Originally Posted by Chris Pringle

The pass hunter is a good rack, especially the one without decaleur. For the very big front bags, I believe Jan prefers front racks with decaleurs attached to the stem for stiffness reasons. Some users will find the V.O. rack (w/ decaleur) completely acceptable. Front bags on racks generally handle better for the reasons indicated above by fellow members. Ultimately how much the handling gets affected is going to depend on the size/weight of the loaded bag and the fork geometry. On a high trail fork (such as the one that comes with this bike), I personally wouldn't go with loaded bag over ~5 lb. (2.5 Kg.), just to be safe. -- enough to put a DSLR and keep it handy up front. Going with much heavier loads, the detrimental handling will become apparent mostly on emergency situations, night riding, off-roading and so on where faster handling is required occasionally. Check with mfrer re: carbon fork. Commodus states nicely the reasons why this might not be a good idea.

High trail bikes benefit from additional weight spread around the frame: a little up front (small handlebar bag/front rack bag), and more over the center and rear (e.g., frame bag, saddle bag, trunk bag on rack, panniers, etc.) On the other hand, French-style randonneurs (w/ low trail forks) love a lot of weight up front for their handling to feel "normal"... like riding an unloaded high trail bike.