These numbers are relative: a bike with an 18-inch gear will climb 10% slower than a 20-inch gear, which means you’ll either find the same hill easier – or you can use to this mechanical advantage to comfortably ride up steeper gradients.

All you really need to know is that lower is always better, and ideally, your touring bike will have something around 20-inches in the smallest gear for on-road, and less for off-road road. With this information, we can compare bikes with different wheel sizes and drivetrain setups.

This is the diameter of the wheel, times the size of the front chainring and divided by the size of the rear cog. Bike designers often don’t travel themselves, so they don’t understand that we are climbing all kinds of gradients with a tonne of equipment… and maybe a few days of food too! Today, we’ll be comparing touring bike using gear inches. I wish I didn’t have to talk about gear ratios so much, but all too often I find that touring bikes are under-geared. Everything I’ve picked is stable, upright and has the appropriate steering speed for the handlebar type. I have carefully assessed the frame geometries for each of these bikes to see whether they are suitable for the intended use. If you want a cheaper bike, I recommending getting an older version of these bikes second-hand… Some people will argue that the bikes I’ve selected are not cheap enough, but it’s my experience that you get great performance and reliability through investing a bit more in your touring bike, especially if you’re planning on using it long-term. Even if you don’t like my bike choices, you will be able to apply this information to any touring bike you’re looking to buy. Today, we’ll be going through all of my picks, and I’ll be using as many data points as possible to justify why I picked them. You can get a copy of my book which teaches you all the ins-and-outs of touring bikes, comparing over 160 bikes, right HERE. I have gone through my 2020 Touring Bicycle Buyer’s Guide and picked out all of the bikes that stand out to me.

But with Summer soon arriving for many of you, I think you will really appreciate the best touring bikes for 2020! It’s a bit late in the season for picking the best touring bikes for 2020.

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