kiltedcelt

Well, the title almost says it all. I have a Scattante R330 road bike that I've been using to commute for the last several months. I recently got panniers and I have some heel clearance issues since my heels come right even with the seat stays as I'm pedaling. A Jandd Expedition rack solved that issue by allowing me to kick the panniers back far enough to be out of the way of my heels. However, what's bothering me, is when I've got a lot of gear in the panniers, the front end of the bike gets wiggly. I ride with my stem/bars pretty even with the saddle height. Unless I really lean into the bars and put a bit more weight on them, the front will shimmy, especially if I ride with my hands on the flats versus the hoods. So, I was looking at touring frames since (correct me if I'm wrong), the longer wheel base will eliminate some of this shimmying issue? I've read some reviews and I know a lot of guys like the Nashbar double butted aluminum touring frame combined with the cro-moly touring fork. Plus it's really inexpensive. I'm on an extremely tight budget and though I would like to be able to just buy a Surly LHT frame, that is simply out of the question. So, would going to a touring frame help stabilize the ride somewhat? I'm also wanting a touring bike anyway since the wife and I would like to get into doing some shorter distance rails-to-trails type touring rides and such. Nothing necessarily like a month long tour or anything, but we'd both like to be able to do some long weekend kind of rides and I figure touring bikes are best for that sort of thing anyway. So, should I go for it? Will this type of frame be more stable when loaded like I'm doing now?