A touring or bikepacking bike should be comfortable over long distances and for multiple days. That’s why I recommend looking for bikes that can be set up with upright riding positions.
With taller handlebars relative to the saddle, you can expect less hand numbness and reduced strain on your neck and back.
So, what’s the best way to quickly find the bikes with upright riding positions?
Stack To Reach Ratio
For many years, I used the stack-to-reach ratio (STR) to quickly compare the riding positions of bikes in my Touring and Bikepacking Bike Buyer’s Guides. This is simply the frame stack divided by the frame reach.
For example, a frame with a reach of 400mm and a stack of 600mm would have a STR of 1.50 (600/400=1.5). And a more upright bike (ie. taller handlebars relative to the saddle) might have a 390mm reach, and a 640mm stack (640/390=1.63).
This worked well when bikes were designed around similarly long stems with similarly wide handlebars. But frame, stem, and handlebar designs have recently evolved, so it’s time to update my method for calculating the upright riding positions of bikes.
Longer Top Tubes & Shorter Stems
Modern bike frames use longer top tubes than previously.
This extends the overall wheelbase length, providing more ride stability for rough roads. It also pushes the front wheel further in front of the rider, reducing the tendency to pitch forward after a hard front impact. Ultimately, the longer frame gives the rider better overall bike control.
Shorter stems are necessary to offset the longer top tube length. Shorter stems offer a more ‘direct’ or ‘neutral’ steering feel, which is often desirable on a bike carrying any front luggage (you can read more about the nuances of stem length HERE).
Here’s the problem, though: frames with a long reach and short stem make the STR lower without actually changing the rider’s position (see image above). This makes the stack-to-reach ratio no longer useful for gauging the upright factor of many bikes.
Average Stack (AS)
I experimented with new formulas that would help me classify bikes into low, mid and upright frame geometries. They got pretty complex, as I tried accommodating stack and reach, top tube and head tube lengths, stem lengths, bar widths, and even seat tube angles.
But what I landed on was shockingly simple.
I’m using the average stack (AS) height of the full-size range of any given bike. Once I have this figure, I can classify touring or bikepacking bike models into ‘low’, ‘mid’ or ‘upright’ frame geometries across entire bike categories.
For a gravel bike, the AS is usually between 575 and 600mm. Mountain bikes often fall between 600 and 630mm. And touring bikes are commonly 630mm or more.
As Average Stack doesn’t account for the length of the frame, it’s no magic bullet. However, my research has found that bike frames are surprisingly uniform in length once you’ve accounted for things like the seat tube angle and stem length.
Once I reclassified the 320+ bikes in my buyer’s guides into their low, mid or upright designations, the modern bikes with short stems were overwhelmingly the models that required reclassification. That’s exactly what I was hoping to achieve, so that’s mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned!
When Average Stack Can Lead You Astray
One way AS can lead you astray is on bike models that don’t accommodate all rider heights.
For example, a bike model might not have an XXS or XS frame size, but will have an XL and XXL. And a different bike model might have an XXS and XS frame size, but nothing beyond XL. These size ranges skew the average stack, classifying the bike more or less upright than it should be.
The good news is that this is more of an exception than a rule. Most bike brands service both shorter and taller riders in their size ranges.
The Best Way To Find Upright Riding Positions
Ultimately, Average Stack is a blunt tool that provides a quick way to determine whether a touring or bikepacking bike is performance or comfort-oriented. It’s much better to look at the individual bike sizes.
The best way to compare bike sizing is using a web tool like Bike Insights.
If you haven’t seen this nifty website, you can visualise the size differences between any two bikes. This is useful when determining the best bike size for you, as manufacturers do not have a standardised way of sizing them.
I’ve uploaded the latest frame geometry numbers of every bike found in my Touring and Bikepacking Bike Buyer’s Guides to this website to make sizing up your next bike as easy as possible.
The Buyer’s Guides Are Updated
The Touring and Bikepacking Bike Buyer’s Guides now use Average Stack to identify the bikes with upright riding positions.
If you have already purchased these guides, you can also search your email system for your original “Gumroad” receipt. That will take you to your portal with the latest book(s), along with the buyer’s guides from previous years.
Failing that, please contact me using a private message on Facebook or Instagram (note: I’m currently cycling through Africa and don’t always have an internet connection).
If you’re a new customer, awesome! My guides will teach you everything about bikepacking or touring bikes, before allowing you to compare over 320 bikes in the back of the books. These guides are updated yearly – for free – so you can always keep on top of the latest bikes and information.
You can get the Bikepacking Bike Buyer’s Guide HERE.
You can get the Touring Bicycle Buyer’s Guide HERE.
