I am in the market fo a touring bike for my wife. I know I know long haul trucker. But other than that I would like it to have discs and what salsa and jamis have forgotten is it needs low gears. Unfortunately it also has to be attractive which to her is not brown and not blue??? I am not against building one up but would rather avoid it. Let me add brifters to the list of must haves. We're not going to Mongolia so the reliability is a non issue and they are just nicer.

You should check out the Salsa Vaya. Only catch is the complete comes with a double crank (34/48) and 11-32 10-speed cassette. You may want to add a triple crank to get a granny or start from the frameset and build-to-suit. https://salsacycles.com/bikes/vaya/

I've got an XT 3x9 setup and BB7 discs on my Vaya. It was geared plenty low enough for the Great Divide MTB Trail last year.

And Brown IS attractive.

while i agree that brown is atractive (my d440 is brown) my wife does not. The new Vaya which is orange (atractive to her) comes with bb5s and a sram double which is not going to get low enough. Is your crank xt? how did you set it up? I have an xt crank on my soma and had issues getting it to shift nice. I had to move a spacer from drive side to the left to get it to work.

Kona Sutra?

Raleigh Sojourn. Its kind of beige, don't know if that is too close to brown or not.

The Sojourn and the Sutra have a 30-39-50t crankset. Looks like you'd have to start from a frameset to get something more reasonable, like a 24-36-48 Sugino XD500 in front and 11-34 in the back. This would be more comparable to the LHT's 26-36-48t by 11-34.

I just built up a Surly Troll as an adventure touring bike. While not expressly designed as a touring frame, it fits most of the criteria for my touring needs. It's just a frame at this point, so you can build it up to whatever you want- it can accept either disk or canti brakes. I put Avid BB7's on mine.

Oh, and it's bright orange.

Starboard, what do you reckon the whole build cost you? Nice looking bike btw.

I have a Marinoni turismo extreme. They are made in Quebec Canada. They come with bb7discs, 26/36/48 crankset, 11/32 9speed cassette, and Ultegra brifters. Also they will custom paint it for you from a wide selection of colours. Definately worth checking out.

That is a great bike. Not alot of info on their site though. Does it cost extra to have it painted? How much do they cost?

https://www.tout-terrain.de/2/product...oad/index.html
26" wheel, top notch. rear rack is a welded part of the frame.

I went a little overboard on the Troll build and installed an Alfine 11 hub, so that jumped the cost by a lot. The Troll frame itself is about $500, which is reasonable.

The Troll takes 26" wheels. Some say it's better for a world touring bike since they are more widely available. I have 700 wheels on my LHT and I have to say they both feel about the same as far as speed goes. The LHT may be a little more efficient, but I've only put 100+ miles on bike so far, so it's too soon to tell. I'm planning on a nice 50-60 mile ride on a known route to see how it compares to the LHT.

Salsa Fargo might be a consideration if you swap out for some nice touring rubber.

Look at the Lanskey touring bike - very nice !!

I would love to see, test ride and compare the fit of the 56cm, 57cm, 58cm Vaya, but where do you find these? Do dealers actually stock them or is this pretty much a special order from QBP's?

She might really like a new Co-Motion! https://co-motion.com/index.php/singles/pangea

+1 on Co-Motion. Blow her away with the choice of colors on the Pangea or Americano. https://co-motion.com/index.php/colors

Owned a 2008. Too short in the stays, but otherwise smooth.

Can't remember exactly how much I paid for my Marinoni.Seems to me it was about $2400 cnd. including Shimano pedals from my LBS. The custom colour scheme was included in the price.

Okay, how about this. You buy the bike that has all the features you want most, ignoring the color, then have it powdercoated in whatever color she most likes. From the reports of others, powdercoating a frame seems moderately expensive ($150?) and cheaper in the cost/benefit sense than buying a bike that isn't exactly right just because it's the right color. I've never powdercoated anything myself, but if I were you I'd at least look into it.

My wife had similar concerns. She wanted a road bike but didn't want me to spend much money. I found her an old steel Schwinn racing frame on Ebay that was pretty sweet. However, it was painted red, white, and blue (with light blue bar tape with white stars!) She thought it was most hideously ugly paint job she'd ever seen! No way would she ride it looking like that! She requested black with a satin finish - not gloss. Her favorite color combination is black and red. I spray painted it satin black with rattle cans - about 5 coats. Then I hand painted highlights around the lugs using a fine brush and fire-engine red enamel. She loves it!

I think powder coating would be better, but I didn't know much about it at the time. I'm sure the rattle cans were cheaper, and as long as my wife is happy, great. Happy wife = happy life!

+1 An alternative to powder coat for the same cost is to take the frame and fork to an industrial coater and have them electrospray polyurethane over epoxy. This will give you a bombproof finish. Polyester powder coat will be prettier, but not as robust or solvent resistant.

Yep, I built mine up from a frame. XT BB, cranks, derailleurs, SRAM 11-34 cassette/ 9sp chain and Dura Ace bar end shifters and cables. Shifted like butter from day one.

It may actually be easier to get a new wife... but probably not cheaper.

I'm building a 2011 Vaya up too. I'm stripping my Fargo's parts (all XT, 9 spd, dura ace shifters, 11-34, 46-36-26 crank, BB7's...) to build it. They are also selling the frame in metallic charcoal. Its not too hard or too costly to spec out a build and let a LBS do it. I know of a few that build and ship a complete for not that much more than a Vaya Complete.