Morning all,

It’s that wonderful time when you come to realise it is new bike time and it is time to plunder the Oracle that is STW for advice.

What I want is a bike that I can use as a winter road bike and also do some touring on. Ideally it would also be able to handle some very light off road use (Sustrans type routes, that kind of thing). In my mind this means the requirements are:
700c wheels and drop bars
Rack and guard bosses
Reasonable mud clearance for bigger tyres
A not overly aggressive position.

I also like the idea of a steel frame and disk brakes but am happy to ignore these things for a better bike. First glance suggested a Genesis CdF would fit the bill but has anyone got any other ideas?

Croix de Fer’s a good choice, had mine a month and so far very happy.

Salsa vaya.
Surly cross check,
or salsa Fargo, totally off road-able, and excellent on road too with a tyre swap. This is what I use.
Jeff jones.

This overloaded jones was set up by jeff to illustrate all the options

for winter,
raleigh royal tourer £400 in evans
revolution traveller £600 in edinburgh co op

Salsa Casseroll. Currently on sale at Triton cycles. (theres also a 5% off code floating about) http://www.tritoncycles.co.uk/m14b0s21p8311/SALSA_Casseroll_Complete

Steel, lots of clearance, very long headtube (first bike I’ve had where I can slam the stem!).

I bought the frameset only a couple of weeks ago…

these look good
http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/revolution-cross-sport-13?bct=browse%2fbicycles%2fcyclocross-bikes
they often seem to do weekends with 15% of everything making it a bit of a bargain

revolution Cross looks just the ticket actually. However, I am slowly being drawn towards a Cross Check. But it has no disk brakes. Ahhhh

Singular Peregrine should be on your list.

Literally everything you’ve asked for, plus:
– strong enough for plenty rougher off-road than “very light”
– EBB if you want singlespeed.

i had a revolution cross bike a couple of years back with cantis was an excellent bike for the money very comfy to ride for the commute