Starting the build for my bike with s&s couplers

[Crankin]

OK, we put deposits down on titanium Guru bikes, to be built with couplers. It's the MA sales tax holiday, and although the bikes will cost more than the cap on purchases for no sales tax, the owner of the LBS applied it to the frames.
I will go for a fitting with the super duper new Fit Lab process in the next couple of weeks. DH already had this.
The only thing that has been decided is that we are getting compact doubles with XTR mountain cassettes. I did not want to switch to SRAM and this will give us one lower gear than I have on my road bike with a triple and an 11-27 cassette. After the climbing I did this weekend, I think I will be fine, even on mountain climbs in Europe. Oh, and I am getting the logo painted in red. No other fancy paint job or decals, since I really don't care about color and the gun metal titanium is fine for me.
Once I get fitted, it will take about a month to build the bike. I am not really counting on it for this season, but, who knows, a winter weekend in PHX might be in the cards...

[buffybike]

Can't wait to see pictures. I dream of touring...

[Crankin]

These are not "touring" bikes, per se. I don't want bar end shifters, different brakes, etc. Basically it's a road bike with a gearing a little lower, 25 cm tires instead of 23 cm, and the ability to be broken down for travel. While I have been happy with actual touring part of the supported bike tours I have taken, the rental bikes never fit me, with the exception of Trek Travel, where I rented the same bike I had at the time. It sucked not being able to reach the brakes in the drops when I was in Spain, as well as having one less lower gear than my road bike. Since i am short, this bike will be built to take a rack, where no stock bikes with road geometry in my size can do this. I may put on a pannier and do short credit card type tours once we fly places, but the main reason we are doing this is to be able to have our own bikes when we travel.

[pll]

Congratulations! How exciting. This is a dream of mine, too. Some day!

[eofelis]

I'm starting the design phase for a similar type of custom bike. Titanium. No couplers. Steel fork. A road, almost sport touring, bike. Room for wider tires and fenders. Rack mounts. It will be built with Ultegra triple 10sp STI, XT 11-36 cassette and XT rd. A hill climber.

I'm planning on having Kent Eriksen in Steamboat Springs, CO build it.