Bike specifications

General Requirements

The requirements I have for a new bike are slightly complicated.  Primarily this bike is replacing another bike that was used with panniers to carry (a lot of!) shopping - we don't have a car, so having a bike that can carry a lot of weight in panniers is very useful.  However it also has to be good for doing daily rides out -10-15 miles or so - and over various terrains - mainly on road but probably 10-20% offroad.

Another fairly restricting limitation was that I needed to be able to reuse a lot of parts from my old 26" Marin mountain bike.  Mainly this meant sticking to a 9 speed spec (since the chainrings were 9 speed, as was the reasonably new rear derailleur) and also it had to be able to fit the 26" wheels that I'd built up myself for the old bike (the old wheels were built around Hope XC hubs and whilst they've had 5yrs+ of very good use, they're still very serviceable).

I also wanted a bike that would be a bit different to what I've been used to over the last 10 years - my two bikes have both been aluminium frames, so I thought I'd have a go with a steel frame just for a change.  I've ridden a lot of steel framed bikes in my time, but all when I was a lot younger - maybe 5-10 or so different bikes as a teenager, all steel framed and all very good in their own little way - but when I came back to cycling again at 30 or so, everything seemed to have gone aluminium so I've just stuck with that really over the last 10yrs.

So all of that ^ ... means a 26" specific steel touring / hybrid frameset!

The quest was now on to find a frameset that would be suitable to base the build around.

Frame Options

I looked around at various different options for the frame, mainly touring framesets.  A few options I looked at included:

Thorn bikes

Thorn are a UK based bike manufacturer and they do a lot of 'old school' steel framed touring bikes that are renowned worldwide for their durability and general excellence.  I was quite tempted to go with a Thorn bike, I'm not entirely sure what put me off Thorn to be honest... I'm sure I'd have been very happy with a Thorn frame, but it just didn't work out in the end.

Cotic

Cotic do a lot of steel based frames and are known for being good for custom builders who want a unique bike.  I seem to remember that their options for touring frames wasn't great (or non-existent), or perhaps they didn't do a 26" touring frame, maybe that was why I didn't go with them?  I'm not sure to be honest... again, not to do them any disservice, they seem to be a very good manufacturer by all accounts but I just didn't find the right thing there.

Looking at the site now I remember looking at the Road Rat (pictured below as a pre-built bike, but they sell the frameset on it's own):

I thought that frame was very nice indeed and if my requirements were slightly different I might well have gone for that (and may do in future!), but unfortunately it was only available in a 700c frame size and didn't have any braze-ons / fittings for the panniers/mudguards that I wanted.

Salsa

Again, like Cotic, Salsa do a nice range of steel frames aimed at the custom build market.  I would probably have gone for one from here if it weren't for the - rather superficial - fact that a friend has the same frame that I would have had to go for!  Otherwise they do some lovely frames.

Dawes

I did briefly consider Dawes as well for a frame.  I know historically they've been a popular choice for touring frames, but when I looked at the latest range they seemed to be not quite so good as the older frames.  Whether that was people just being snooty about the older frames being better than the new... I don't know; but the general concencus seemed to be that the older frame design was better than the new one.

Incidentally when I was at Uni I used to ride my flat mates bike which was based on a Dawes Supergalaxy frame (I think?).  It was a lovely machine, with flat handlebars instead of the normal drops - which made it very practical for riding shorter distances around Uni and gave it a nice look to boot, especially with the purple frame colour (sounds a bit 'yuck' when you say 'purple frame' but this was a beautiful thing).  The feel of the frame was very nice as well, had a little bit of give / flex in it so it felt really comfortable to ride.

Surly

Surly are an American based bike company who are renowned for no-nonsense bikes that just do the job and do it well.  I'd been aware of them from reading about XC mountainbiking some years ago and had always thought they looked a bit too ... rigid ... or .. sturdy(?) ... for what I was doing back then (XC riding at that time).  However, that kind of a bike was actually just what I was looking for now.

Surly do a nice few options for touring bikes, the main one being the Long Haul Trucker.  The number of bosses / braze-ons / lugs etc that they include is huge - 3 water bottle attachments, panniers front and rear, mudguard attachment points, even a pump fitting point under the top tube and an attachment for carrying spare spokes!  Not sure I'll be needing that to be honest but still it's a nice added touch.

I also liked the fact they do the LHT in a 26" option which allows me to re-use the parts off the old bike easily.  The frame is also 'Fine For Fatties', which with my large girth I was happy about (FFF refers to 'fat' tires actually!)... so the option is there to put nice wide tires on through the winter months to get out and about in the snow easily.

Conclusion

So... in the end I opted for the Surly Long Haul Trucker frame.  It seemed to suit my requirements very well: a 26" version of the touring frame available, a huge number of attachment points for mudguards/racks/panniers, a large number of positive reviews online from happy custom build bikers*; the Surly LHT sounded like an ideal choice.

* - in fact the number of online reports was quite a big part of my decision I think, there are a HUGE number of Surly LHT builds posted out there on teh interwebs, along with lots of useful information on issues with the build - but basically there seemed to be very few issues, which was what I wanted to hear!