Quote Originally Posted by DeniseGoldberg View Post
... or if it's because I was configuring a bike for loaded touring as opposed to his recommendation to you of "sport" touring (whatever that is)....
Loaded touring means a bike optimized for self-supported touring, including camping gear, etc. Sport touring means you can still tour, but with lighter loads, i.e. no camping gear. The reason to go sport tour rather than loaded tour is if you want to use the bike to do both fast road rides and light touring. A loaded tourer will be very stable with a heavy load, but then it will feel sluggish on a fast road ride. A sport tourer is a good all around bike, but will be less stable if very heavily loaded down, although I like this style bike and find that as long as I pay attention to balance my load it is just fine.

I AGREE DEB IS GOING TO HAVE ONE SWEET BIKE!!!