Here is the first bike I built which was for myself to cover several disciplines; a winter bike, commuter & occasional tourer. I also wanted to keep the same riding position as my summer bike (the 3 points of contact – bottom bracket, saddle & bars).

With this in mind, I designed the bike to have large tyre clearance to accept 35mm tyres and also have room to fit mudguards. I  designed it with long 440mm chainstays to give lots of heal to pannier clearance. As for the front end, I wanted it to be rock solid in a straight line and over rough ground and be able to soak up road vibrations. To allow this, the bike has a shallow head angle coupled with 55mm rake to soak up road vibrations and giving 60mm of trail for stability.