munkeyfish 

Could a good touring/adventure bike double as a good commuter bike?

Is there a specific gearing one should look for to do mostly roads and some trails?

And being totally new, could you recommend some good sites that have great info for beginners and beyond? Looking for touring/bikebacking/commuting ideas/sites.

Thanks for any input.

skimaxpower

Yes. Absolutely.

Depends how hard you like to pedal! A 3x drivetrain offers the most range - very common on touring bikes for the past 20 years. A "compact double" crankset would probably work as well. Many pricey adventure bikes are now coming with 1x11 drivetrains.
Avoid road race gearing with a traditional (eg: 53 tooth) crankset up front and/or short cage rear derailleur.

Lots of great (somewhat dated) but accurate bike tech info at: Sheldon Brown-Bicycle Technical Information

indyfabz

I commute/run errands using my LHT.

munkeyfish 

I'm eyeballing the Ogre myself....

munkeyfish 

Thank you, I will dig into that site for sure.

Tourist in MSN

Commuting bike and touring bike have a lot in common, they both are designed to be easy to ride and hold a straight line well, thus they both handle pretty much the same way. Where they often differ is that a commuting bike usually carries a lot less weight on it than a touring bike so it can be lighter frame and lighter duty rims. A lot of touring bikes rarely need a headlamp, commuting bikes often need one for year around commuting. Both kinds of bikes will be ridden in all kinds of weather too, thus fenders are common on both types of bikes.

seeker333

Dedicated touring bikes make good commuters since they accept full fenders and racks, although less gear is normally needed for commute (lunch, clothes, raingear, toiletries, locks, panniers for groceries). You definitely need front and rear lights for commuting, less so for touring depending on local prevailing law on bicycle lighting requirements.

Gearing-wise, for most folks the lower the gears the better. Many tourers are built with mountain bike gearing to handle heavy loads and steep grades. Low gearing is usually less critical for commuting, you could swap cassette and chain for slightly higher, narrower-spaced gears - cheaper than a second bike.

Some commuters lack secure off-street storage for their bikes, so they resort to using bikes which may appear undesirable to potential bike thieves (although your average crackhead doesn't know a Phil Wood hub from a Brooks saddle). I would find it difficult to leave a $XXXX touring bike on the side of a city street all day, every day. Some feel the same about taking their nice touring bike to sketchy foreign locations for touring.

You need to look no further than bikeforums.net for discussion of all topics pertaining to bicycling. If you have a specific interest, you can more quickly find relevant information via google search.

WNCGoater

https://www.adventurecycling.org/

https://www.cyclingabout.com/

https://bicycletouringpro.com/

alan s 

You’ll usually get an answer right here on BF on page 1 of any given thread. Beyond that all bets are off and it usually devolves into a pissing match or is hijacked.

fietsbob

CGOAB https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/