On 04/27/2012 01:08 PM, SMS wrote:
On 4/27/2012 9:48 AM, Arthur Shapiro wrote:
In ,
wrote:

I told him to go with a Habanero titanium with Shimano 105.

Habanero is the obvious choice, and one can still purchase them
without the
arguably-silly threadless headsets.

That's true, but since the threaded forks and headsets have become
almost a boutique item, it now costs more for threaded. A threaded
headset and fork are preferable of course, but I don't think he'd pay
two hundred dollars more for it. You can correct the biggest problem
with threadless headsets with some after-market devices, i.e. see
http://www.octagoncycles.com/ and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oQYbZeQW0M.

For his riding, the Surly Pacer would be ideal, and still about $600
less than the Habanero even once he had the crankset changed to a triple.

I believe that the Bianchi CRO-Moly bikes are still non-compact frames.
http://www.bianchiusa.com/bikes/road/