Hmmm... the sliders would have been a great choice but it'll be neat to see what you come up with.


A fine choice. I'm a big fan of 4130 but am not familiar with the Nova 29er. How does it compare with Tange Prestige for instance?

WITH a rear rack, 32 mm threaded tires, lights, and a comfortable saddle.

Gear it on the mid 60 gear inches and absolutely NO cyclocomputer

The cyclocomputer killed my fun, so I killed the cyclocomputer. :D

Go and explore ... summer is coming! ... It must be plenty a barn in rural England where you could lodge for a "fiver". Bring a SLR camera - no digital - and take pictures. Leave the spandex at home.

Here's my do it all fun bike, I just need to replace the rims (or maybe get new wheels), heavy loads, potholes and tram tracks are not really a good combination. I need more hand positions too, but I'm not too sure how I should go about fixing that.

Frost, you could try some On-One bars, the Mary or their other more 'homage' bars that I can't remember the names of. Oh wait, Midge and....somthing. Anyway, Moustache bars like the Nitto or Flared-Drops like the WTB off-road drop bars might be an option for more hand positions.

And er, Huhenio the Yokel, Summer has just ended here mate, and if you think I'm catching a plane to England just so you can use the words 'barn' and 'fiver' in a sentence, you couldn't be more wrong. :D

First of all here is my bike which could make a great adventure bike.
http://tinypic.com/mw76hg.jpg
Second fixed gears are pretty fun and a good change of pace. Thats what my commuter is.
Third recumbents can be very cool. Here's one I used to own.
http://www.optima-cycles.nl/eng/images/14.jpg
And heres one that I think is very cool.
http://www.recumbents.com/WISIL/misc...comside_sm.jpg

Lots of choices.

Craig

Those are very specialist bikes. I'm after one that can do it all with only simple parts swaps.

Very hard to relate to that Surly. It doesn't snow here, and if I wanted suspension I'd ride a suspension bike and not put 3" tires on a bike in the hope to achieve that. Very weird bike. If they sell even one here it will be a miracle.

Maybe you just need an adventure, maybe even without a bike. I know that's heresy, but sometimes I find that I just have to step back from what I'm doing, do something else, get some clarity, and then come back with a new outlook and a new appreciation. Given how much biking you do, it is obviously something that's important to you, but maybe it would be helpful to just get away from it for a while. Think about this, take a month or two or whatever time you feel comfortable with, promise yourself that you won't ride for that period of time, and you'll devote some time and energy to other things that you've wanted to do. Maybe you can take a non-bike trip out of town, go by train, or drive, see some different new territory, go somewhere you've never been. Try to meet a few new people. When you come back, you can think about where you've been, what you liked and didn't like, and where cycling really fits into your life. My $.02.

Maybe you just need an adventure, maybe even without a bike. I know that's heresy, but sometimes I find that I just have to step back from what I'm doing, do something else, get some clarity, and then come back with a new outlook and a new appreciation. Given how much biking you do, it is obviously something that's important to you, but maybe it would be helpful to just get away from it for a while. Think about this, take a month or two or whatever time you feel comfortable with, promise yourself that you won't ride for that period of time, and you'll devote some time and energy to other things that you've wanted to do. Maybe you can take a non-bike trip out of town, go by train, or drive, see some different new territory, go somewhere you've never been. Try to meet a few new people. When you come back, you can think about where you've been, what you liked and didn't like, and where cycling really fits into your life. My $.02.

Maybe you just need an adventure, maybe even without a bike. I know that's heresy, but sometimes I find that I just have to step back from what I'm doing, do something else, get some clarity, and then come back with a new outlook and a new appreciation. Given how much biking you do, it is obviously something that's important to you, but maybe it would be helpful to just get away from it for a while. Think about this, take a month or two or whatever time you feel comfortable with, promise yourself that you won't ride for that period of time, and you'll devote some time and energy to other things that you've wanted to do. Maybe you can take a non-bike trip out of town, go by train, or drive, see some different new territory, go somewhere you've never been. Try to meet a few new people. When you come back, you can think about where you've been, what you liked and didn't like, and where cycling really fits into your life. My $.02.

Thanks, I'll have to do the rounds of the LBS's, and have a think about it. :)

If by here you mean Australia I know of at least one Pugsley sold there.
http://wildworks.co.nz/csr/home.php

However none of those bikes (with the exception of the fixes) are for the average cyclists. But I am having alot of fun on the Pugs even without snow. Cleveland had a very warm winter this year.
As for adventure I don't really get much oppurtunitity for adventure. I guess thats why I ride such very different bikes to keep everything new and interesting. I have 4 bikes in the garage and all of them get ridden often.
Craig