I've owned a Casseroll for a year, riding 4,000+ miles on it, but have never ridden a Pacer. The Casseroll makes a great all-around bike for commuting, light touring, recreational riding, etc., but I cannot heartily endorse it for trail riding. Altho it will handle larger tires, the rear dropouts are horizontal and rather fragile -- as I found out when I rode my bike on the New River Trail last summer. The frame handled 32 mm cross tires just fine and the bike rode great on the trail, but the rear dropout got totally mangled when a stick got caught in the derailleur. Perhaps any bike would have suffered similar damage, but I have heard of two other instances of the same thing happening with other Casserolls brought into local bike shops. Most cross bikes have rather stout vertical dropouts, or replaceable derailleur hangers. So, if you intend to ride trails, I would recommend looking for a cross frame. Also check out the Surley Crosscheck and Soma Doublecross.