What kind of bike/frame do I need?

It's on the list, thanks!

Surly bridge club

Good shout, and the cheapest so far. Why is the Ritchey Ascent double!?

So that the market has provided an option for you, whether you see yourself as a £600 frame guy or a £1200 frame guy

My Bridge Club is a utilitarian dadbike but it's a lot of fun to ride and kind of a shame that it doesn't get to do more

Recycled 650b dynamo qr wheelset on this one too

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You’re not a BB7 user then I assume?

Tbf as a BB7 fan, and a QR user I've never had to adjust them for wheel in / wheel out (which I do a fair bit as doesn't fit in car with wheels on). You just have to set them up properly in the first place.

Long live the BB7 (and QR. You can't mess up the threads of a QR skewer like you can a fork that I've seen many a time from poor installation).

Tbf as a BB7 fan

Thoughts and prayers.

Sheeeeeit, that's pretty much exactly the layout I'd have, even down to the pizza rack.. Shame about the spacer stack, but that's a trend at the moment that's not going away.

What's the ride like?

For me, the spacers are in part for clearance over my daughter's head, I'd have it a bit lower otherwise. Have been tweaking setup since that photo and currently have 30mm under the stem, which gives bars roughly level with the saddle, with added rise coming from stem and bars. So yeah, spacers, but not an unholy amount.

The ride quality is fabulous. I was previously using a rigid alloy 29er as an off-road tourer then converted into dadbike and this is a vast improvement, I think mostly as the geometry is much better. Contact points all just feel very naturally in the right place, fairly upright position but enough weight over the front wheel to not feel sit-up-and-beg.

Feels plenty manoeuvrable and not at all tank like, even when pretty heavily loaded. I'm gonna take the rear rack off soon as the handling was still alright with two big panniers on the pizza rack plus stuff in basket - but this is for supermarket trips really rather than world tours.

Lower BB and 27.5 x 2.25" slick-ish tyres are glorious around town and light off road, and don't make the whole thing feel as long, high and just generally enormous as a 29er.

Would recommend. I got mine from Spa but I think they have them available for test ride at Woods if you can get down to the New Forest.

Only downside I can think of is it's not routed for an internal dropper. I didn't want to drill holes in my new frame so hunted around for a 27.2 externally routed one - there are some available but not loads of choice.

In fact I'm so happy with it that - and given I ride it more than my 'nice bike' - I'm currently jujjing it up a bit with Middleburns, MKS gamma, Ti stem etc.

Barring a test ride you've pretty much sold me on it. Ritchey Ascent/Soma Jawbone is twice the price for no discernable reason, and then I'd have the thru-axle problem to solve too.

I'm going to sneak off to Brixton Cycles to see if they've got one built up I can stand over.

Interested to hear if you rate it as highly as I do

Well, I went to BC yesterday and bought a medium. You'll find out soon!

They had just had a Surly demo day and were effusive about it. I think I'll like it.