Originally Posted by
IanHelgesen
If you're somewhat mechanical or have a local bike coop to help you out, try looking at vintage bikes. You're basically looking for a "sport touring" bike (essentially a road bike with more relaxed geometry and more fender/tire clearance), which were very common in the 80s. It may take some patience, but it will be by far the cheapest way to get what you want.
this.^
bikes are kinda generic nowadays, back then they had touring, road, crit geo options on top of proper 2cm differential sizing and component groups... now its like s, m, l, xl and this model has 105... boring.
or the LHT.