certainly a pretty frame with all the cool details in the lugs etc if you're into that.
what sort of bars are you thinking of putting on, which leads to what sort of shifters?
I very much second the suggestion of a 48/36/26, and ten speed setup with a deore rd, 11-36 cassette, gives you are really good range of gearing, and also as already suggested, its easy to change the 26 ring to a 24 or 22 for loaded riding.
My wifes bike uses this exact setup, deore fd and rd, with deore 10 spd trigger shifters--all tried and true, reliable, well working stuff.
If thinking of going dropbars, then you start to get into trouble depending on the shifters you are thinking of--but lets wait and see what you say.
I wouldnt recommend a 50/39/30 9 speed or any speed, if you do plan on riding with panniers or whatever. I ride a bike with this gearing, and when Ive used it for touring, this crankset is simply just a bit too high everywhere, hence the long established use of the smaller cranksets like 48/36/26.
A 48/11 or even 12 combo still gives you a completely high gear inch high gear that is totally sufficient for all real world downhills and tailwinds. Heck, my 44/11 on my 26in bike still gives me a spin out speed at about 50-55kph, which really means that in the real world, I can comfortably pedal at 40kph, which we all know is in the speed range that we never can hold for any length of time anyway...
your ss fender idea is surely for aesthetic reasons, but the sks silver fenders I have on one of my bikes look very nice and are much lighter, have the aesthetically pleasing silver colour and a strip of clear part down the middle which gives a nice pretty line down the middle of fender--but being sks chromoplastic material or whatever it is, its both very tough and light.
Just putting that out there as an option to think about if you start thinking of weight at all of various components. My fenders are for 26in wheels, up to about 45-50mm tires.
if going drop bars, consider Gevenalle shifters and hoods. A neat option and with model options that can easily run on all kinds of gearing choices--road, mtb, dynasis, regular 9 speed, etc. I have these on the forementioned 26in bike with dropbars.
get back with more info, cheers
ps, and of course, if the crankset is something you want to be aesthetically nicer than stock deore stuff, you then can still look into the spiffy cool stuff that have cool designs, those herse whatever ones etc, and being 9 spd or maybe 10, you can still play with fd and rd options , depending on shifter choices, bar choices etc.
I suspect this would be your choice given your whole aesthetic leaning by wanting this frame and your fender choice preference.
Last edited by djb; 06-25-20 at 09:46 AM.