AAA - All Road / Audax / Adventure Time

You put an open up in your mood wall...

That is because Open's are insanely good.

Same designers/ company. Lighter. More aero. I love mine.

Perhaps, but I do not want one.

Also in the mix are the Niner RLT and the All City Macho King. The Macho King is lovely, although I don't like either of the available paint jobs and I fear it might be a touch racy for what I want.

Sorry who's bike is one of the best in the genre? ;)

Your brief seems like exactly what I'm after at the moment too, I basically want a Surly Straggler but with square geometry and a nice light tube set, will be watching this to see which option you take.

Yep, that's basically it. The versatility of a Straggler but light and racy enough for winter club runs.

I'm kinda sold on a Macho King as as close as I can get OTP. They say clearance for 38s, so maybe 32 with guards which is good enough. Proper mudguard mounts, nice fork. I don't like the cable routing, nor the paint. If I can get one from the distro, I might paint it and see if any friendly framebuilders want to help with the former problem...

This is pretty similar to what I'm contemplating at the moment - although my thing is probably more skewed to wet club run than adventure.

i looked at the Soma Fog Cutter - can't see much not to like:

Although I'm more or less sold on a Genesis Datum:

(not because they are both red...)

I mean, sure, but I'm not going to buy a pinnacle what what I really want is this but with mudguard mounts

This is also bang on, if it wasn't for a long reach that doesn't suit me

At least I'm getting together a fairly good list of what I want:

Level or slightly sloping TT
Traditional round tubes, headtube for a tapered steerer
Rear disc inside the rear triangle
Internal, or downtube routed cables
Mudguard mounts, 3 bottle bosses
32c + mudguard clearance minimum
Carbon fork (Whiskey, Parlee, Columbus Futura all good options)

Life's too short to be a pedant

(Inserted into inspirational rapha'esque sufferfest wankery image)

No really. I get ya. If I could splurge for a firefly or something I totally would and then furiously masturbate over it.

Yup. I ride a lot, no point doing it on bikes I'm not stoked about. Only issue is the budget...

I'm lucky to work in an industry that affords me some discounts on stuff, so that's something. If I can get 90% of the way to what I'm after at 40% of the cost, all the better.

absolutely this .. buy a bangin bike .. fuck 'value' #YOLO

has rock lobster got back?

Yeah, I've got a deposit price and a timeline and whatever. Thing is, I would rather go to a UK framebuilder, mostly because I can use my Cycle to Work thing through them.

Either Matthews then

?

absolutely this .. buy a bangin bike .. fuck 'value' #YOLO

Sora