Wow- butted cromo frame, beefy looking rigid fork, 45mm CSs, V-brakes, 8-sp drivetrain and MSRP of $425. It does have a few less than ideal specs, but all in all it looks like a great buy for a budget tourbike. I wonder why it doesn`t come up more often on this forum. BTW, it looks like they went from mtb triple to road triple somewhere between those two model years.

I just want to chime in that all my touring to date has been done on a Kona Blast front suspension mtb, but pulling a trailer, so the CS length is kind of a moot point.