Thank you PP. I'm very pleased with how it's turning out. You're dead right: absolute quality, very comfortable and definitely not lightweight.
It feels more of an all-road tourer than pure MTB in this guise. For any longish trip I like to take a change of clothes, tools, food and more fluid than normally fits into the standard water bottles, all balanced across front and rear panniers; a few kg here or there isn't such an issue.
(Which reminds me, I made the mistake of buying flavoured, sparking water when riding in 35C heat in Austria a few years ago. It warmed up to body temperature in my panniers - absolutely disgusting to drink!)
And, going full circle back to Bernard Magnouloux from page one of this thread. He met the Crane cousins on their Journey to the Centre of the Earth, in Lhasa whilst one his own 5 year adventure. He remarked on their approach to weight saving: 'they rode racing bikes... even cutting their T shirts at the navel to save a few ounces. He asked "What do you do when it gets cold?" "We just go faster!".' When much younger I tried to emulate that streamlined approach but I'm quite happy to carry a bit more, go a bit slower, be a bit more comfortable.
