Troll will take disc or caliper brakes. Troll will be easier to run with a gear hub or single speed. Troll will happily take a suspension fork if you ever want one. Troll is ready for a Rohloff hub if that was ever something you'd consider.

Piolet will be easier to set up with drops. I'm going to say that the Piolet is better looking, and hope my Troll never reads this.

I always run a hub gear, and after running one for years with vertical dropouts, I decided that I would not by another bike with vertical dropouts unless I was sure I wanted to run traditional gearing.

To me, the Troll looks and feels more like a mountain bike that is also ready for some distance riding. I feel like it will happily go wherever a mountain bike will go, but can also be easily set up for riding on smoother surfaces. I have no experience with the Piolet, but when I look at it, I feel like it wants to ride like a regular touring bike, but with nice, fat tires so you can tackle rougher terrain. Not that I know what I'm talking about. But that's how it feels to me: The Troll rides like a mountain but is made to happily go on long hauls. The Piolet looks like you want to keep your road tour going even while you head down a forest path. That's my impression, but really the geometries are not miles apart.

I feel like over all the Troll is a more versatile frame, but if the features it offers aren't of interest, then that really doesn't factor in. Especially if the most important feature is fitting drop bars. Which is not to say you can't put drop bars on a Troll. https://www.google.com/search?q=surl...sAQIGw&dpr=0.9

I don't think there's a wrong choice. I think it comes down to how you plan to ride it and how you want to set it up. I chose the Troll, and I'm really happy with it. The Piolet looks very nice, but it doesn't tick the boxes I needed ticked, so it doesn't really tempt me. But I can see where it could easily be someone else's bike of choice.

I will say that I switched from a Long Haul Trucker to my Troll. They are larger sizes, so the handling comparisons might not be applicable. I actually like the handling of the Trucker. It's steady and solid. It's also sluggish and likes to go in a straight line. But I am also sluggish and like straight lines, so we got along fine. Troll is definitely more nimble. Feels a lot more lively. One thing I was worried about when switching bikes is that I would not like the handling as much, but I ended up liking it more.