Touring bike frame

So the frame and fork is obviously the place to start when building a touring bike. We started with the idea that we wanted disc brakes - my old hands with weak grip strength don't need to be yanking back on a v-pull with a heavily loaded bike. If you aren't up on bike building (e.g., me) the choice of conventional brakes or disc is built into the frame (although some frames can handle both). After a fair bit of mucking about, I settled on one of two possibilities, both from Surly Bikes.  They sell the World Troller frame with the S&S couplers (see previous post) built in at the factory and the Disc Trucker without the couplers (so we would have to get them installed after market).

The World Troller seemed like the no brainer option, but once we started looking at frame sizing, we found that we'd rather have the Disc Trucker. The Troller is designed for absolutely everything, which would be great if we were doing adventure touring with lots of off-road segments. But we're planning to be more conventional, mostly on roads and (at worst) gravel bike paths. The main drawback for the Troller is that they don't have as many size options. Furthermore, the Disc Trucker has 2" longer chainstays and a slightly greater BB drop. The former, in theory, should provide more stability with a longer wheelbase - but more importantly provides extra heel clearance to help keep you from hitting panniers. The BB drop is more obscure, but it puts your bottom bracket (where you pedal around) a little closer to the ground so you get a little lower center of gravity. Of course, if you go screaming around a corner with a deep lean and with your pedal at bottom stroke, the larger BB drop could cause a bit of a problem.  But being short people, the real critical factor was the frame sizing options, and the Disc Trucker simply fit both of us better.

Anyway, the Disc Trucker seemed like what we wanted, but it doesn't come with S&S couplers so the big question was whether we could get a reasonable price on installation.  We found a good deal by talking with Bilenky Cycles in Philadelphia. They're a Surly dealer as well as a machine shop with experience in installing the couplers. They're working on our first frame now. Check back in November to see what it looks like.