I'm getting to where he is talking about. I don't need a front rack for my daily commuter and might be able to run a slightly lighter rear rack for commuting. Also, I liked running the really small Conti Gatorskins (1 1/8") but those aren't suited for touring and so are off from May through the end of October. With working seven days a row, in a hospital, on night shift, on my feet, and going to school at the same time - things that make my commute less energy intensive are good.

In addition, I'm probably going to need to tweak my tourers transmission for better hill climbing while my bike that I am using for both right now has closer to road bike gearing (53-42-32 by 11-32) for my moderately loaded ride into work. The bike I acquired as a back-up in case something happens to my do-it-all bike I am now eyeing towards setting up as my commuter with the tourer set up with lower gearing. I never quite seem to use all of the upper gears while loaded and have to deal with a lot of hills in these parts, even touring (bike-camping really, 2-5 day jaunts mostly). I like the high end in town though, as I have several long, shallow, descents where even in 53-11 I'm running out of resistance.

My girlfriend picked up a Safari a couple of months ago. The only thing she doesn't like about it are the trekking bars. Her background is mountain biking and so she doesn't like to be hunched over and the lower height of the handlebars is giving her wrists trouble. She's also not keen on the grip shifters. Once I get new handlebars and shifters for her (during the next month) I think it'll be just fine. It came with good tires and a good rear rack, and she is liking the saddle so far, in fact, it is going back and forth between her Safari and her mountain bike on weekends. All the braze-ons you could ask for, but be aware that in your size it comes with 700cc wheels. Since she is at the cusp of the Small/Medium choices they offer the smaller bike in 26" wheels, but the larger ones run road wheels, which wouldn't be to my taste. Also, this years model comes in baby-***** brown. :/

For some reason Fuji doesn't get much love, but I don't think that is for any good reason. Give it a fair looking over, IIRC they are reasonably priced.

Everyone loves the Long Haul Trucker, but I love stiff, stiff, steel (favorite ride is a '88 GT Timberline) and I have heard at least one person comment that the LHT is a little "noodley" or something similar.

Personally if I didn't already own a 20 year old mountain bike that is what I'd be in the market for this niche as I like to do a little trail riding while out touring/bike-camping and the geometry is very similar in most respects. If that wasn't in the cards I think I'd be looking at either the Nashbar touring frame and build it up to my specs, or more likely looking for 80's steel touring bikes.