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@benana
As I mentioned earlier I really wanted to make a touring bike. I have been on a few tours with my grandpa's old claud butler. It is great but even after upgrading to 10 speed wheels and other bits it (I) struggles to keep up with my mates modern bikes. Mainly on the off road /gravel stuff but that is the best bit so a new bike capable of doing that was on the cards.
A bit more back story to go with this bike. Two of my mates who I have been on cycling holidays with had planned a 6 month trip to South America, to Patagonia in Argentina and Chile. I had wanted to do a longer cycling trip for a while and also had been thinking of stepping down from full time work to be freelance. So when I got the invite, I had to do it. And I knew I had to make the bike.
I wanted the bike to be capable of handling some decent off road, so pretty big tyres (the biggest I could manage) and then all the braze ons for touring/bikepacking. I wanted to go for over over size tubing so it was solid and I only (barely) know how to make a lugged frame and to keep it in style with lugs, a horizontal top tube. Basically what I was going for, was something similar to a crust nor'easter but with a little slacker head angle.
I'm normally all about second hand and a bit of a bodge but I decided as I'm going to put a lot of effort into making the frame it deserves going all out on and it could last me years (yearight). So although being a classic lugged look it needed to be up to date component wise with thru axles etc. I also wanted to try get some flashy features in so I would be really happy with it and not wishing I had added this bit or done that. It means I definitely pushed my abilities, maybe a little too much but you don't know until you try.
There was a big project on at work before I left and it meant I only had 2 weeks from finishing work to flying to build it. I started drawing it out full size to help me not make any mistakes but also to get a custom frame bag made. That also had a 2 week lead time.
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