I bought a stripped specialized sirrus frame, fork and wheels and it turned out to be great at commuting and so I took it on a 1100km tour last summer... my sirrus is an '06 and so it came with a steel fork that had lowrider mounts... the frame also had three bottle cage mounts too, and rear rack mounts. I put the heavy panniers up front and just carried the tent on the rear rack and it was fine riding, even for 180km on the last day. The sirrus is still sold in a few levels of trim but it might be possible to snag a used one and swap out for drop bars like I did.