.

A Complete List of Womens Touring Bikes: Step Through & Mixte

Not everyone wants a traditional touring bike. With big panniers over the rear wheel, it’s sometimes hard to swing a leg over and saddle up. Step-through and mixte touring bikes are almost non-existent in the media, and even out and about. People don’t know about them because the market is simply saturated with traditional, horizontal top tube touring bikes. Not to worry, I can help you with an extensive list of 30+ options!

Step-through frames are less desired than traditional touring frames due to the reduced frame triangulation. In order to achieve the same stiffness and strength, step-through frames often use heavier frame tubing; resulting in a heavier bike (or a less-stiff bike). But will a few hundred grams matter to you when you’re carrying a couple of panniers?

Unfortunately, many of the following bikes are not available outside of Europe. That could be a great reason to fly over, go for a ride along one of the Eurovelo routes – then fly home with your new steed. 😉

I also have a resource on the smallest touring bikes available – check it out if you’re on the smaller side.

Here are my criteria for selecting the following step-through touring bikes:
– A wide gear range
– Relaxed geometry
– Provision for front and rear racks
– Provision for fenders

Aarios Spider Mixte (Switzerland)

Aarios Spider Mixte Touring Bike

Aarios make some quality steel touring bikes. The Spider is a mixte version which looks to be quite a capable ride. Touring capability: Light touring.

Avaghon Series 26 Mixte (Netherlands)

Avaghon Series 26 Mixte Touring Bike

Avaghon makes high quality lugged mixtes in the Netherlands. All are spec’d with top-end touring components. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Bottcher Expedition Step-Through (Germany)

Bottcher Expedition Ladies Touring Bike

Bottcher makes some really nice steel touring step-throughs. All come with bombproof touring components and are ready to tour right off the shop floor. See the Bottcher Evolution, Safari and Trekk Lite for other step-through options. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Cannondale Tesoro Mixte (Europe)

Cannondale Tesoro Mixte Touring Bike

The Tesoro is an aluminium bike with durable touring components. It is built primarily for commuting but would be a pretty ideal light tourer. Touring capability: Light touring.

Cube Travel Step-Through (Germany)

Cube Travel Womens Touring Bike

Cube has a nice range of travel bikes which have lots of tyre clearance, wide gear ranges and durable components. There are four bikes in the Travel series, all available in step-through options. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Da Silva ST-80 (Germany)

Da Silva ST-80 Womens Touring Bike

Da Silva makes quality steel touring step-throughs, complete with racks and fenders. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Dawes Karakum (UK)

Dawes Karakum Ladies Touring Bike

Dawes are one of the only British brands making a step-through touring bike. Dawes are built to a price-point, so you can expect really good value for money here. Also, see the Dawes Galaxy for another step-through option. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Diamant Elan Esprit Step-Through (Germany)

Diamant Elan Esprit Womens Touring Bike

Diamant makes a simple trekking bike with mid-range components that should see you enjoying shorter tours. Touring capability: Light touring.

Gudereit SX-R 1.0 Step-Through (Germany)

Gudereit SX-R 1.0 Ladies Touring Bike

The SX-R uses an aluminium frame and fork to keep the weight down but employs strong touring components to keep the bike going on long tours. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Intec T07 Step-Through (Germany)

Intec T07 Womens Touring Bike

Intec makes decent steel step-through touring bikes with a budget, but quality build kit. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

KOGA WorldTraveller (Netherlands)


KOGA is world-famous when it comes to touring bikes. They build their most popular touring bike, the WorldTraveller, as a mixte with all the great touring components. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

MaxCycles Steel Lite Step-Through (Germany)

MaxCycles Steel Lite Womens Touring Bike

MaxCycles build a steel touring step-through called the Steel Lite. It comes with an internally geared hub, dynamo lighting and solid components all round. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Maxx Crossmaxx Comfort Step-Through (Germany)

Maxx Crossmaxx Comfort Ladies Touring Bike

The Maxx Crossmaxx is built for touring. The aluminium frame and fork are tough, and the components all durable. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

MTB Cycletech Andale Step-Through (Switzerland)

MTB Cycletech Andale Lady Touring Bike

MTB Cycletech makes this nice touring step-through which comes with strong components, dynamo lighting and touring tyres as standard. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Multicycle Summit Step-Through (Netherlands)

MultiCycle Summit Ladies Touring Bike

The Summit is an aluminium touring rig which is ready to go on long tours. The bike is complete with 48 spoke touring wheels! Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Norwid Oland Step-Through (Germany)

Norwid Oland Womens Touring Bike

Norwid sells this steel trekking bike complete with balloon tyres. Touring capability: Light touring.

Patria Petite (Germany)

Patria Petite Womens Touring Bike

Patria is famous for its touring bikes. The Petite is a lugged steel beauty, ready for long bike trips. Check out the other step-through option by Patria, the Delta. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Poison Atropin Step-Through (Germany)

Poison Atropin Ladies Touring Bike

The Atropin is a nice aluminium trekking bike by Rose, and it has a raft of great components included. Check out the Poison Chinin for the other step-through option. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Rivendell Cheviot Mixte (USA)

Image: Olivier Chetelat
Image: Olivier Chetelat

The Cheviot is an upright bike capable of carrying modest loads. The frame and fork aren’t particularly cheap (about the same as a Surly LHT complete) but it’s decent quality. Touring capability: Light touring.

Rose Black Lava Step-Through (Germany)

Rose Black Lava Ladies Touring Bike

The Black Lava is a decent aluminium trekking bike by Rose. It comes with dynamo lighting, fenders and a rear rack as standard. See also the Multistreet and Black Creek for other step-through bikes. Touring capability: Light touring.

