part of my suggestion given the ops willingness to buy a new bike with a months worth of looking and a trip this fall is to get a bike into his hands and broken in before the trip as he appeared to be bothered by a ding in the frame. Not knowing how heavy the rider is or size of load a new CC will handle heavier loads better than the Specialissimo, if the op is light and he's riding light it would be a very nice riding bike to have and not anywhere as much of a tank as the LHT or CC.

I had, rode and sold 80's touring bikes when I had a shop. The only oversized tubing back then was very thin steel tubing on some racing bikes and heavy tubing on mtn. bikes. From bare frame the op is going to have a bike that can't take as large of tires as the CC, has 126mm rear triangle and will require a total component package.