The way I have this frame figured, Nashbar saw that Surly was doing okay with the Long Haul Trucker. and wanted to jump on the bandwagon with a green touring frame. They already had a contract with some Chinese bicycle factory. So they borrowed the Surly's specs pretty closely and ordered up a bunch of frames.

The factory apparently does aluminum fabrication. All of Nashbar's frames are aluminum. I suspect that the same factory makes frames for a lot of other brand names as well.

I'm not going to kid myself that this is a great frame, but at the price there's nothing wrong with it. Now, if I hung Dura-Ace components on it, I would truly be polishing a turd. I'm basically trying to build a cheap, functional tourer.

Others have asked about my impressions of the frame, so, I've been posting them here. I'll try to keep updating the thread as I make progress on the build.