Can someone explain the difference between cargo, utility, and light-touring bikes?

[d.vader123]

As far as I can see all three types use low gearing, fenders, racks, lights, are made of steel, and can handle a load.

Bikes labeled utility, cargo, and light-touring all look the same in terms of geometry.

Looking forward to your bike wisdom.

Thanks.

[tannhauser]

They're terms that overlap a lot and different manufacturers can use the same term but the bikes look entirely different.

What do you want your bike to do?

[NHAero]

I have a cargo bike and a touring bike. The touring bike weighs perhaps 21-22 pounds with light wheels and no racks, has 700C wheels that I can put skinny tires or ones up to at least 38mm. It has capability for front and rear racks and plenty of fender clearance.

The cargo bike (Surly Big Dummy) weighs about 40 pounds or so, has humongous carrying capacity (like another person, or a box with a bike in it, or a wheel or two from my car). What distinguishes it from the touring bike is that it is way more heavy duty, frame, racks, wheels (26" with Rhynolite rims and Phil Wood rear hub, SON front hub) and can carry much more weight and much larger objects.

I like 'em both a lot.

As far as I can see all three types use low gearing, fenders, racks, lights, are made of steel, and can handle a load.

Bikes labeled utility, cargo, and light-touring all look the same in terms of geometry.

Looking forward to your bike wisdom.

Thanks.

[eddief]

but here are some examples:

http://www.ecovelo.info/

[Kontact]

Touring and especially light touring bikes should have frames built for not just attaching luggage but riding nice over long distances.

Utility and cargo bikes have frames that needn't do anything but hold the components and cargo in place without breaking. You'd probably regret riding 80 miles a day for a week on one.

[slowpoke]

eddief's ecovelo link has some nice examples, but these are my attempts/definitions:

Light-touring -- randonneur/audax, or think of the sports-tourers of the 80s where you had fender mounts and maybe a rack mount as well. Gets you far in comfort without too much loss in speed.

Utility -- no clue.. "Dutch bike" style, maybe? Full fenders with a skirt guard, chain guard, heavy as ???? and not really practical to carry up a flight of stairs.

Cargo -- this is actually the most interesting category because it's just about carrying a lot of stuff, and people have interpreted it differently. There are your traditional cargo bikes, like Bullitt (http://www.larryvsharry.com/english/), where the load sits low in a compartment behind the front wheel. And then there are cycle-trucks (http://cleaverbikes.com/post/9073138282) where the front load is on a rack/basket over a smaller (usually 20") wheel. And I guess a porteur bike is arguably a cargo bike, which would be similar to a utility and sports-tourer, bring us back to square one. ;)

Like Kontact said, the utility and cargo bikes probably won't get taken out of a city much and won't cover as much ground (Josh Muir of Frances (http://francescycles.com/galleries/cargo/#2269719181) might argue differently), whereas a sports-tourer/light-tourer would. And in terms of geometry, a light-tourer would have a medium to low trail, whereas a porteur bike (Kogswell, maybe?) would have a low trail as it is meant to carry a load in the front.

These are just my interpretations, feel free to argue differently.

[palincss]

As far as I can see all three types use low gearing, fenders, racks, lights, are made of steel, and can handle a load.

Bikes labeled utility, cargo, and light-touring all look the same in terms of geometry.


Yes, but what kind, and how much of a load, now those are the questions. I would expect to be able to carry loads of as much as 50 lb or more on a cargo bike, and they wouldn't be loads that would fit in panniers, it'd be stuff like bags of groceries, big bags of dog food, packages to go to the post office, etc.

A light touring bike is just that: a touring bike for light loads. Not a grocery getter. Expect to see small panniers, English style transverse seat bags, maybe handlebar bags; and in my opinion once that touring load exceeds around 20 lb "light" starts getting questionable, and above 30 lb. the referee's whistle blows.

[jr59]

To me, light touring is just that. Light weight touring, in other words a rando style bike.

While cargo and utility bike are one and the same. Either a long tail style, ie Surly Big Dummy, or a Cema long john style bike, with a box/platform in the middle of it. Both can carry heavy big loads. Stuff that will not fit in a normal pannier.

While I guess you could use either to do the others job, neither seem to be interchangeable.