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@niggle
Well I am quite light and not particularly powerful, the loading on the rack will be fairly minimal and the bike is to be used on road exclusively, so I think the risk is low. Anyway the frame cost me <£85 brand new even when you factor in touch up paint, so I am not going to lose any sleep over it...
Meanwhile just some further details on mods to the orignal build plan:
Brakes: front just as planned and is excellent, powerful, but firm at the lever. However, as I said the rear canti brake would not fit, the slots in the canti would not allow the blocks to go low enough (no matter I will just fit it to the back end of my touring bike so at least my efforts in servicing it were not wasted). Instead I have fitted the 90mm Shimano Tiagra v-brake from the front of the tourer on the back of the Pomp: it works but with the pads so low in the arms, that there is too much mech advantage resulting in a squishy lever and snatchiness, plus very limited rim clearance. This just underlines how many variables there are in brake performance: the front brake is a Shimano Sora 90mm v-brake, identical to the Tiagra apart from colour, but the blocks are ~15mm higher up the slots. My plan now is to try a Tektro 926AL mini v at the rear, this has 80mm arms which will reduce the mechanical advantage, but will also lower the straddle cable. There is over 10mm clearance over the rear mudguard with the 90mm brake so I anticipate no problem fitting an 80mm one.
Also I had to put a link back in the chain as there is not enough clearance between rear tyre and mudguard with the axle in the middle of the track ends. This gives me a lack of adjustment for taking up chain wear so a half link may be required at some point soon.
I was rather disappointed with the very short stays supplied with the Dia Compe ENE Mudguards, so short that at the rear they were nowhere near reaching the frame eyelets and I had to use an ugly lash-up with p-clips on the rack legs, as you can see.
I am happy with the gear cable run and used some nice stainless cable clamps by Jtek on the top tube (those plus the crank bolts and chainring bolts are all Jtek stainless abd came from SJS cycles and seem like really good kit, as does the Surly stainless chairing). At the back the cable runs away from the seat stay to curve into the cable clamp arm and along the length of this I have put an inline cable adjuster which is a very convenient location suggested by a Cycling UK forum member: with the cable at this angle the yellow adjuster marks on the hub are at the rear so you just need to look from the back of the bike and twiddle the easily reached adjuster at the same time: much easier than reaching forward to the shifter as per the OEM flat bar shifter and how the Versa came, with an adjuster at the shifter end of the cable.
The Jtek cable clamps have a little gap at the bottom where they bolt up, through which I was able to thread the wiring for the rear dynamo light.
On a test ride last night the hub shifted superbly and I was pleased by the lack of perceptible drag compared to the Nexus 8 I have experienced previously. The Hermann H One S dynamo headlight is also excellent: bright, nice beam pattern and a warmer colour than most LED lights.
I was worried that my small hands would find the Versa/Microshift levers a stretch, I am OK with Campag Ergos but struggle a bit with Shimano STIs even with the reach adjusted to the closest, but the Versas were fine, plenty of braking from the hoods and drops and the shifting was easy enough, even the long down shift lever which does have a long throw. The main issue was getting my brain and hands to do the new shifting method, but this will no doubt come with time.