Originally Posted by sedges

Sure like this thread. At home I ride on both pavement and Forest Service road in the course of a days ride. I was thinking about a hybrid type bike like the Giant Roam or Trek Utopia for my next bike. I would also like to tour toward the US SW during the winter. Big bend area in Texas and AZ south from Tuscon come to mind. There I would like to ride pavement to park or national forest roads and just keep going. I am not interested in serious single track trails. A regular hardtail MTB might service me better off the pavement, but the Roam and Utopia have a bit longer chainstay than must MTBs and may be better on the pavement.

Either would require a front rack that deals with suspension. I now understand better why the fork crown suspended racks like the swing make better sense. It is where the front load would NOT be moving up and down so much. The thing I don't like about them is carrying the weight so much higher. I think that can be worked out by reserving the front panniers for the lightest weight stuff in the outfit. Maybe clothes and lightweight food items.