So I think the Nomad will do all I need (slowly) and will last a lifetime. I’m sure there are other options but having done some research I keep coming back to the Nomad. Feel free to dissuade me though.
As a happy owner of a 2012 Nomad Mk2, I'd never put you off one!
If you'd like to see what I have done with mine, most entries are in the Forum's gallery under "Danneaux's Nomad" here:
http://thorncyclesforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=4523.0It is my go-to expedition bike and has proven ideal for everything from pavement to goat tracks and happily carries all I need for extended self-supported solo touring including up to 26.5l of water for desert transits. I find its unladen on-pavement limit is practically about 200km/day simply because its capability off-road tempts me to detour from pavement to slower and steeper gravel logging roads and the odd dirt track, so overall speed and therefore daily distance tends to be less rather than due to any shortcoming of the bike.
That said, the Nomad is a "lot" of bike and unless one needs the true expedition/heavy cargo capacity/rugged road capability it offers, a Raven might well make a better "all-rounder" simply because it is lighter (equipped as I prefer, my Nomad weighs 20kg dry and unladen) and more lively but lacks the cargo payload capacity of the much more robust Nomad.
I only found one easily addressed shortcoming to mine: Equipped with a rigid seatpost, the bike rode wonderfully fully laden but the same frame that made it perfect for heavy loads was uncomfortably stiff when ridden fast and unladen on really rough logging roads, causing some neck problems. Fitting a Thudbuster LT completely addressed this problem for me and made the bike a joy to ride both unladen on the worst roads and fully laden on any road.
If you choose to fit drop handlebars to yours, you will likely need an M (Medium) frame and a shorter reach stem and compact-reach/shallow-drop handlebars to compensate for the longer top tube. Equipped this way, mine fits identically to my drop-bar randonneur and touring bikes and I have had no handling problems.
Where you already have other bikes of different sorts, I think a Nomad will nicely fit your intended brief and will prove satisfactory and then some for your needs. I have a number of bikes in my fleet and still find myself coming back to the Nomad again and again as a "favorite ride" among them -- for almost any purpose because it works so very well and I still really like it after 5.5 years of ownership.
Best,
Dan.
