Lasue, I suggest using the mountain bike. You need to replace bits on it anyways, right?

I used my mountain bike for touring before I built my touring bike. The suspension fork wasn't an issue at all. I do have the dampening set pretty firm to prevent bottoming out when diving off of a 3' table top so pogo'g wasn't a problem. I also used my Continental Double Fighter tires (Which reminds me I need some new ones.). While it looks out of place while riding single track, I even left the rack installed. FWIW, the mountain bike is my heaviest bicycle. Fortunately I rarely have to lift it and pedaling is just fine. Without using the rack from one of my touring bikes, I can't really load the light duty Blackburn too much, but 20 lb. hasn't broken it. More capacity could be attained with a frame bag and/or a handle bar bag.

Brad