Light touring? How do you define light touring? I posted a few photos above with road bikes that had bikepacking gear but no racks. You can credit-card tour on just about anything, you can't get lighter than that.
I have three touring bikes, I consider one to be an expedition bike, it will carry a massive load and handle well, but the bike is heavy. The bike I consider to be my medium touring bike is rated to carry something like 30 or 35 kg of weight not counting the weight of the rider.
The bike I consider my light touring bike is the Lynskey Backroad. It is 700c, titanium, the geometry and tire capability is clearly for road, not off-road. But it still can take four panniers. See photos.
But some would consider four panniers to be heavy touring.
Originally Posted by
AlanK
... ... the LHT doesn't really 'dominate' the way it used to. For awhile it was very much the quintessential touring bike but it doesn't seem to be anymore and since there are several worthy models: The Kona Sutra, Salsa Marrakesh, REI Co-Op Adv models, and probably many other I can't think of right now.
To add to your comments, when the LHT came out in 2004, it was sold as frame and fork only, you built up the bike with your own parts. At that time Fuji made a touring bike, as did Trek with the 520. And that was pretty much it for touring bikes. A lot of people also toured on the Volpe, but the Volpe was not sold as a touring bike. Touring was an unusual activity at that time, thus not many bikes were made for it.
A few years later, Surly also sold the LHT as a complete bike, I think that was about three years after they first sold it only as a frame and fork.
Over the decade following LHT introduction, bike touring became much more popular, and a number of bike companies started to see a market there so they came out with their own touring models. Surly was lucky to have a model at that time that checked the boxes to meet most bike touring check lists, so they got a head start on the bike touring boom because there was little choice. And since any bike shop that could buy parts from QBP could order a Surly, almost every bike shop was by default a Surly dealer.