Originally Posted by
Raiden
I'm glad to see the straight-up MTB drivetrain- It makes me feel more 'normal', as I did the same on my road touring build. I will say, however, that I initially installed a 32-toothed cassette, and found that I couln't even keep the bike upright at 22x32. I didnt need an 11, so I landed on a 12x26 with a 48/32/22 (wouldve used a 44 if I had one around), and I really enjoyed it.
Yes, the plan was to go all MTB from the beginning to have good gearing and avoid compatibility issues, and a handlebar that could accept rapid fire MTB shifters. So I had my eyes on the touring/trekking bars from the start too. Drop bars would be useless for me, never liked them, but this one is sweet. Sutra is meant to be built up with MTB parts since the rear dropout is 135mm.
I'm not sure about the gearing, I have no experience to rely upon, we'll see.
Originally Posted by
andmalc
Can you buy the Kona Sutra as a frameset?
I bought this one on eBay for $320 shipped including fork. It's new, came in Kona factory packaging so I guess it's possible to buy one in retail. However, this is the 2009 model, I haven't found any 2010 framesets. Although I don't like the 2010 brown color anyway. I couldn't make up my mind about which frame to get but since I wanted disc brakes and a good deal I went with Sutra. All other frames I considered were twice as much.
Thanks for the comments
Adam