Great looking set up by the way. Really like that front rack. I have thought about a trailer and they make sense in some ways, but I don't want to store it and have it with me when I get to say... California or where ever I will end up. The B.O.B. is out.

Now lets look at your bike. I really like the set up you have. If you take the panniers off the front and put part of them on that rear rack and maybe distribute a little more to the front rack, that is how my brain is telling me to go. It is against what most are doing and that leads me to this thread. I must be wrong if so many set up their bikes like you do, but I am not one to just do something because it is what I see all the time. I also feel I will have less baggage than that. I do have experience in having to have everything I need with no contact with civilization for over a week, so I feel I know what all I will need with me. It would be a little less.