LeeG

Smooth is nice

Labor cost and economy of scale, customers able to pay the difference. Worth can also be subjective.

Doug64

I can give you my opinion based on the differences between my LTH and my wife's custom built Nor'wester Tour (now the Cascadia) Co-Motion frame. I built up both frames about 3 years ago and they have essentially the same components. The components might be a downscale (but not much) from what you would find on a complete Co-Motion, but they are definately upscale from the stock LHT. Both bikes have about 7,000 + miles of fully loaded touring on them. My wife's bike was built based on her measurements taken at the Co-Motion shop in Eugene. We live 45 minutes from the shop.

My wife is an experienced cyclist and specified many of the componants she wanted,e.g., linear pull brakes, STI shifters.




]

Finish:

LHT
OK, Paint chips and flakes off easily,weld finishing is acceptable, decals come off easily.
Surly does not sell touchup paint: “ chips add character” quoted from Surly's site. Suly's colors suck. IMO I got one of their better colors.

Co-Motion Nor’Wester Tour
Paint is excellent and durable , welds and finishing beautiful. Decals are clear coat covered.
Touchup paint and frame repainting available. Many colors available.

Fit:
LHT
You take what you get, a bike with a really long top tube.

Co-Motion Nor’Wester Tour
Perfect fit based on rider’s measurements.

Guarantee:
LHT
None

Co-Motion Nor’Wester Tour
Life time warranty

Frame Tubing:
LHT
Generic Taiwanese Chro-Mo 4130

Co-Motion Nor’Wester Tour
Light, oversized Reynolds 725 tubing and outstanding hand built touring fork.

Customer Service:
LHT
Varies by shop

Co-Motion Nor’Wester Tour
Excellent !!

Couplers/wheels:
LHT
Couplers available only on frames with 26" wheels. Frames <54 cm. only available with 26" wheels.

Co-Motion Nor’Wester Tour
Couplers are available on frames built for 700c wheels. 700c wheels are also available on frames as small as 49 cm.

Sixty Fiver

LHT frame is mass produced and runs around $500.00

A custom touring frame from our shop runs around $1600.00 with a custom built fork and in house powder coating and more often than not, comes with an integrated rack which would normally run a few bills on it's own.

We offer a lifetime warranty on the frame and fork and a one year exchange guarantee which means, if the bike does not meet every expectation, we will build you another one.

Hand building a frame, fork, and custom rack (filet brazed) is a great deal of work and besides the actual construction, many hours go into working with the client and making sure the design and details are all correct.

The final cost is really dependant on the component choice... add top of the line custom built wheels (also guaranteed for life) and one might be looking at $600.00 for those and a base of $2200.00 before you add anything else.

S&S couplers really boost the cost as they are rather expensive and although they are not that hard to install the people who can install them need to be vetted by S&S to ensure they know what they are doing.

kaliayev

Why polish a turd?

reed523

I read nothing but positive reviews of both. What makes an Americano worth 3 LHTs, and the frame alone worth 4x?[/QUOTE]

From a purely functional standpoint, perhaps little difference between the two. For me, the difference is being able to support the efforts of a quickly vanishing breed....a small manufacturer in the United States. I didn't catch where you live so perhaps that's not an issue for you.

A side note...the most interesting thing to me about your post is the availability of touring bikes for you to actually test ride. In my part of the world, that is unheard of. You MIGHT find a LHT in the correct size and that's about it. Consider yourself fortunate.

bradtx

DandyDave, Doug64 nailed the differences, IMHO. The concept of worth and value is important only to the consumer. If you're going to use the touring bike only a handful of times a year, then the LHT is the better value per mile when price alone is the consideration. The Windsor Tourist is possibly the best value per mile, FWIW. I like the engineering and execution of the Co-Motion and really who wouldn't and for someone accustomed to the cost of elite level road or mountain bikes, it does have a very attractive price.

Brad