Rediscover The Joy

What this country needs is a good country bike.

(Words by Grant Petersen, reprinted by permission, pictures are of my

Rivendell A. Homer Hilsen)

"Road bike has come to mean a racing style bike, with minimal usefulness outside the peleton. Mountain bike has come to mean technological whiz-bang bike for the inner bad boy. City bike means cheap bike with tacky accessories wrapped up in a boring package.

Touring bike has been used before, and conjures up an image of loading up your bike and hitting the road. Touring can be fun, but it's a hard image to sell.

What hasn't been used is country bike. "Country" can mean lots of different things, from tree lined streets in the suburbs to un-maintained county roads to woods, forests and trails. Whatever "country" means to anybody, it's always just a little more pleasant than what you're used to, and more accessible and believable than racing, or mountains and high adventure.

A country bike....Should look like a road bike, soft, with curves, and nice proportions. The handlebars don't have to be drop bars, but they should have curves, because straight-bar bikes look severe and don't feel right.

Could be any old wheel size, but heck, let's nominate 650b (584mm) as the front runner. It lacks the gonzo history of 26 inch (559mm) and the go-fast image of 700c (622mm) It was developed for touring the country roads in France and that's the image we want. There's no weird baggage there, no performance history.

A country bike should be made for 32mm to 42mm tires. That's between modern road and mountain. It should fit these tires with fenders.

It should have brakes that can be released enough to make tire installation and removal easy, or at least not hard. Cantilevers and centerpulls are fine. We could use a sidepull or other style too, but except for some bmx models, nothing exists. (note: now, thanks to Grant, long reach, wider sidepull brakes do exist)

It should be ready for racks.

You should be able to get the handlebars at least 2 cm above the height of the saddle, without resorting to extreme retrofits. The bike should look right. I don't know if the industry as a whole is willing or able to go back to threaded steer tubes, but they continue to make sense, especially for a country bike.

If you're thinking, an old touring bike or pre-suspension mountain bike can do these things, just retrofit them with appropriate handlebars, you're right, but you can't launch a revolution with old soldiers like that. Without a new category, country bikes will stay nameless, and largely underground, with small numbers of bike riders making up their own bikes this way.

The category will make it happen in the mainstream, and that's what's needed to do the most good for everybody. When the volume can support it, we'll get new parts, better availability for everybody.

For the new category to happen, it will need the support of at least one big parts maker (guess who that'd be) and one manufacturer with volume and some vision. That's the tough part."

This is the Zimbale brand 11 liter saddlebag. Made of waterproof cotton canvas, with leather straps and reinforcements. It hangs on the loops of a Brooks saddle.