Originally Posted by
fishboat
I think it's useful to stress to the OP, the proposed 60-70 pounds of gear, by far, remains the elephant in the room(if he swaps out the entire drive train..the excessive weight will still be the elephant to worry about..no pun intended..).
very much the biggest thing to recommend to him, but he will just have to try some touring and see what his bags weigh, and see how it goes, to know if X weight works for him or not.
hopefully our experienced suggestions help some.