I have just taken the plunge and sold my Cannondale Synapse carbon 105. I loved the bike but was a little anxious bringing it out and I also fancy something for a bit of touring. Last winter I built a ragley mmmBop hardtail and enjoyed every minute of it. I am also ecstatic about the result!

My aim is to buy a frame and have two setups.

1). A semi lightweight machine hopefully under 10kg that I can use in the winter and also for quick blasts on Saturday mornings (30 miles or so)

2.) a tourer with disc brakes with pannier rack and mudguard capabilities for doing 1-2 week tours possibly around the alps etc (hence the disc brakes for those alpine decents.)

I was looking at a cyclocross frame possibly a Soma Double cross disc?! I like the idea of a fix it easy steel frame…but not sure it would withstand winter riding conditions so possibly thinking of titanium?! Any ideas?

Van Nicholas Amazon? Works for me. I’ve toured on it, had “fast” blasts on it, did LeJog on it and had CX tyres fitted for off-road work too. I’ve never weighed it though so it might fall foul of your 10Kg condition.

not a surly LHT.

I love the touring capacity of the lht…just not the looks. Thinking about using the forks though for the bike in touring guise.

Read about the van Nicholas….looks good. Did you get it as frame only?

Yep. I use the Kinesis DC19 forks (they’ve now been superseded). The rest of the build is Ultegra groupset, BB7 brakes and XTR/Open Pro wheels.

2010-04-13 23-45-11 by ScotRoutes, on Flickr

Love what this guy has done:

http://peter-chong.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/soma-double-cross-disc.html?m=1

Thanks scotroutes. Did it work out an expensive build?

Compared with???

It’s titanium, Ultegra and XTR. I guess it could be done a bit cheaper but I’ve put so many miles in on this bike that I’d say it was worth it.

Looks awesome. Thanks again.

I’ve been thinking about a bike with similar requirements as I find my Ridley Crossbow a bit uncomfortable on multi day tours. I keep coming back to the Kinesis Tripster (also available in Ti)