jhawk, Your budget is strong enough to find a good used touring bike or you can wait until next year when Bikes Direct has a new shipment of Windsor touring bikes (they sell quickly in popular sizes). Several forum members have one and they're up to the task with a little fine tuning to the wheel set and some regearing.

Brad

Depends. Usually I start out with a used mountain bike that is running and replace things as I go, so it is often only out of service for a day or two at a time as I tackle the brakes on one occasion, crankset another, etc.

There are still things that are beyond me like indexing shifting, for example, that I'll take to my local bike shop to do. To my mind, it is fairly simple to do a lot of the work yourself and then take it in to a bike shop for them to dial it in and do the things that are beyond you. Take a six pack of beer with you and they will love you.

You might want to look again. 1600g (a.k.a. 3.5lbs) would be very light for a touring frame! Surly claims that the Long Haul Trucker frame is 2340g (in the 58cm size) and the fork is another 1020g.

I used Nashbar's double-butted aluminum touring frame for my touring bike and I think it's one of the factors that contributes to the bikes' light weight.

Off-topic - but I'd be very interested in how moving to Quebec addressed your not wanting to live with two languages any more. The official language in Quebec if French and most of Montreal is bilingual. And here you are posting in English too.

Regardless of how it looks on the surface, I think it made a difference for me to live in Quebec and live in French. I can walk into a store and start talking in French and it's not a problem. I'm also not obligated to speak in English even to people who abandoned the French language.

For me, it all boiled down to a sort of "language identity crisis" and not knowing whether I should live in French or English. Eventually, I decided since I spoke French at home and went to school in French, I thought I would be more comfortable and more "at home" in Quebec.

I know this may be a side topic but when someone said in 1995 during the referendum in Quebec that if Quebec were to separate that the province of Quebec was going to be the "enemy of Canada", I decided once I have the courage to move to Quebec, I will. Several years later, I had a back problem that prevented me from working. Once I was well enough to start working again, I did and saved up enough to move. I know not all Anglophones are intolerant but always suspected some may have some ideas that go that way. When I heard that comment about Quebec could become the enemy of Canada, I thought it confirmed what I suspected some people had in their heads.

It's funny I kept on looking at English web sites etc. But in the end, I think I'm more comfortable living here in Quebec. I may even move eventually to Europe in an area where they speak French in the future (if I can).

Many years ago I built up a Nashbar aluminum road frame, using all the Nashbar components they had. I used Ultegra hubs and 9-sp triple drivetrain, mostly purchased on sale or remaindered. Bar end friction shifters. I had a set of 105 brakes. I built the wheels myself. It came to ~$800. It's been a great bike.

OP: Takes a lot of individual bits and pieces to make up a full bike. If you have none of the more spendy bits on hand already, I don't see how you can make it happen for the $600-800 you cited.

For background, I did an intentional bargin build this spring starting with the Nashbar $100 touring frame and shopped hard and well for items on-sale to complete it. When an item needed was priced right at Nashbar, I used them (although Amazon was a common source).

Bottom line is about $1,100 USD for the complete rolling, stopping, bounding, turning bike.

Adding a full set of panniers/bags, lighting kit, fenders, water bottles, mirrors, etc., added another $1,000-ish.

Buying all the camping stuffings to fill the panniers is still underway and I expect it will total another $1,000 +/-.

And I will add that I didn't select anything high-brow, just good functional stuff that was on sale and/or well bought. Probably the FSA MexaExo triple crankset with external bottom bracket looks close to blingish or even excessive, but was only $120 or so complete (again on-sale through Nashbar).

So recommendation is to look for a built bike. My favorites for that is Bikesdirect.com, Craigslist, and the local LBS who is a serious dealer in the Specialized brand/line of bikes.

/K

PS: Before someone reminds me, Yes I owe a short build story with a few pix and a cost sheet... months late due to life interruptions....

I admire and respect your choice, I specifically bypassed Quebec to utilize my Bilingualism. I am proud of being Acadian and remember my roots but financially i was better off leaving NB. Just so happened i ended up in NC 22 years ago, i hadn't planned that way but..,

I posted an example of what I think can be a cheap build...
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...1#post15958450

Yeah, if I had the means right now I'd like to visit the area where my family name comes from in France.