Hi. I decided to convert my motobecane Ti phantom for camping and touring. I installed a Tubus cosmos rear rack and a Tubus swing suspension rack in the front. I have Super C rear, front and bar bags. I also installed a big riser bar on the bike. I just got the racks installed last night and it mostly went well. I had to 'make' the suspension rack fit and I think I have to move both racks just a little to level them but it's not a big deal.

It's too icy here for riding in my opinion but of course I took it for a short spin. No heel clearance issues and the new bar did relax the steering a lot. But even barely loaded the front felt really strange when turning. How am I supposed to position the front panniers? My understanding is as close to the axle as possible right? What about the rear set? I just kept moving them closer to the front of the bike until I got a heel strike; is that right? My guess is you have to get used to a loaded bike but I'd like to get used to it with the bags in the right place.

I made a bunch of little changes to the bike and I'm sure it's going to take quite a few rides to get it comfy but any advice from others that have gone through an MTB conversion would be helpful.

P.S. I had dreams of being able to easily pop the racks off and take it trail riding but I don't think that will be the case. Pulling off the racks and changing the tires will easily take an hour if not more. Pretty sure you could very easily damage the swing rack from a tumble so I wouldn't want to trail ride with it on.

This post is all over the place but I hope it kind of makes sense Happy new year.