steel road bike

i'm quite aware that there is no one-bike-to-rule-them-all, every bike performs well in some scenarios and poorly or not at all in others. that is clear, but it is also clear that what interests me in cycling rests in a quite narrow band of the cycling spectrum, i have no use for a bike capable of bombing a down-hill trail or a time trial road bike, for example. because of that realisation, i have been seen a lot of overlap in the bikes i currently have, specially two of them, a pinnacle arkose one (~2013) and a trek emonda sl6 (2019).

i'm more attached to the arkose, i bike that has been with me for a while and has taken me in several adventures. the emonda is kind of boring, it is very light and fast, i like the road noise amplification on its large carbon tubes,but i dunno, it just doesn't inspire me. but i feel that if get rid of the emonda and keep the arkose i will miss a lighter bike.

so lately i've been considering replacing both of them with one bike that covers the use i give for them. i set my mind on a steel road bike (because ti is too expensive) that matches the following criteria:

• capable of climbing, so not so heavy
• capable of light touring/bikepacking
• compatibility (ignores silly bike trends)
• sturdy, lasts forever

with that criteria in mind i have come up with this shortlist:

• ritchey road logic
• genesis equilibrium
• surly midnight special
• surly straggler
• condor fratello
• condor acciaio
• condor super acciaio
• standert pfadfinder
• charbon all-road

ritchey road logic

• disk and rim break options
• clearance for 30mm tires, which is a bit too little
• look is a bit too classy for my liking, but have seen some beautiful builds

genesis equilibrium

• couldn't find much info, website seems down
• allegedly only 28mm clearance which, if true, would be show stopper for me
• probably the disc version has more clearance

surly midnight special

• 48mm clearance, which is a bit too much, means the geometry is too long and it will look ugly with skinny tires
• doesn't look fast

surly straggler

• 35mm front, 50mm. same as the midnight special, maybe too much clearance
• leaning too much on the adventure gravel side of the scale

condor fratello

• disc and rim options
• longer wheelbase compared to the other condors listed here
• bike to do everything
• 32mm clearance on the disc version, 30mm for the rim one
• disc version: frame weights 1950g, forks weights 430g
• rim brake version: frame weights 1900g, fork weights 420g

condor acciaio

• built to be a road bike
• there no mount points for racks
• 34mm clearance on the disc version, 28mm clearance on the rim
• disc version: frame weights 1960g + fork weights 400g
• rim version: frame weights 1850g + fork weights 380g

condor super acciaio

• performance road bike
• 35mm clearance for the disc version, 25mm for the rim one
• apparently both versions weight the same, 2350g, which is strange

standert pfadfinder

• disc only
• 38mm tire clearance
• compatible with electronic groupsets only
• weight: frame 1950g, 450g
• most aesthetic pleasing for me, most expensive and not very compatible :(

charbon all-road

• disc only
• 38mm clearance with 700c
• nice looking, hand-made in paris, custom paint