Originally Posted by
Doug64
The only reservation I would have is the hydraulic rim brakes. My limited experience with hydraulic disc brakes would make me a little leery of using hydraulics for extended tours. I'm still not in the mechanical disc brakes camp for touring--yet.
Mechanical discs are great. Hydraulic on tour seems a little iffier because they require more skill to maintain and repair.
My reservations with these bikes would mainly be flat bars. I wouldn't want to tour without multiple hand positions like I can get in my drop bars and I know replacing flats with drops is not really a cheap easy process. You could go with the Euro "dumbo" bars but I like my drops. Also not a fan of aluminum, I find steel rides better and is repairable just about anywhere.
If you did get the Dehli I would switch out the rack it comes with for a Tubus or Surly Nice Rack so you can handle panniers better.