K

This subset of bike almost always involves a bunch of compromises, most of them involving spec. So if I’m buying, I’m almost always gonna go for frame and fork, and then outfit the thing to suit my peculiarities, the way I did ‘cross bikes when I was still racing.

K, take a look at TheTouringStore.com. My man Wayne can find you racks and panniers to suit any occasion or style of bike. He’s advised me on a lot of setups, including how to make fenders and racks work on a disc-brake bike.

We also did 100 miles of the C&O trail back in March and the Jake was very much up to the task. Of course my 80s era Fuji touring bike was equally up to it; but I’d say the lighter rig had him a little fresher than me when we slimed into Georgetown that night.

The hassle of the disk tabs and brakes on seatstays and front forks is that it makes it more cumbersome to attach fenders and racks. I have an REI purchased rack that is designed for disk brake bikes (http://www.rei.com/product/832784/topeak-explorer-29er-rack-with-disc-mounts) but so far, the best I have found for fenders is a set that mounts with floppy rubber band like things that I can kludge around the disk brakes and their mounts (Planet Bike EZ-45 mm fenders). Not very elegant, but they work. I lost one of the rubber band like things and had to cannibalize a long one into two short ones, but so far, so good.

I’ll be looking forward to the review in AC Patrick.

I like the idea of the oversize steel tubing. My La Cruz has standard tubing and it has less of a fun ride than the Surley, with oversize thin wall steel. I’d like to get a Steelman one of these days, as long as it has all the eyelets, disk brakes, etc.

We were in Albuquerque for the weekend and sans bike, I too went for a run. 50 minutes on city sidewalks on Saturday and I’m still sore on Tuesday.

Otherwise, He would have made our knees bend in the other direction, so they didn’t wear out so fast.