Originally Posted by RegularGuy
The first time I saw this particular touring frame was after the LHT came out. I saw their road and mountain frames before the LHT, but not the tourer.
Yes, you're right, nashbar jumped on the bandwagon a short time after surly started the LHT.
My neighbor bought one - it looks pretty good for the money - probably as good as a cannondale.
I didn't think the welds were particularly ugly. Those sort of wide beady welds are common on aluminum mtbs. But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Also, I think some of the Chinese robots probably weld better than some of the Chinese men. I've had a couple steel chino frames with screwed up dropouts and brake bosses. In fact, many of last year's LHTs had screwed up brake bosses on frames and forks (crooked or uneven height). They use robots on the main triangle, then manually add stays, dropouts and bosses. On my steel chino frames the main triangle welds are nearly perfect.
Cannondales welds would look the same as Nashbars except they file and sand them down a bit.
The Nashbar frames tend to cut costs on the material side (cheap straight gauge tubing), not the assembly labor. Of course they all have nice paint jobs....