Thanks.

This is sort of the trap I fell into. Briefly, I haven't felt very comfortable on my old aluminum full-suspension mountain bike in the last few years, and have been riding my road bike off-road with 40mm nanos on it, and enjoying it more. I have to pick my way though technical stuff and fall off more easily. At the same time I kind of like the plus-size tire idea. I test-rode/demoed a Santa Cruz Hightower with 27.5+ tires for a few hours a couple of years ago and liked it a bit more, but never pulled the trigger. I found myself holding onto the bars fairly close to the stem, especially on long climbs (where you pay for the tire fatness). Meanwhile my 14 year old seized control of the mountain bike and updated it with better brakes (XT replaced avid jucy), which is great, and really wide flat bars with a short stem, which I can't get used to. So this got me thinking maybe I need a nice steel Fred-bike with drops. Everyone else here (Santa Cruz) has a bright–colored Santa Cruz $8K carbon bike.

The faux-outrage-provoking head badge of course is an added plus.