I like the idea of a light(er) touring bike. That was one reason why I posted the 32 spoke/caliper brake question yesterday. I’m having a bike built and I want it to be as light as is reasonable. Lots of long, fully-loaded tours are not in my future. Much more often, bike camping sorts of affairs (3-4 day trips), but mostly, just riding distances. So I reasoned that if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I wanted a bike that would be a pleasure to ride everyday, would carry light to medium loads with ease and grace and yet be able to haul me and a cross country load, well, across the country. Some compromises had to be made. A set of more robust wheels may be in my future, but at the moment, I’m disinclined to go that route until I’ve taken delivery and seen what’s what. I don’t pack heavy and I prefer a bit of speed to cover distance. Not that I’m at all “fast,” I’m just your average cyclist but I don’t like the idea of an unneccesarily heavy bike. I was told that with certain tube choices and components, such a bike could be built to satisfy those criteria and come in around 20 pounds. I’ve lost 15 of my own pounds and need to lose another five before I’m happy (what’s the point of a light bike if I’m the thing that’s over weight?). It’s one of those things that I don’t understand about MTB’s; What’s the point of all that suspension? The current crop of MTB’s weight a ton. For what? I, for one, wouldn’t want to pedal that mass of metal and oil up anything. 30+ pounds of mountain bike? Not me. Not any bike.

Oh, yeah. dbg, sweet looking machine you've put together there. Very nice. Super clean.