Originally Posted by Arsbars
Long winded explanation
I'm a huge fan of steel. Would love Campy 9 speed, but I'm not against giving Shimano bar-end shifters a try. Rack braze ons a must, atleast two bottle cage mounts, and rack mounts front and rear.
If you're looking for a good solid steel tourer that can carry big loads but still feels awesome to ride unloaded, check this bike out:
http://www.marinoni.qc.ca/html/2005/05_en_turismo.asp
Marinoni is a local brand from Montreal (QC) and has a very good reputation among racers. The Turismo is their touring bike. Its geometry is a little more sporty than most touring bikes, but it's extremely solid and will handle a lot of weight. And you can use tires up to 700x35 with fenders and 700x38 without, so you can even turn it into a good cyclocross bike (although a bit heavy).
I have the Marinoni Turismo and it's a truly sweet bike. You said you like Campy and steel. Well, this bike is made of the nice Columbus Zona Double-butted assymetrical tubes, and comes with a full Campy Veloce gruppo (except the brakes which are Tektro Mini-V). My crankset is 52-42-30 and cassette is 10-speed 13-29. Of course this may seem a bit too high for many ppl on this forum, but if you have strong legs, I find 30/29 is good enough for hills while loaded.
And I wanted a versatile bike that I could race with with my friends, but still take it our a tour when I feel like it (I couldn't afford two bikes, one for each task!). Right now I'm mostly training (i.e. racing) with it, and the only things I change are the tires. They come with 700x32, and i changed to 700x25 (smallest tires you can put on the rims). I also put the stem lower and flip it to put it on the "negative slope" side. When going on tour I put the 700x32 tires back and put the stem higher and flip it on the "positive slope" side so I stand more upright.
So far I've been very happy with the setup. At first I didn't like the brakes too much, as they had a tendency to stick on one side of the rim, but after a little bit of fine-tuning I fixed the problem. Other than that, it's all good.
I have 1000 kms so far on the bike and no problem at all. Wheels are very solid; I caught many huge potholes (very common in Montreal!) and they are still true. And I love the Veloce Gruppo. Very esthetic, performant, reliable, and durable.
This bike retails for 1750$ CAN here in Montreal, about the same price than the Trek 520. After shopping around, I realized that for the price the Turismo was a much better choice, and was more versatile (but I ended up finding an "almost new" Turismo for 1330$ CAN taxes included, exactly my size!!!

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Here's a picture of my bike with front and rear racks. Anyway, if you're looking for a steel tourer with Campy and that nice Italian style, check out the Marinoni!