Well, it's been awhile since I looked at BG's web site. The Tiawanese-made complete BLT now looks like a great deal! For about $1700 USD you get SLX/XT specs, and handbuilt racks. In short, the complete bike is ready made for touring and no modifications are necessary.

I've been looking at building up a cyclocross frame (specifically the Cross Check and Double Cross) into an all-arounder (including some loaded touring). While XC bikes work for touring, they're far from perfect: the geometry is a bit twitchy, short chainstays, etc.

The BLT also looks like it would do well as an all-arounder. The geometry seems a bit more spritely than other dedicated touring frames like Surly LHT, Soma Saga, etc.: Those bikes have an extremely low BB, and a very long wheel-base. The BLT geometry seems like a nice, happy medium between touring and XC geometry - stable enough for loaded touring, but nimble enough for all-around riding.

I'm really glad Bruce is still around...