Originally Posted by
Bah Humbug
Yeah those are both a bit much towards utilitarian for my taste. The advantage of the Smoothie is it takes the same parts as the R2 (other than crank) so it's an easy swap if something happens to the frame. I doubt I'd get one under other circumstances, because another rim-brake road bike would be too similar. Better to get a disc brake all-road that brings something new to the table.
The Pass Hunter is probably overbuilt, it falls into the same issue as Surly and other big brands where they have to design for lots of use cases and rider sizes. From what I've heard the Lightning bolt is pretty spritely.
Originally Posted by
Velo Vol
wut is "modern steel"?
Oversized tubing, typically lugless construction, threadless headsets, disc brakes, thru-axles. Most nowadays are going with tapered head tubes as well for carbon fork compatibility.