Well at the moment I only have 1 bike and its a Vision R50 full suspension recumbent. I'm not the type of person to have more than 2 bikes as im quite the minimalist. I'm still searching craigslist looking for my around town beater. I'm considering selling my bent and picking up a entry level touring bike to start out with weekend tours and hopefully take a 1 week tour sometime within the next year. I've been lurking this section for a few weeks and it seems like the LHT is the most common bike by far. I would like to be able to test ride the bike before i buy and i have not seen this bike in shops around here. Would this be a nice entry level bike or more towards the higher end?

I know REI sells the safari and Rand. Any thoughts on these? Well ive never been on a real tour only long 1 day trips. Id like to go on a few weeknd tours soon any suggestions on bikes and anything at all would be much appreciated.

edit: i would like to buy the bike new as im still learning bike maintenace and would like to stay away from used to avoid possible problems that could come up soon...or that i might not be able to detect from the start.

* one thing that is important to me is a bike with multiple hand positions because i tend to get sore wrists on standard flat bars...which is 1 reason i switched to a recumbent.