I've been reading touring journals up on CrazyGuy, and a couple of days ago I read about some poor sod who had taken the advice of the "experts" at the obviously racing oriented, know squat about touring but had to pretend to be experts at everything LBS guys, and went on a cross country tour with a bike with I think 24 spoke wheels. She was apparently breaking spokes every day or two and was about to give up on the tour. What kind of moron recommends anything less than 36 spoke wheels for fully loaded touring?