Originally Posted by DropBarFan

I've seriously considered a Habanero, costs more than ordering direct from China but price seems pretty fair considering they take care of a lot of the design etc problems. I'm avg height but light body weight so my Trucker is sturdier & heavier than I need. I like that Habanero offers S&S coupler option.

Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN

A friend of mine is quite happy with his Habenaro. Not a very good photo, but I did post a photo of it on page one of this thread in post number 9 back when this thread started two years ago.

A year ago we did Florida Big Cyprus, Everglades and Florida Keys (pre-Irma). The first photo attached is of his Habenaro on that trip. I do not know where he got a Carbon fork that has the mid fork rack mounts, but he got it and it works for him. My fork on my Backroad (above) is steel.

On the Habenaro, with no front panniers he had his rear panniers as far forward as he can get them and still have heel clearance, when he had more heel clearance, he had some shimmy and poor handling. That is why the photo below has front panniers but the photo I posted two years ago did not. After that first long trip with it he decided he needed to spread the weight across the bike better.

I do not know what the deal is with Lynskey, but they occasionally post bike frames on Ebay that are new at a substantial discount. They also carry full warranty. That is where I got my Backroad frame. If you are very patient and know what model and size you would want, it might become available. Or it might not, but there is no way to predict. But if you are patient and interested in a Lynskey, figure out what model(s) you are interested in and the size. Then keep an eye on Ebay.

I was not watching to buy a Backroad when suddenly one showed up in my size on Ebay. I bid higher than other bidders but still got a great price. I think my total cost (which includes new SP dynohub and new Luxos U for light and charging) was less than the manufacturer price for just the frame. Some of teh parts I put on it were over 10 years old and used on a different bike, some parts I bought used (1990s vintage rear XT derailleur), but a lot of the parts were new. And I did almost all the work, the only labor charge was to install the headset at a bike shop.

Some Titanium frames have thick chainstays that can interfere with a triple. If you want a triple, consider that. The second photo below is of my Backroad. The drive side chainstay was designed so that there was plenty of room for a triple on the Backroad, but that is not common to all Lynskeys.