"You are not going to be doing the fair weather, smooth road, close to civilization sort of touring. Almost any equipment holds up under those conditions and a bike store or help is a reasonable possibility."

I don't know about that, over the 12000 miles, or whatever, probably half of it is real smooth running, not to say 26s aren't good for that also.

"Hey PeterPan, I checked out those nice-looking Urbanite bikes on their website. Cheaper than Riv even before the loony conversion, but some of the same ideas, seems like."

To be honest I went there looking for a Surly LHT which they also carry, though not much stock. But all I could get at the time was the Urbanite. It is designed around the pre MTB frame tubing sizes some of us like, and it has a wonderful ride. I am on the Clyde side, so I thought it might not work for me with 40-60 pounds on the bike, and my 220. Basically no problem but then I don't run at 50 MPH down mountains.... Aesthetically a lot of people comented favourably. Probably partly my fenders, but the green paint is nice enough, and nobody seems to miss the lugs or logos. It's a TIG welded bike, as you know, so it doesn't have the senseless bling of lugs, which just aren't required on this kind of tubing, though they would certainly be beautiful if executed properly. I'm real happy.

When I took off on my first tour on this bike I still wanted the LHT, and said to myself that if I still enjoyed this activity post a leg injury I had suffered, I would get myself the LHT at the end of the trip, and given it is often only 150, I would try out the Nashbar frame also. I thought it would be fun to compare all the stock frames. However, about the only thing wrong with the Urbanite were a few fit tweaks I would make so I decided to make my own frame at some point rather than carry on with the stock stuff. Not to say that will be an uptick in results either.