Originally Posted by
revcp
Here's an idea. Get disc AND canti. Well, disc OR canti. Still within the Surly family is the Troll. It's my commuting/singletrack/touring bike. Troll frames have the capacity to run disc brakes or cantilevers. You can also run it as a 26er or 29er (700c). So if you really can't decide then it makes sense to get a frame that could do either. The frame itself is more nimble than the LHT, it has fork braze ons for a Salsa Anything Cage. It's built to take it. Check one out.
I'm tossing up between a Surly Troll and a 26" LHT and having a great deal of trouble deciding, especially as I am not going to be able to test either bike and will just be buying a new frame and building up from there.
When you say the Troll is more nimble, in what way does that manifest itself?
When I see the gusseting on the Troll at the headtube and toptube joining and the little bridge from the seat tube to the top tube, it strikes me with that reinforcing, the Troll should be a "stronger" bike than the LHT, yet I have read comments from someone saying they felt a LHT carried their luggage better than a Troll, as they had slight shimmy at speed on the Troll when loaded up.
I'm guessing this may be due to the LHT having a larger diameter downtube than the Troll?
Any insights one can share here, would be greatly appreciated.