Building bike for touring and commuting: road, cantilever or disc brakes?

Brandon – Weight is not a significant issue, which is why I'm leaning towards cyclocross frame, vs. touring. It seems to me that touring frames are overbuilt for our needs. I mean, I'm thinking of this in UL terms: touring frames are like 80 liter, 6 pound Lowa backpacks.

As an example, the SOMA touring frame weighs almost 5lbs, whereas their CX frame is closer to 4 lbs and can come with a lighter fork. An extra pound or two does make a difference, but I agree that it's not paramount. Fit and ride quality are key, with a balance between speed and durability.

My wife weighs 130 at most, and will be carrying 10-20lbs of gear, including the rack and panniers (if necessary). So, say 160 lbs max. She would fit a 54-56cm frame. We're not doing any crazy touring in Bolivia, off-road stuff, or extreme wet climates.

However, I understand that the geometry is slightly different for the two types of frames. Are there any light steel touring frames? I checked out the BTL and it looks like a good bike, but still overbuilt for our needs.

Conversely, I could go with a SOMA Smoothie ES, which is a relaxed geometry version of their road bike. It would probably have similar geo to a touring bike. Downside is it lacks the canti brake studs.

1. Discs? I commute daily: one bike's a Cannondale Trekking with hydraulic discs, the other's a Jamis Xenith Endura (yes, I commute on a full-carbon road bike – with rack and a Brooks B17 – confuses everyone). From 30 km/h the hydros stop the bike in a couple of bikes lengths and are completely modulable. The Xenith's brakes – which are quite well regarded Tektros – are sketchy in the dry and f'ing dangerous/scary in the wet, even though they are fitted with Salmon Coolstop pads. I'm considering swapping the Xenith's front fork for something like a Winwood disc fork so that I can fit a BB7 and have braking on at least ONE wheel when it rains. I literally cannot wait until I can get hydros for dropbars: I am saving for a Lynskey Cooper CX ….

2. Weight? My impression is that a lot of US touring bikes are overbuilt and the Surly and Soma frames are simply way too heavy: basically it's just cheap steel. However there are a heap of light-ish steel frames available in the UK now which take discs – check out the Singular Osprey and both Genesis and Ridgeback also sell steel disc-compatible steel frames, as do Thorn. I'd do a search on Bike Radar as that's CyclingPlus' online site. Look for "winter bikes", which is what the Brits call mudguardable road bikes.

If you're not totally against aluminium check out the Kinesis Tripster and maybe their other CX bikes. If you really don't want discs then the field's open: for example, Roberts, Longstaff and Mercian: whilst the Mercian frames aren't cheap they're also not ridiculously expensive (cf IF, Moots or Seven), and they build up into lighter touring bikes than my Euro Cannondale.

Alternatively, the Jamis Quest is quite light: because of the components it's actually the same weight as my carbon Jamis.

By the way, my aluminium Cannondale tourer is more comfortable than the full-carbon Jamis and gets better the more weight you put on it: comfort is more than just materials, it's also a question of design.

"comfort is more than just materials, it's also a question of design."

soooo true, the season we were put on Scott CR1s (carbon) was not kind to my buns/hands

So.

Danny posted for help over a year ago. Got hooked up with a frame, can't be troubled to have a solid enough opinion (in over a year) to cough up a dime for it.

A lot can happen over the course of a year, Danny. Do you even know if my padre is still alive, efftard?

Thanks, bro. You might not believe in kharma, it believes in you