Originally Posted by Doug64

My wife's bike in the photo above is a Co-Motion Nor'Wester Tour. She really likes it, and has put over 7,000 miles on it since she got it a little over 2 years ago. It is a beautiful bike, and the folks at Co-Motion are great to work with. The Cascadia is the same bike with disc brakes. The bike is fully capable for fully loaded touring. If there is a loaded tour in your future, it might be a good idea to outfit it with that in mind. It is pretty expensive to change from a double to a triple once the bike is built.I doubt if the triple will go out vogue soon. On a double, 10-speed set up there are 20 gears, with perhaps only 18 of the being usable. On a triple 9-speed setup there are 27 gears with 25 being usable. The jumps between gears are smaller in a triple/9-speed setup that has close to the same gearing range . Just based on that alone, I'd opt for the triple. I like finding that "sweet spot" when I ride, especially when loaded. I didn't realize how much I actually shifted until we did a ride through Michigan this summer. On those little rollers we encountered in what was supposed to be a "flat" state, I was shifting every 3-4 minutes (that is why I like STI shifters). I also used most of the gears on the bike.

IMO- If you are a light rider there is no reason to run 35 mm tires on a supported tour. or a loaded tour for that matter. The most we ever run loaded is 32 mm. I just put 28 mm on my wife's bike a couple of weeks ago for recreational and club riding. According to my wife, just the difference between the 32 mm and the 28 mm tires makes a significant difference; and she knows bikes. Since she got the Co-Mo her other bikes have been mostly collecting dust!