I think that Steve has hit several nails pretty squairly on the head. I have had a LHT for about a year and a half, it is the best tourilng bike i'v ever had. I have also had a volpe for 3 years, I know the volpe and double cross are not the same bike but the volpe is sold as a cross bike, with shorter chain stays and higher botum bracket. a rack like JANDD expadition lets you move the bags back about 3 in. much more than the chain stay difference. the only thing to me different between the two in that I have toe overlap with fenders with the volpe, I have size 13 feet so this would probably not affect 9o % of the people. At 61 the toe overlap is more concern than it once was. I was talking to the LBS owner yesterday, we thought that about the time we had collected a truck load of bike stuff we realized we could have done every thing with a wheelbarol full. This would mean getting fit for a bike insted of buying 5 to see what worked! The volpe is more fun.