Okay, I finally bit the bullet and am selling my trusty '84 Nishiki International. It carried me for about 5 and 1/2 weeks through Europe last year and I have done some short tours at home in BC, Canada on it and commuted on it all the time. A great old bike and built to last but with greater ambitions and occasional forays on rough paths in Europe (especially north coast of england) I found myself want for higher volume tires and the extra chainstay clearance was of course a bonus.

I debated for a few week over a Cannondale and the Surly. I work in a shop that sells C-dale but I could also get surly through one of our suppliers. Without a doubt the quality of craftsmanship on the C-dale is higher. The welding is sloppy on the LHT and the brake bosses are not even. No worse than my Nishiki but no better. Such is the way of cheep overseas labour and the cost for surlys being brought to us at such a great price, but it is a work horse not a thoroughbred and it should do its job. Also the 62cm LHT falls right between the XL and the jumbo C-dale frames and it fits me perfectly.

Another reason for choosing the LHT is that I can mount all my bolts reverse and put a nut on them. You can't do that with the monostay on the C-dale so if it strips or the bolt breaks you have a bigger problem in your hands. I also dig the spoke holder.

I will be adding the tandem cable for the RD and wrapping the bars shortly.
Eventually I plan to lace up some 36H phil woods to DT swiss TK 7.10 rims but for now I have some beat up old wheels on her.

The build is shimano 8 speed 11-32 with true 8 speed barcons (not those 8/9 grabage). Tektro brake levers with vintage dia-compe NGC cantilevers, though that may change as they are contacting on a slightly upward angle on the front, slightly worse on one side due to the uneven bosses. BTW the frame and fork colour don't even match!

Bars: WTB mountain road drop bar
Stem: bontrager select 17 degrees
POst: thomson elite
saddle: ideale 92 touring
Fenders: 52mm alloy from Velo orange, will have home made leather mudflaps
Tires: Will be 42mm continental travel contact in near future (32mm contacts for now) continental makes the best touring tires in the world hands down, schwalbe is a respectable second but not even close to contending for 1st place.
Cranks: 180mm sugino made ritchey logic compact 94/58BCD 46/36/24. With some old deore LX derailleurs but soon to be 1994 XT...
Pedals: good 'ol onza clipless..
Racks: rear is a generic tubular rated to 150lbs, mine is branded Radical explorack... these are cheep and very good.. front undecided...

Photos soon.

Lets see your LHTs!