Touring Bike vs Gravel Bike | Which is best for bikepacking? 

Let me know which bike you'd have in the comments :)

Coolness is in the eye of the beholder. I think the touring bike here looks cooler than the gravel bike. I'm a sucker for steel lugged forks. I think they look so much better than the space-age looking carbon forks. I'm also a bit of a retro grouch, so I tend to favor more classic looking bikes over more modern looking bikes.

the best thing about touring bikes is the geometry! having a slightly longer wheelbase, which increases stability and means your heels won't strike panniers, and a more upright comfortable riding position is wonderful.

have had a Dawes Galaxy tourer for quite a few years and love it. Dont feel it’s heavy and has taken me through the Western Isles and Wester Ross/Skye and Moidart and various areas in France including over Mont Ventoux. It’s still going strong after all these years, and i think it looks pretty cool!

I have a touring bike with a flat bar and 55mm tyres, so actually wider than most Gravel bikes, so I would disagree that Gravel bikes have generally wider tyres, it strongly depends on the individual bike. My frame is from aluminium while my rigid fork is steel and has a rated capacity of 180kg. With chunky tyres I have taken the bike on the first 2000km of the Great Divide mountain bike route, while in the standard setup I have gone all over Germany (mostly to work), but also the UK and France and technically Switzerland. I would categorize your Dads bike as a (beautiful) Randoneuse, rather than a general touring bike. It is just one variety of the wide array which can be touring bikes, where I would say flat bars are more common. I do agree though on the downsize of classical panniers with aerodynamics and width, on the upside is the ease of mount and carrying capacity.

I have both. I'm not a strong neither fast cyclist, so i feel good with my heavy goofy Salsa Marrakesh (and 1990 Trek 520).

Your Dad's Bike ist a Randonneur... I use a mid 90's Rockhopper with 50 mm wide tyres as a touring bike. At the Moment I am in Corsica. Today I drove up a very rough and steep gravel road, with 20 kg of load .....

I have a 2016 model Australian designed Vivente World Randoneur which have the drop bars and Shimano Dura-ace bar-end shifters which I love, I'm very much a traditionalist but also love the Modern offerings too. These bikes as you say are definitely great for long distance touring but they are also one of the best bikes for around town Commuting, it has full mudguards, Hydraulic Disc brakes, Shimano hub Dyno and AXA light system included, side stand, front and rear Tubus racks and best of all, Schwalbe Marathon Tyres for Puncture resistant riding. It may not be as Light and nimble as a Gravel or roadbike but it feels solid and I'm not a light bloke. My Bike with all bags taken off weighs in a 14kg so I don't think they are too heavy and are about 10kgs lighter than a E-bike. I'd like to have both though, a Gravel and Touring bike and a MTB to really go bush.

Modern touring bikes have tended to change gain gravel features eg Cinelli EasyTravel: disc brakes, up to 44 mm tyres without mudguards,

If I’m totally honest I must do about 80% on road and 20% off. So I bought a Kona Sutra. I love it, it’s just a pleasure to ride. Loaded with full touring gear, loaded with a few days of bikepacking gear or just naked, it just delivers a pleasant comfortable ride.

My 1984 Claud Butler Dalesman is COOL and admired everywhere i go. Unique now in a world of identikit clone bikes.

I was convinced my Thorn Raven Sport Tour, now 14 years old, would be my last ever bike purchase. Then a mate temped me onto gravel and I made an impulse buy of a Decathlon Second Life RC120 GRVL - for under £400. What a revelation! I love it, but for any proper biking adventure, rather than a day's ride, I'd go with the practicality of the Thorn. It will do road and light trails happily. But the RC 120 is far more fun for a shorter blast. Horses for courses, and owning two is allowed. Luckily! I enjoyed your review of the two.

i have a marin four corners steel frame , 2.0 gravel tyres , 1x 10 deore , alt bars. pretty much does everything i want from it. around your neck of woods. Goole canal to Rawciffe Bridge to Snaith ( bacon butty at The Kitchen!) Carlton to Burn airfield. Selby canal then trans pennine trail to Howden then back to Goole. its about 35 mile loop which i enjoy but im 58 now so enough for me! great channel.

Great video, I'm currently looking for the perfect bike for me. And your video proofed me that I should go for a touring bike for 5 month tour through america

Own a gravel bike but i actually like the look of touring bikes... Surly and the Genesis Tour de Fer being my favourite.. Great comparison by the way.

My Gravel Bike has fixed paniers at the back (and fenders/lights/dynamo hub) plus mounting points for a low rider front panier set.

How the bike looks is very subjective. I agree 100% with you, but many people love touring bikes and we must respect thir opinion. Main reason I'd go for a gravel is the off road capabilities. Everything else is disputable. For road bikepacking, a disc road bike with 32mm tyres is good enough. Best regards,

Gearing and strength means it's my Claude Butler tourer every time for camping trips here in Scotland.

You are certainly a brave person to tackle a touring vs gravel comparison - and well done for the well-balanced discussion you gave. A hitch is that like gravel bikes, touring bikes have also ‘moved on’ - any hope of a comparison between up to date gravel and touring bikes that have similar features (eg wider tyres, lighter weight frames…)?

Great video, thanks for sharing 👌

I use my gravel bike for bikepacking and love it due to the versatility, lighter weight and speed. Some day I'll get my hands on a touring bike when I'm ready for that cross country trip but for now, I'll stick to my gravel bike.

You made a very interesting point about the width of panniers, do fork leg bags suffer the same issue? I’m trying to spec "likes" and "must haves" for a bike purchase and I had fork bolt points as a must but starting to wonder if it’s not so important.

My bike is an Idworx All Rohler. 5,5 cm tires. It takes me everwhere, offroad, gravel, tarmac.

