I’ve been touring on a Bianchi Eros, circa 1994. It’s a good lugged steel bike, but not really intended for loaded touring. It’s more of a light-duty touring frame. It has no front rack braze-ons, no provision for a third water bottle, no fender eyelets. The side-pull brakes don’t have enough clearance for tires wider than about 25s. It’s also getting a little old. It’s spaced for 7-speed and takes a threaded headset.

I’ve been thinking for some time about building up a true touring bike, but I haven’t wanted to lay out the bucks for a Bruce Gordon, a Heron or a Riv. I would love to have a bike like that, but I just can’t justify the expense for the amount of touring I do.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker came along and looked like a deal. It would be fun, I thought, to build up a bike from frame and fork. Still the price was enough to make me hesitate. Then I saw the Nashbar Touring Frame in their catalog. A steel-forked aluminum knock-off of the LHT, it was introduced at $250.00. It had all the braze-ons I required, 135 mm rear drop out spacing, cantilever brake mounts and a threadless stem.

I had three reservations. 1. It’s aluminum. 2. It’s Nashbar. 3. For $250.00 how good could it be?

Recently the price was dropped to about $175.00. With a 20% coupon code, I could have the frame delivered for $137.77. The first two reservations hold, but at that price, how bad could it be? Or how good would it have to be? I ordered one in my size (58).

It arrived today.