IM happy with my tout terrain silkroad. I built it with drop bars, and have ridden it on everything from paved roads, to fireroads, to rocky, rough singletrack since i finished the build 3 months ago. It has handled all these terrains admirably with a decent sized load. The integrated rack is incredibly stout, and makes my tubus logo look flexy. I have the rohloff version which is wonderful. pricey, but totally worth it for a nice balance of road/MTB characteristics. It can easily fit 2 inch marathon XR with 60mm fenders, but most of the time i use 40mm marathon supremes.

the handling is impeccable.