Hey, I'm an American living in northern Japan. I have read some interesting posts here and hope sometime I'll have something to add. I have been cycling for about three decades now, but only seriously on and off. Nowadays I do a little off road riding, some fire/logging roads, and some road riding. I have a front suspension Louis Garneau mountain bike, but a few years back realized that most of my riding didn't require heavy off road tread, so I'm using hybrid inverted tread tires. I have rear panniers that I use when touring.