anyone got pros and cons?

i currently have a lovely old raleigh 531 racer (my favourate), surly crosscheck and singular swift. the swift never gets used so im thinking about selling it. BUT, i do want a bike i can go off roading with – on the occasion i do. id rather have disc brakes for when i do, so that makes the surly redundant.

i could sell my surly and swift and buy one of the above frames, and use them for the occasional MTB and touring.

which would you recoment

p.s i would put flat bars on it.

cheers

Head tube height will rule out vaya (really tall) or straggler (really short).

I like my vaya. Will take 47/50c tyre max. Back end is very long because of this.

you mean if i use flat bars, they would be high on the vaya and low on the straggler?
could i not compensate for that with the right length/andgle stem?

I looked at some of those options, other possibilities are Genesis vagabond and specialized awol but at the moment sticking with my swift & equilibrium instead

yeah i also looked at those

i do like the look of them, but they’re more on the MTB end of the spectrum. i want a road bike that can fit fatter tyres, rather than a MTB with skinny tires. ya know?

Salsa just emailed about the ‘new’Marrakesh. The Orange/Brown/Tanwall looks great!

http://salsacycles.com/culture/the_new_marrakesh_has_arrived

And the Marrakesh is sold as a flat bar variant.

Would you run it singlespeed or geared?

i do like the look of them, but they’re more on the MTB end of the spectrum. i want a road bike that can fit fatter tyres, rather than a MTB with skinny tires. ya know?

So a hybrid then 😀

geared

the draw to the genesis CGF (and Vaya) is they seem to come up more second hand

Singular Kite
All City Macho Man
Brother Kepler

Some off the top of my head as I’ve been looking for a similar sort of thing.

also looking at similar and the Soma Wolverine looks like a good option… if only it was a purple sparkly colour.

The BB on touring bikes are typically a lot lower than your Singular or CrossCheck. Also fitting flat bars to a bike designed for drops just spoils the bike IMO, yes it can still be fun to an extent, but its not as good if you use it regularly (I have a Surly LHT with flats for shopping duties). Get something designed for flats if you are starting fresh.

bump!

I liked the straggler but the stupid rear dropouts put me off ultimately.. I don’t think the tubing is great but I could have lived with that. The Wolverine ticks nearly all my boxes (roadish geometry and components with clearance for fat 650b tyres & mudguards) and is available for a reasonable price from our friends in Germany.

Stick some Knards 700×40 on your swift. Job done. Cheers 1 shed.

im swingging for the straggler

What about http://www.thelightblue.co.uk/Sport/complete-bikes ?

I liked the straggler but the stupid rear dropouts put me off ultimately

+1

Soma Wolverine looks delicious in orange, what sort of price / availability in the UK?

it’s £650 ish in the UK but £500 ish delivered from one of the big German bike shops… still tempted.