On Dec 22, 2009, at 8:36 PM, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > I've long thought that bike touring should be a broader, more > inclusive term, not limited to multi-month expeditions with 100 lbs of > extreme survival gear on the bike. I'd go a step further and include > my usual non-competitive day rides with no overnight component in the > "touring" category.
I agree that the definition of "touring" in the US tends to be extremified and implies round the world, across the country, etc. type rides. A touring ride is any ride where your goal is to go somewhere and see the place (versus riding to work where the intent is to get to work, or racing where the intent is to win, or brevets where the intent is to complete a specified ride within a time frame, etc.). It doesn't even have to be a ride in unfamiliar territory. My personal definition of a "tour" would be a ride that includes sleeping away from home with the intent of exploring some place and learning something about it. Grant's notion of an S24O certainly falls into that category IMHO. I've done a grand total of two tours by that definition and had a *wonderful* time on both. Definitely want to do more. http://www2.bitstream.net/~timmcn/tour2000.html http://www2.bitstream.net/~timmcn/alps2002-1.html Recently I scored a few "Cycing" weeklies from the late 30s and early 40s and a lot of the touring they talk about are rides of 2-3 days at most, with a few things in a saddlebag and staying in hostels and B&Bs. The kind of touring I would find appealing, actually, rather than riding a two wheeled Winnebago around the world. Modest scope in terms of mileage, large scope in terms of experience. > Anyway, I imagine that Grant figured the "touring > bike" market was limited by the narrow connotations of touring, so he > advocated a more accessible thing (S24O) people can do with the > touring bikes and gear he is trying to sell. ACA also stands to gain > from expanding the definition of bike touring, and it's good that they > publish stuff like this. I'm sure that's true, too. The market of people who want to ride 3,000 miles in a month is probably fairly small. The people who'd ride 40 miles to another town, stay overnight, and come home is probably larger. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bu...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