Santos Travel Lite (Netherlands)

Santos Travel Lite Womens Touring Bike

Santos is very well known for their tough aluminium touring bikes. The Travel Lite comes spec’d with lots of great touring components. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Simpel Wegwarts Step-Through (Switzerland)

Simpel Wegwarts Ladies Touring Bike

Simpel put together a really solid aluminium touring mixte with a fantastic specification for bike travel. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

SNEL Safari Mixte (Netherlands)

SNEL Safari Mixte Touring Bike

SNEL build a nice custom steel mixte which comes with a raft of quality touring components. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Soma Buena Vista Mixte (USA)

Soma Buena Vista Mixte Touring Bike

The Buena Vista is a good quality steel mixte that is touring capable. You can get this as a complete bike, or a frame only to build as you desire. Touring capability: Light touring.

Stevens Randonneur Disc Step-Through (Germany)

Stevens Randonneur Disc Ladies Touring Bike

The Randonneur is built light and is ready to tour on smooth roads and paths. It comes with dynamo lighting, a rear rack and fenders off the shop floor. Touring capability: Light touring.

Thorn Raven Step-Through (UK)

Thorn Raven Step Through Touring Bike

Thorn has built a reputation for making the strongest steel touring bikes around. Their step-through Raven is no exception. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Tout Terrain Metropolitan Shopper (Germany)

Tout Terrain Metropolitan Shopper Ladies Touring Bike

The Metropolitan Shopper is a solid steel bike with quality parts. It is also one of the only high-end European bikes to come with disc brakes (my preference). Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Van Nicholas Amazon Mixed (Netherlands)

Van Nicholas Amazon Mixed Touring Bike

Van Nicholas makes the only titanium mixte on this list. High-end components match this expensive frame – you could swap out the carbon fork for a touring fork for front bags. Touring capability: Light touring.

Velotraum Cross 7005 EX TD (Germany)

Velotraum Cross 7005 EX TD Ladies Touring Bike

Velotraum specialises in aluminium touring bikes – the Cross 7005 is spec’d with top end gear, and is ready for long tours. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Vittorio Globetrotter Dames (Netherlands)

Vittorio Globetrotter Dames Touring Bike

Vittorio makes their custom steel mixte touring bikes in the Netherlands, often speccing them with high-end components. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

VSF Fahrradmanufaktur TX-400 Step-Through (Germany)

VSF Fahrradmanufaktur TX-400 Womens Touring Bike

VSF put together some exceptionally well-priced touring mixtes. The TX-400 is made out of steel, and comes with front and rear racks, dynamo lighting, fenders, 2x bidon cages and a wide gear range. Touring capability: Round-the-World.

Step-Through Custom Touring Framebuilders

– Ahearne
– Banjo Cycles
– Bilenky
– Bishop
– Breadwinner
– HiLite
– Igleheart
– Independent Fabrications
– Robin Mather
– Royal H Cycles
– True Fabrications
– True North
– Vanilla

Other Touring Bike List Resources

Complete List of Touring Bicycle Manufacturers with Pricing
Complete List of Off-Road Adventure Touring Bikes with Pricing
Complete List of Tandem Builders and Manufacturers
Complete List of Touring Bikes Available in Australia
List of XS Touring Bikes for Smaller Cyclists: 42, 44, 46cm
List of XXL Touring Bikes for Tall Cyclists: 62, 63, 64cm

11 comments
  1. i think you should add 3 water bottles mounts for traditional touring bike criteria and at least 2 at mixte touring – in other words – touring bike should have bottle mounts on down side of downtube (not mentioning other places). Maybe some exceptions for small frames

  2. Thanks for the great article Alex, just what I was looking for! Being on a men’s Fuji touring atm but thinking of switching – a Netherlands/Germany holiday might be in order 😉

  3. Not necessarily. I only found the 3rd bottle cage useful if using a gasoline cooker, since carrying the gasoline inside the panniers will make all the contents stink to it. Otherwise, 2 is more than enough. If I need more water, usually I will have made a stop before running out of water on the 2 bottles, and then I can refill with the extra water stored in the panniers.

  4. I agree with you that 3 bottles are not always necessary, BUT(!) possibility to attach third one (or call it extra one) is always great, specially if you travel in hot climate or uninhabited territory is ahead of you.
    Personally, I don’t know why some called ‘touring’ models even miss them – they weight nothing, don’t conflict with any other bike parts and it’s not expensive or high-end engineering (ss couplers in the other hand) to put them on production line. My only guess is that universal bikes are not good for business.

    So my point is, if we are talking about touring bikes, we should think
    about them as versatile as possible in a topic of carrying racks, water
    bottles and luggage in general.
    I would even say that it should be 3 bosses/mounting points everywhere for Salsa Anything Cage or just for possibility to move regular cage a bit higher/lower (it comes handy when you use oversized cages for 1.5l bottles etc). But I guess we should wait for that, it’s relatively new.
    By the way, the same goes for forks – they should all have bottle mounts on both sides and all standard rack eyelets.

    In articles like this ^ when author tries to separate touring bikes from just good weekend-park bikes I guess old-good 3 bidon cages should be a _must_!

  5. Old post, I know. But times change. If you are using a frame bag, as many are doing these days with touring bikes – then a 3rd cage below the downtube is essential.

  6. Only 1 women’s touring bike is made and sold in the US and it is a step through good for recreational cycling. Do any of these fine women’s touring bikes have outlets in this beleaguered and besieged country?

Comments are closed.