On and Off Road Tourer

[Eski1991]

Ok so I have my Mountain bikes and a svelte little carbon road bike, however I am now looking to fill the middle ground with a Steel Tourer, to be used mainly off road (Singletrack/Thetford/Peaks etc.) but also some on road use.

So far I have been looking at Surly (Ogre/Long Haul Trucker/Karate Monkey), Genesis Croix de Fer, all manner of old school MTB frames on eBay and some steel Touring roadies such as the Dawes Galaxy/Super Galaxy bikes.

Prerequisites are - Frame size, bigger the better, Surly offer 24 inch on most models which will be more or less spot on, however a 22 or 23 will suffice with a longer post. Price, around £400 for frameset is more or less what I'm looking at and I will make use of my parts bin to get the rest sorted. And finally it must take a decent off road tyre and not be too road bike looking.

Fire away.

[nammynake]

http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/models.html

[Eski1991]

nammynake said:

http://www.thorncycles.co.uk/models.html

Look lovely. Dont seem to have a frameset only option as far as I can see though. :/

[anonymous-user]

Cotic X is worth a look, no idea if they do a frame that big though! The deciding factor is probably going to be disc brake compatibility, even mechanical cable discs are nicer than rim brakes, particularly if you are heading to the Peaks where the grit will destroy pads and rims in no time though i'm pretty sure everything you have already mentioned is dic brake compatible.

To be honest, a rigid 29er with a carbon fork would probably fit the bill nicely.