I think the trail thing is wildly overblown. The front racks that 99.9% of bikes today get are nowhere near as solid as the old porteur newspaper-carrying bikes -- have you ever had a chance to hoist one of those ancien regime machines?

Trail matters with HUGE loads (at least 40-50 lbs) on the rack but other than that, no way. And most modern front racks wiggle too much, even if you pin them tightly with struts and so forth. I bombproofed my installation but it would still be a bummer to carry 25+ lbs. of stuff on it for any distance over rough roads, which is all we have in this corner of New England.

Jan Heine and all that trail stuff (not to mention planing) are so much tomfoolery. No human being alive could tell the difference. Okay, maybe Tom Brady. I feel like Mr. Heine should go out and chase skirt like the rest of us and stop the knitting and housework.