i wanna start traveling more with my bike, but i think bikes shouldn't be treated like precious gems that can't get hurt, so i don't want to spend 1k on a frame. any mass produced or cheaper s and s alternatives?

Surly is making the Traveler's Check, a crosscheck with S&S couplers already installed. It's more than a normal crosscheck, but still cheaper than a custom.

over at dcfixed we were trying to figure this out actually.

a crosscheck frame costs $390, traveler's check frame is a whopping $1075. bilenky will retrofit any steel frame with couplers for $460, so with shipping and paint it's pretty much a wash.

but that also means that you could get a complete bikesdirect/ebay bargain bike and put couplers on there for the price of the traveler's check frame only.

you might even find a cheaper retrofit from one of these guys.

Dahon has a new full size ss/fg that folds up with some kind of integrated coupler/hingey-deal.
MSRP in the $500's. It seems dumb that they designed it with vertical dropouts, a deraileur hanger and eccentric bb, but wtf-ever, its cheap.
https://dahon.com/us/cadenzasolo.htm

You can get a ritchey breakaway for around $1000 as well

They're not S+S, but comperable. Plus it comes with a packing case - somthing you'll have to shell out another $500 for if you go the S+S retrofit route.

https://www.freemantransport.com/

don't know what they are gonna cost though.