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@Belagerent
A friend of mine gave me his old Vitus D26 a couple of years ago. I tarted it up a bit with hydraulic discs, mudguards, wald basket, new cockpit etc. I got quite a lot of use out of it as a rainy day commuter or just whenever I didn't want to wear a bag:
Anyway, said friend has moved house and wants to start commuting again so I'm going to give him the bike back, but I wouldn't mind a replacement. I liked the bike a lot but did often think I would't mind having some gears on it, to that end I've been looking around for something with a similar geometry, mudguard mounts, a fork that could take a nice rack and some sort of gearing (1x or hub probably fine) To that end I've found:
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-dee-29-vr-city-bike-2018/rp-prod159718
https://www.damianharriscycles.co.uk/prod/tou_0011_nb/bombtrack-arise-geared-touring-2019-bike
The bombtrack is obviously more fuckable, and I would get it from the top boys at my LBS, but the Vitus is about a grand cheaper even when I factor in rack + hydro add ons. Also neither of them are 26ers but it seems like they're a dying breed anyway. I guess 650b or whatever might be an option but I don't know how that actually handles on a bike. (I really rated the 26er aspect of the Vitus frankly, felt like it span up to speed nice and quick)
Does anyone else have any ideas? Open to trying to build something myself if it comes down to it, though I've never done anything like that before. Also don't mind waiting to buy something second hand (I could just try and rebuy the same bike I know but...I really want to have some gears)