If your cycling goals include riding for fun and fitness, completing a charity event or a century ride while enjoying a comfortable and relaxing ride, you should be riding a Country Bike. It's not a normal road racing bike, and it's obviously not a mountain bike, and it's not necessarily a touring bike, although you can tour on it. And even though its called a Country Bike it is also the first choice to ride in the city or suburbs, to work, the grocery or out for a cup of coffee.

What's a Country Bike got that a racing bike hasn't?
A comfortable riding position. A racing bike has a high saddle and low handlebars, pitching your weight forward and low, supported mainly on your hands and arms. It's a "go fast" position, but it's not practical or comfortable for anything except racing. Read more about our fitting services here.

A Country Bike has the handlebars at the same height or higher than the saddle.
This way, your weight is more on your bottom, less on your hands, and of course that's more comfortable. It's a lot more than just getting weight off your hands, though. With the bars higher, there's also less strain on your arms, neck, and lower back. You pedal in comfort.

Does that mean slow?
No. Speed isn't the country bike's reason for existence, but no, it won't curb your speed. Speed is a matter of pedaling fast in high gears, and that's independent of handlebar height. You can't pedal hard for long if you aren't comfortable, and if you tolerate a bad position for a long enough time you end up injured or giving up riding. It happens all the time to people who think that-a-way.

The ability to fit a wide range of tires.
The most overlooked and underrated quality in any bicycle is the tires it'll fit. That's because more than any other detail, the tires you ride determine where you can ride, and how comfortable and safe you can ride there. A typical racing bike fits only skinny tires (up to 700x25mm), which are suitable only for smooth roads, and really only suitable for riders who weigh less than about 180 lbs. If you don't race, it makes as much sense to ride a racing bike as it does to drive a Formula One car out in the country. Yet people do it all the time. A Country Bike fits tires at least as wide as 700x35mm. The higher air volume means everything: You can ride it at lower pressures, to absorb the bumps and potholes on rough roads. It can support a higher rider weight, much better. But even if you're light, you'll notice a huge difference in comfort between a 700x23 at 110psi, and a 700x35 at 55 psi. How could you not?

The original concept behind the air-filled tire (invented in 1888 by a Scottish veterinarian, for his young son's bicycle) was to ride on a cushion of air. That concept has been lost in today's skinny road tires, which, due to their low air volume, must be pumped up rock hard. The Country Bike, with its ability to fit much larger tires, brings the original concept home again. Riding on a cushion of air is the way to go.

The ability to mount racks and fenders.
So you can carry things and ride in any weather. Again, the typical road bike today, has been "refined" to the point where it's really suitable only for racing, which means it rules out so much riding. It's a specialty bike that's out of place on a wet road, or on a picnic ride to the park. You can't mount fenders on it, and you can't carry a load on it.

The Country Bike comes through once again. It has eyelets for racks and clearance for fenders. It's designed from the start to take you into the country in comfort, on any surface, and in any weather. You can think of a Country Bike as a comfortable, intelligently designed road bike. Or you can think of a road bike as bike that's ill suited to rides in the country.

Is "Country Bike" an officially recognized category?
It is now - 'cause we (and a few others in the bike business) are saying so. Over the last ten years or so, road bikes have become more and more race-oriented, and less and less comfortable and usable for anything else. These days, "road bike" really means "racing bike", but how many people race? Who the heck wants to? Riding a bike should be fun, and rides should be something you look forward to doing, not something you look forward to having done.

A Country Bike is the anti-race bike. It's more comfortable, because it puts you in a better riding position, and fits tires that hold more air and can therefore be ridden at lower pressures, giving a smoother ride. It's more practical, because you can carry stuff on it. Take a camera, take binoculars, take a book and a binder, and most of all, take some food. It's more useful, because it can go places a road bike can't go, and in weather that a road bike is useless in. With all that going for it, who needs the President, King, or Pope to decree it an official category. It's a Country Bike, and now you know how to distinguish it from a "road" or "racing" bike.



Above is the Rivendell Rambouillet, below is a Schwinn Super Sport DBX, two examples of what we mean by "Country Bike" The Rambouillet is the prototypical Country Bike. Its a throwback to times when bikes were built to last and made for general purpose riding, not just pretend racing or posing. This is the real thing for riders who are serious about cycling and mean to keep riding from here on out. The Schwinn DBX is a more recent translation of some of the important Country Bike traits; larger tires, mounts for fenders and racks, up-right postion and comfortable saddle. We have more Country Bikes on the floor and even more versions on the way. We also build custom Country Bikes. Come see us!