Originally Posted by vik
options are:
- buy a used touring bike use it and sell it
- buy a new touring bike use it and swap the parts over to a cyclocross frame when you get back
- buy a Surly Cross Check, buy a Long Haul Trucker fork for it, use front panniers and either none or small rear panniers, when done the tour switch back to the Cross Check fork
- buy a cyclo cross bike & buy an Old Man Moutain Cold Springs Front rack, use front panniers and either none or small ones on back
Given the deal I could get on the complete used cyclocross bike, It would be best to buy the 'cross bike, test it out over the winter, and if the ride isn't good enough, find a nice old touring frameset on the cheap and swap all the parts... The cross bike is tange prestige tubing, Chris king/mavic open pro wheels, ultegra/dura ace components, nice bar/stem... I really don't want to buy a new off-the-shelf touring bike because I feel like I would want to swap out all the lower quality parts right away.