Originally Posted by cyccommute

First, I'm not sure what a 'rear load bias' geometry is. It seems to be something that Soma made up. Not that their bike is all that long in the rear compared to the LHT or Cannondale T1. If your bike feels 'light' in the front end, especially with the light load you are talking about, you'd benefit from lowriders.

I've ridden bikes with heavily loaded rear bags, the typical 60/40 front to rear split and with front only bags. Heavily loaded rear bags are by far the worst in terms of handling...even with a good touring bike. The only thing worse is a trailer. The front only or 60/40 split calms the bike's handling down a lot.