Originally Posted by
Trakhak
Contra romantic views of bike use in Great Britain in the past, bikes like the Raleigh Tourist and the DL-1, with Sturmey Archer planetary-gearing hubs, were principally used for transportation in cities. The majority of British touring cyclists used derailleur-equipped drop-handlebar bikes from the 1950s onward.
That raises a question in my mind. Were Sturmey Archer 3 speed or similar equipped bikes ever widely used as touring bike anywhere? My guess would be no.
I know that folks toured on various bikes over the history of bikes starting with the penny farthing and pretty much every imaginable bike has been used by someone. There is a small subset of folks touring on internal geared hubs today, but generally not on 3 speeds. I doubt they have ever been used widely at all for touring. The use of the word "tour" in a name is often a misnomer, much like the word "racer" in the name English racer that the 3 speed bike were called by most when they arrived in the US after WW2.