Originally Posted by
valygrl
Tour bikes are like pickup trucks - you want to be able to lean it against a pole, let it get rained on, drop it a few times, throw a load of groceries in it... and not have to worry about a few scratches.
true, but there's a reason people buy Mercedes and not Toyotas, they can afford it. I've had custom bikes and enjoyed the ownership but they didn't perform better than production bikes, only different and in one case worse. If I had an extra $3000 I'd get a custom fillet brazed bike, and make it look like a beat up Surly with custom dings and chipped paint and tubes wrapped with cloth tape.