Oops, sorry, meant LHT…

Recently got a Surly Cross Check – it'll tour with ease, and has mounts in all the right places.

Very comfy. Also, comes in 700c in smaller sizes.
Have a word with Charlie the Bikemonger.

crosscheck is great as you can use it for lots of things too

tour mode (pardon the decor lol)

geared monstercross with 1.8 bonty 29er tyres on

and currently in ss mode

mick, spacertastic………… 😉

cheers tony lol short headtubes on drop bar bikes pi55 me off lol i could stick a pointy uppy stem but that would mean buying a new stem 😉

that said i must like spacers as ive a few on my posh bike too lol

hey if its comfy sod what people think it looks like 😉

got 70mm of spacers on my LHT 😆

must be those short surly headtubes 😉 tho ive only got 5mm on my karate monkey

Why do drop bar tourers always have those bar-end gear shifters instead of regular road ones? It all seems a bit messy + unnecessary to me…

cheaper to spec them ?

my ss has sti's lol

I know! I saw that. Seems like a better solution to me…

i prefer sti shifting by a long way and i swap from geared to ss fairly often so i just pull the cables thru when i take off the gears and leave levers in place . dead easy and quick that way

Surly spec bar-end shifters as they are simpler to bodge if you break down in the middle of the Atacama. Ever taken apart a road STI?

My LHT has bar-end shifters and to be honest im really impressed with them. Obviously they are not a fast to shift as STI but since i never ride on the hoods i have to move my hand to shift anyway. They fall to hand so easilly and once you learn how much you need to nudge them to shift its incredibly accurate, plus they are so light to shift i can nudge it with my finger and it goes. Ive got some Kelly take-offs i bought for this bike but at the moment im happy enough as is.

Rich
[committed techno-geek and (former) gear snob]

Plus you can use them as friction shifters if *something* kills your indexing.

This has got me out of a pickle a few times in the past, even if it's only meant that I can ride off the dirt and onto the tarmac to try to sort the problem out, rather than walking out.

(I actually quite liking friction shifting …).

ton appears to be selling his now if the OP hasn't found anythign else..

It would seem that Abbey Cycles have 2010 Sutras in stock.

http://www.abbeycycles.com/products.php?plid=m1b0s21p1253

I've only read the OP.

My best mate has recently bought a Ridgeback Panarama, he's very happy with it – took the front rack off for the mean time as we're only doing credit-card touring at the mo.

(I've 'converted' my cheap road bike by putting on some Hewitt-built 36 spoke touring wheels). My next tourer will probably be a Hewitt or a van Nicholas FWIW.

60cm Galaxy for £799 here

I bought one, it's great.

They also do a Claud Butler Dalesman for £100 less.

The Sutra looked much better speced than the Galaxy and they're similar money. Am I missing something?