, Surly produced a disc-specific version of their legendary Long Haul Trucker touring bike, cunningly naming it the Disc Trucker. It has since evolved into one of the most versatile and tried-and-tested touring/adventure bikes on the planet.

The Disc Trucker platform had a major update in 2020, about which more detail on the Surly blog. Wheel diameter now complements frame size, ie: bigger wheels suit taller riders and the vice-versa, for a total of eleven frame/wheel size combinations. If, having tried all the Disc Truckers for size, you still can’t find a good fit, you should probably visit a bespoke framebuilder.

The frame geometry is tight and nimble, with integrated gear/brake levers adding to the sporty vibe. This lack of mechanical separation won’t please everyone, but will certainly please riders looking for a performance boost over the uncompromising solidity often seen in the expedition bikeniche.

Similarly to the Kona Sutra (see below), the latest Disc Trucker has bolt-through axles, clearance for fatter tyres, and versatility improvements such as multiple fork mounts for fenders, cages or lowriders, to match the kind of wilder, mixed-terrain rides for which the Disc Trucker is increasingly used.

As ever with Surly, racks and mudguards remain excluded, the intention being for you to fit your own according to yourneeds.

The garish fluoro-yellow paint option of the current Disc Trucker won’t be for everyone, but Surly tell us that it’s also available in hi-viz black.

• Click here to read my full review of the legacy 2014 Disc Trucker.
• To find a place to test-ride one, start with Surly’s global dealer locator.
• Don’t buy this bike online. Support your local bike shop (UK list)!

Kona Sutra

Summary: Adaptable, performance-oriented road/gravel tourer
Availability: Worldwide
List Price: $2,100 / £1,900

Canada-based bike manufacturer Kona have long inhabited the left-of-centre in cycling. The Sutra range, too, is progressively-minded, being one of the first mainstream touring bikes to switch to disc brakes back in the early2010s.

Since then, Kona have adopted the stiffer and stronger bolt-through axle standard (another first amongst bikes in this list), and tightened up the frame geometry to produce a nimble and sporty cyclocross-inspired steel frameset which remains a touring bike at itscore.

In 2022, Kona diversified the platform into several models, including the LTD and SE. The standard Sutra went in a more lightweight direction than in previous years, switching to a road drivetrain and cable-actuated hydraulic disc brakes. Today, this performance-oriented version of the Sutra remains Kona’s ‘modern take on the classic touring bike’ (in their own words), with a Shimano GRX 2×10-speed road-bike gearing, drop bars with integrated shifter/brake levers, mixed-terrain Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tyres, and a Brooks B17 saddle and Brooks bar-tape as standard. This all points to the blend of on-road and off-road use increasingly preferred by riders going on shorter, wilder adventures.

The 2024 Sutra’s luggage-carrying capabilities are diverse and adaptable. For those wanting to use the bike as a fully-loaded world tourer, standard rack mounts are provided on the seatstays and rear dropouts, suitable for fitting any standard pannier rack (perhaps a Tubus Cargo or Logo to match the Tara front low-rider already fitted). For those wanting to stay nimble, frame and fork mounts exist for more or less any combination of bolt-on cages and harnesses.

The Kona Sutra comes in six fine-grained frame sizes. This year’s paint colour is Satin Midnight with bronze gloss decals, in case you were wondering.

• I’ve been riding a Kona Sutra myself since 2012 and I love it.Read my original long-term review of the legacy model here.
• The Kona website has a handylist of worldwide dealers so you can find a place to test-ride theSutra.
• Don’t buy this bike online. Support your local bike shop (UK list)!

Oxford Bike Works Expedition

Summary: Bespoke, round-the-world expedition bike
Availability: UK & Worldwide
List Price: from £2,789

Originally a one-off “ultimate expedition bike” built to my exact specification, Oxford Bike Works have been refining and custom-building bespoke Expeditions to order since 2015 from their workshop in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Many have now circled the globe. It’s not cheap, but you get what you payfor.

