Originally Posted by MarcusT

When you say "building a tourer", do you mean building a bike from the frame up or adding racks to an existing bike?

I built up an LHT this past winter and going with what is "hot" was more complicated than I thought. Compatibility between derailleurs, shifters, brake sets, frame and of course component colors, took a lot of research. In the end, I went withe tried and true 3x9 . A big challenge was the little things.

For racks, I settled for 2nd best, I went with Tubus, They are nice, but not much better than the other brands. Panniers are usually "one fits all", but it's always good to make sure