Originally Posted by
drrobwave
Just to throw a monkey wrench in and hopefully not to upset the apple cart - I have a Soma Saga that I love for touring, I tried to set it up for road but the geometry is to relaxed and for a big guy like me it was tough to stay out of the wind and in the draft. The Saga is stout and it carried my 240 plus another 40 on a few trips. ...
The Saga looks like a great dedicated touring rig, but for all around riding it's a tank. I'm 5'9", 160#s, so even fully loaded my total payload would be around 200#s. The Saga would probably be overkill since it's not very efficient for unladden riding.
I think I might just go with the Cross-check. It's a bit more burley than the double-cross, and would work fine as a touring bike for someone my size.