As standard, each bike features a hand-built Reynolds 525 cromoly steel frame, a choice of 26″ or 700C hand-built wheels, top-end Tubus racks, rim or disc brake options, Microshift thumbshifters, and tons of other expedition-specific touches.

From a baseline specification, each bike is custom-built to the rider’s exact needs and preferences after an in-person consultation and fitting session at their workshop. While most of their customers are from the UK, they will also ship finished bikes elsewhere in the world in special cases.

Oxford Bike Works have now moved all frame production to the UK, both minimising their carbon footprint and allowing even more individual tailoring – especially attractive for riders with diverse physiologies who may find that the commercial bikes in this list don’t cater well for theirneeds.

• Check out the full specifications of the Oxford Bike Works Expedition.
• Read my 10,000-word epic, How To Build The Ultimate Round-The-World Expedition Touring Bike (With Pictures), which details every design decision that went into thisbike.
• Don’t buy this bike online (you can’t anyway). Support your local bike shop (UK list)!

Yet More Rider-Recommended Touring Bikes

This is not an exhaustive list, because if it was we’d be here all day. But the following bikes have also been recommended by readers of this blog over the years since I first published this post. All have also proven themselves capable touring bikes over time andmiles:

• Bombtrack Arise Tour (Germany & Worldwide)
• Cinelli HoBootleg (Italy & Worldwide)
• Fahrradmanufaktur TX-800 (Germany)
• Genesis Tour De Fer (UK)
• KHS TR 101 (USA)
• Temple Cycles Adventure Disc3
• Vivente World Randonneur (Australia)

…and you’ll find even more options in my massive list of heavy-duty expedition touring bikes available worldwide.

Remember: don’t buy a touring bike online. Support your local bike shop (UK list) and have your bike chosen, fitted and customised by an expert whose job depends on getting it just right, just foryou!

Bonus: The Secret To Actually Choosing The Right Touring Bike

Finally, I’m going to tell you a secret.

It’s something other cycle touring bloggers won’t tell you, because they’d prefer you to click on their affilliate links, buy a bike online, and earn them commission.

If you’re having trouble choosing between the touring bikes listed above, the reason is probably because – on paper – they are basically all the same.

They all cost several hundred pounds/dollars/euros. Most of them have steel touring-specific frames, wide gearing, relaxed riding positions, a pannier rack and extra mounts, and drivetrains from the middle of Shimano’s mountain-bike or road-bike ranges.They’re all built primarily for paved roads, but could handle a dirt track or gravel road if need be. They all have two wheels, handlebars, and a saddle.

So how should you choose between them?

The answer is actually very simple.

Visit a touring bike specialist (UK list) and take a few bikes for a testride.

In doing so, you will discover that the “best touring bike” is the one that’s available in your area and has been set up for you by a touring bike specialist who’s taken the time to understand yourneeds.

I’ve written a longer post about what to do when you get to this stage of the touring bike buying process, when you’ve got a shortlist of bikes you found online but you’re struggling to choose between them.

And if what I’ve shared with you here still isn’t enough, you can check out even more deep-dive posts about detailed aspects of touring bike choice, including

• three critical questions you should ask at the start of the touring bike buying process,
• a discussion about what exactly defines a touring bike,
• my take on what’s really going on when you can’t decide between two bikes,
• a hugely in-depth article on how to custom-build your own expedition bike,
• a summary of the debate over disc brakes versus rim brakes,

and more on my absolutely massive advice and planning page.

Because of all the things you’ll buy for a cycle tour, the bike is the one purchase you really can’t afford to getwrong.

Bogged down in research for your next big bicycle adventure?

I wrote a whole book to help with that. How To Hit The Road is designed to be read at your leisure, making planning a bike tour simple and achievable, no matter the length, duration or budget. Available globally as an ebook or paperback.

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