I've been useing a kona sutra with 2.25 tyres on it a 3by 9 gear set up and it will take everything i give it.

I get more compliments on my 2016 Salsa Marrakesh than I have on all my other bikes combined.

My biggest regret was selling my Dawes Super Galaxy I used it every where and for commuting to the hospital I worked in. Great for carrying fresh wardrobe in for my on-call shifts. I’d happily have another. Even gravel bikes can be pretty much subdivided mines is a Pinarello so very much more race orientated but still easy to use for touring. Prior to having a gravel bike I was using both my carbon road bikes on gravel etc did the gear Glen Way on my Domane with road tyres😂. I still have a triple set MTB but I do like the simplicity of a 1x on my new MTB and Gravel bike and if you have the right set up they will go up anything. I think it doesn’t matter what you use to tour on I started on a Shopper bike as a teenager and I know folks who are still using Moulton etc to tour on and on rougher terrain. It’s all pretty subjective.

I have a Dawes Super Galaxy from the early 90’s. I wouldn’t swap it for the world it’s ultra reliable and is a great ride and yes I think it looks cool 😊

I have an old 90s Giant MTB that i picked up for €50 locally. It is a tad large for me, but as mentioned in the comments below, it does have a longer wheel base and is a lot more comfortable than my 90s Kona Lava Dome MTB (which has a 17" frame compared to the 20" frame of the Giant). I am thinking of converting the Giant to a daily communter-/touring. I do not have a car, so i would like to load it with front and rear racks, it is only the frame size that is putting me off.

I've had a steel frame break as it happens. It cracked on underside of downtube about 5cm down from headtube. 😕Pretty sure rust was part of the issue there. Never been convinced by the 'you can repair steel anywhere' argument. Building and also repairing modern thin walled steel bikes is a really skilled job and if you are in the back of beyond even finding a welder will be a challenge. Carbon ironically is the material you are most likely to be able to fix yourself. After all, it's just fancy fibre glass with a much fancier price. 😁So you can carry carbon repair kits with you. We passed each other the other day as it happens Tom. On the river bike path by Meadowhall. Didn't twigg until after we'd passed, I was a bit tired at that point. Otherwise I'd have waved/said hello. I'm guessing you were coming from your folk's house whilst I was just heading back home which is just up the hill from their place. None of my various bikes [CX, HT, FS] have any kind of rack mounting, Yet I could carry more than I personally would ever need with zero problems, due to clever modern luggage designs. A mix of Tailfin, Ortlieb and Alpkit. Which I can upgrade to carry panniers, should I want to. Also modern bikepacking bikes have even more clever carrying features than an old skool tourer these days. I think a long tail hard tail bike would be my choice for an epic round the world trip. Something like an Esker Hayduke LVS. See here - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RmhuybBsTvI.html On and my Crud rear mudguard fits nicely under my Tailfin Aero pack.

Totally disagree, some touring bikes look very cool (including your dads)

Or a touring MTB? I have a Genesis Longitude that can go anywhere!!! Also got a Genesis Tour de Fer which manages most places the Longitude can go until the mudguards jam up with mud!

Thank you.

Aero while you have a big pack mounted to your handlebars and panniers at the back. Good luck with that.

Just a comment..you CAN fit wider tyres in the Surly Disc Trucker . Fatties Fit Fine..says so on the forks 😂

You say a touring bike isn't capable off road, but the Rough Stuff fellowship crossed Iceland in the 50's on them. Maybe kids are softer today...

If you,re over 90kgs, get a tourer for all your rides. They're made to take the weight, aluminium is rubbish in my experience.

I'm with a lot of comments here, a touring bike is far from being ugly and the weight is obviously a matter of parts being put on, including the fenders which limit the tire size. If you take them off tire clearance is pretty much on par with the gravel bike. Oh and the material, steel being heavy? Who taught you that? A carbon frame is most probably lighter, an alloy frame not really. But IMHO they just don't look as good as a slick steel frame. And companies today stick to that as well, just look at Surly, very timeless classy gravel bikes made of steel

Which brompton bike belongs to?

Seems like every time I hear about someone going to exotic places on a bike for long distance excursions, it turns out their bike is a Surly Long Haul Trucker. I just checked and they handle 700C X 45mm tires. I do not own one nor do I work for them.

To me, the touring bike in the Video looks more like a gravel/road bike than a touring bike. Touring bikes usually come with different bar type and small suspensions in front plus dynamo lights

I’ve done quite a bit of gravel, including bits of the Highland Trail 550 on my touring bike, a 26 inch wheel Thorn. Steel is so comfortable. There have been days when I would have appreciated suspension but I disagree with your final comment about everyday use. Everyday is what I use my touring bike for. Tesco. Day rides. Training days. Then fly on the carbon Roubaix after the hard preparation work on my heavy metal Thorn.

i thought bikepacking and biketouring are 2 different disciplines?

Once you load up your bike with all your kit the difference in weight between carbon and steel is meaningless because you need to think in terms of system weight ie rider, bike and gear weight added together. 1kg might represent just 1% difference. It needs to be said though that today's sophisticated steels may not be easily welded by an African village blacksmith.

It's pretty comical that the words 'aero' and 'faster' are applied to choosing one bicycle type over another. A person upon a bicycle is about as aerodynamic as a block of flats. Add luggage, and you've got a heavier block of flats. Ffs.

Looking at bike theft, maybe it is a good idea not to have a bike that looks "cool"

whaaaat? gravel bike has wider tire than touring bike? absolutely not true even touring bike in your video has sticker fatties fit fine just depends what kind of frame it is and touring bike not suitable for bad roads? come on ,what fits better,sturdy frame or carbon frame made to load couple of chocolates?

mountain bike is the all around bike...gravel bike is just a fad....LOL