Hi, This is a copy of my post on an older tread, but the idea seems to fit the situation here. The point here is that deciding what is the most important attribute (s), and what are you willing to trade off. I hope I never have to decide between the Volpe and LHT. It would be a difficult choice, and I'm not too sure of which way I'd go. You should do well with any of the three bikes you listed. Good luck

"This is a Bianchi Volpe which has gone across the US and and a lot of the Pacific Coast Route in this fully loaded configuration. It is used with a trailer to get groceries and a few weeks ago I took it on a club ride. It was a day for fenders. It is more than 3 lbs lighter than my LHT and a lot more nimble. The Volpe was OK, but my road bike would have been better suited for the type of riding--even with a brown stripe up my back. The point is: it can do an acceptable job of most things, but it is not really outstanding at any of them. Building a bike is always a compromise. Just determine what is important to you, build it that way, and learn to live with its other shortcomings. Good luck on your build.

I've run 2 different crank combinations which were geared toward touring. The first which I thought was too high for mountainous fully loaded riding was a 48/36/26 with an 11-34 rear cassette. The second was a 44/32/22 crankset with the same rear cassette. This is an excellent touring set up and allows a top end of 28 mph@ 90 RPM, and a low end of about 3.5 MPH @ 90 RPM. I've never had a problem with Shimao LX rear derrailleurs being "floppy". They shift well in a lot of different configurations."