Mountain Bicycles Made For Bike Touring Around The World
December 7, 2009 by Darren Alff
The following is a list of touring bikes with 26 inch wheels.
The biggest advantage of a touring bike with 26″ wheels vs. 700c wheels is that 26 inch wheels are easier to repair and find replacement parts for no matter where you are in the world. 700c wheels can typically only be found in North America, Europe, and other large cities around the world.
Additionally, 26″ wheels are typically wider than 700c wheels and therefore handle off-road conditions much better than a traditional touring bike. For this reason, 26 inch wheeled touring bikes are often the choice of bicycle travelers who are cycling around the world and through a diverse range of road conditions.
You can get more information about each of these bicycles on their corresponding company websites or by reading about them in greater detail inside ” The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles.”
The touring bikes shown below have been listed in alphabetical order according to their manufacturer. Some of these bicycles can be ordered with either 700c or 26″ wheels.
Bilenky
Hedgehog – www.bilenky.com
Midlands – www.bilenky.com
Nor’Easter – www.bilenky.com
Tourlite 26″ – www.bilenky.com
Bruce Gordon
BLT-X – www.bgcycles.com
Co-Motion
Pangea – www.co-motion.com
Koga-Miyata
WorldTraveller – www.koga.com
Kross
Navigo – www.kross.pl
Novara
Safari – www.rei.com
Important Notice:
This page is no longer being updated. To see more touring bicycles, please click here.
To view more than 200 different touring bicycles and learn how to select the right touring bicycle for you, please see: The Essential Guide To Touring Bicycles.
Have I missed any? I’m sure I have!
If you know of a 26 inch wheeled bicycle made specifically for touring that you think should be on this list, please leave a comment below with the name of the company, the bike model, and a link to the appropriate website. The bike should be a complete bicycle with wheels, components, and front and rear braze-ons for the placement of racks and panniers.
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Lots of really nice rides here! The R&M Intercontinental is my dream bike…and costs as much as a low-end motorcycle. I do know that the R&M (as well as, Tout Terrain, Surly, etc.) are available in frame-only kits…if one wanted to build the ultimate touring bike from scratch. As far as I know, the R&M Inter & TT Panamericana are the only touring bikes that have full-suspension + disc brakes (optional) + Rohloff 14-speed hub (optional) These features put these bikes into very exclusive category with the high price to match…
Re: Gunnar Rock Tour (Front Rack)…There’s several companies (OMM, Tubus, Axiom) that make front racks for most suspension forks. (usually mount to the axle & brake bosses)
thorn raven tour get ny thumbs up – mine has clocked over 6 years of happy rides all over the globe and still going string – touch wood. adding the drop handle bars makes a difference to comfort…
I think you should add those since they are some of the best touring bicycles on the market:
http://www.rando-cycles.fr/globetrotter.html
http://www.rando-cycles.fr/camper.html
http://www.rando-cycles.fr/basic.html
I think you should add the important German manufacturer VELOTRAUM. They are also specialized for touring bikes.
http://www.velotraum.de
Roberts Cycles of Croydon in the UK there bike named roughstuff
is a suberb touring bike built to your own requiremeants I have this model with a Rohloff great stuff also Josie Dew the travel writer rides a roughstuff.
Brian.
You asked about Rodcycle. Presumably you mean Rodriguez. Yes, they have a 26-inch wheel touring bike, the Rodriguez W2 – UTB (Ultimate Travel Bike), comes stock with S&S couplers, though they can also build a 26-inch wheel bike without the couplers.
Hey Darren. Nice list, but you forgot the Santos TravelMaster, many times voted bike of the year and the 26″ version (available in Alu & ChroMo), i sthe most popular.
More importantly, it has carried us to Colombia from Alaska (and counting..), 14k km without any problems!
See http://worldonabike.com/our-gear/our-bikes-santos-travelmaster-with-rohloff-gearhub/
Also, James Bowthorpe on the new beltdrive version has just broke the around the world record..
Cheers, Harry
[...] 26 Inch Touring Bicycles Built For World Travel [...]
http://www.kross.eu is proper adress for non-polish speaking people and to find Navigo follow BIKES -> Bikes 2008 -> Trekking
trek 520 can it be fitted with 26in wheels this will be my first touring bike
trek 520 is it a good bike for asia [first touring bike] can it be fitted with 26in wheels leaving in march so time and living in australia limits me to what i can buy
Would have been nice to see my bike. The Roberts Roughstuff. Built by Roberts Cycles of London
I think you missed the Rivendell atlantis.
Check out http://velotraum.de/system/velotraum-konzept they make some very cool 26″ tourers.
I was at the new Performance Bicycle store, in NW Portland, OR on Alder Street and 19th, picking up Access PBS Toesties, Access PBS Earband, Clear Rain Jacket, Third Eye Mirror, and a few bicycle maintenance tools for my upcoming bicycle tour.
I was really favorably impressed by the excellent value for the price of the 26″ GT Traffic 1.0 set up with road touring geometry, braze ons for panniers and “stealth camping” colors. The disc brakes are out of the way. The handlebar stem and seat post stem require a special fastener tool, provided with the bicycle. Schwalbe tires mounted up. http://www.gtbicycles.com/us/eng/Bikes/Road/Fitness-Commuter/Details/6017-G10TRAF1-Traffic-1.0
Of course, I started my road touring with a Centurion Pro Tour modified with Columbus oval fork, fork crown and steerer tube fabricated by Fred Merz, Portland, OR.
My idea of a touring bike is a road model with “touring geometry”.
Does this under $800 USD bicycle rate your list?
Note to self: Add the Jango 26 inch http://us.jango-bike.com/products/6.1/Touring
This is my favorite that I pulled up on my touring bike searches;
Sakkit Touring bikes
http://www.robertbeckmandesigns.com/
they redefine touring, look at the specs – they are amazing.
The Rodriguez W2 UTB (Ultimate Travel Bike) comes with 26-inch wheels. It is an amazingly rugged, incredibly comfortable bike, and well designed for traveling and touring.
http://www.rodcycle.com/
[...] list of 26 Inch wheeled touring bicycles can be found here. AKPC_IDS += [...]
[...] 26-inch-wheel touring bikes from Bicycle Touring Pro [...]
The Koga-Miyata is my kind of touring bike, fully equipped, it shows from the photo alone. I could just imagine all the stuff I could carry using that one. I could probably go a thousand miles without refilling supplies.
The 58, 60, and 62 cm frames of the 2010 surly long-haul trucker can fit both 700c and 26 inch wheels, perhaps allowing the best of both worlds, depending on where, exactly, you want to travel. Not sure about previous years.
[...] 26-inch-wheel touring bikes from Bicycle Touring Pro [...]
I am presently in final stages of preparing to ride from Whitehorse in the Yukon to Ushuaia Argentina – 26,000 km tour. The bike I have chosen is a 26″ Surly Long Haul Trucker. It has bar end shifters that convert to friction if indexing fails and all steel frame and racks.
Came across this site while surfing. Thought I should send a photo of the Rodriguez W2 (Willie Weir) UTB for inclusion. I noticed that a few folks asked about the bike. We’ve been building it since 1996, and it has really evolved into a lightweight, rugged, affordable 26″ wheel custom bike. It’s one of our best sellers.
Thanks
[img]http://bicycletouringpro.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/w2_big.jpg[/img]