Originally Posted by
Bekologist
the long haul trucker is not 'overkill' for lightly loaded touring. hardly. Unless you are credit card touring or being sagged, it's the weight of the gear not the bike that makes any real difference.
I'd urge you not to overthink this, get racks to distribute the weight of your gear on a LHT or a novarra randonne or trek 520 or a raleigh sojurn or any of the other 'value' out of the box loaded touring bikes
and go!
you can put the hammer down while covering a lot of miles daily in style and comfort on a lightly loaded long haul trucker.
The not over thinking comment is probably a good one, but I would quibble a bit on a couple of your points.
On the 'overkill' comment... Weight is weight. Especially if the rider and gear are light enough why ride a heavier than necessary bike. If the difference winds up being 5 pounds I consider that a huge difference in the mountains.
Maybe it is just me, but I would avoid the Raleigh Sojourn.
If the user weighs only 145# and actually manages to pack less than 20# of gear why carry 5-10 pounds of extra bike and racks over every mountain pass. Five pounds makes a big difference to a big guy like me with a fairly heavy load, a 5-10# difference must be huge for a 145# guy with less than 20# of stuff.