Back to the topic of a big pizza rack for touring, the reason that my previous post included links to photo galleries is that virtually nobody on a tour wants to put most of their weight that high in front of the steering axis mounted on a fork. For touring, virtually everybody wants their weight elsewhere. And there are lots of options for elsewhere.

Occasionally you see vintage photos of bikes like that in France with large baskets, but those frames were designed with low trail. I am largely ignorant of frame design issues so I will not elaborate further, if I tried I would probably get it wrong.

My point is that with a bike that has touring geometry, lower center of gravity is desired. Minimizing weight in front of the steering axis is also desired.

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I readily admit that I violate my own advice here, I use a big heavy handlebar bag when touring, but that has nowhere near the capacity of a big basket or the weight of a loaded big basket. I also mount my handlebar bag as close to the steering axis as possible without using a custom bracket. Photo is from my tour last month.



Handlebar bag is mounted on a second stem, I used an adjustable stem to enable lowering it and getting it closer to the steerer tube to minimize how high and how far forward the center of gravity is.

I can see a laptop in a basket for commuting, but that is not touring. And the OP asked about that basket on the touring forum.