[mauvehaus]

Having bike toured, I agree that touring bikes hit a sweet spot for performance/maintainability ratio, but that's a very intentional choice on the part of the folks who make them.

You get that by speccing good, but not top-end uber-fancy parts and building 26" wheels with solid, but easily replaceable parts. And a good saddle.

As for the other ends of that spectrum, I'm going to paraphrase a quote I heard about GM cars years ago: a Walmart bike will run like shit longer than a bike with electronic shifting will run at all.

[jacquesm]

The importance of a good saddle can not be overstated. It is the most important part of any bike for longer distance cycling. I do very regular 128 km rides (once per week at least, sometimes twice per week) on my e-bike and without a good saddle that would be impossible.