It sounds like I may be better off starting with a steel road frame with relaxed geo for light touring and re-think the cross aspect. Might be trying to get too much out of one bike, making too many trade offs, etc. BTW I have a dedicated road bike that I use for training and an 80s steel road frame that I converted to fg for city riding/commuting. I'm thinking it may be feasible to convert the fg back to geared for touring. I still have the shimano 600 groupset lying around somewhere and the bike will accept racks, but not a whole lot of tire clearance. pic below.

View image: 20141019 122841



Thanks for your replies.