Currently have a cotic soul, 26 inch flavour that I will be able to pass down to my son soon, so looking for a new hardtail frame or bike. I spend more time on the road bike now but still enjoy some MTB in the lakes and the odd trail centre. Also do some touring so hoping to be able to use the new bike for that with a spare set of wheels rather than a dedicated touring bike and also for a bit of winter training in the forests and odd commute so ability to take a pannier rack an advantage.

Thanks

It sounds like you spend more time on road than off, with this in mind have you considered a gravel bike?
I bought one last year and I have surprised just how far “off road” you can go on them. Iv taken it places where it was out of its depth and a proper hardtail MTB would have been a better choice, but i still picked my way around or up and down.
It has 650B wheels so will take a good size tyre a 2.1 mtb tyre will fit, has discs and and rack and guard mounts. Its really very versatile. It doesnt feel or ride like a road bike on fat tyres, it is slower on the road but good fun on any by ways.

There’s a lovely 27.5 soul in the classifieds set up very racey. 😉

Sonder Broken Road, Brother Big Bro or something from Surly if you’ve recently robbed a bank or otherwise come in to a large sum of cash.

http://bombtrack.com/hook-adv/

Already have a carbon gravel bike for road and light off road duties. The broken road looks nice but the alloy frontier more likely option of those. i’ll take a look at some of the others

ta