Originally Posted by
crandress
Those are fair points about the brakes and thru-axles. Admittedly since I have never had a bike with disc brakes, I would not have even thought about that.
thru axle helps but QR does work fine for disc and cable discs will, as someone else mentioned, stop at least as good as old cantis, in my experience they stop better especially if it gets wet. My tourer is thru-axle and cable disc, mine I use for medium duty touring I guess it would be called. I camp and have assorted heavy bags but not front and rear panniers so not heavy duty and cable discs stop me well. Hydraulic do stop better without a doubt, and my MTB's brakes haven't had to be bled in 4 years and have been trouble free but I like the idea of cable while on tour.
Originally Posted by
crandress
I have a 1980 Mercian touring bike. I have never done, nor do I plan to do, loaded touring. Credit card touring or long rides. I just prefer the geometry of a touring frame and a steel frame, but want to upgrade to disc brakes and more modern components. 9-10 speed, brifters or bar ends. Except for my mountain bike, I only have used downtube shifters to this point. My newest bike is a 1992 Bridgestone MB-3 mountain bike. I have considered upgrading this, but would stay with the current canti brakes.
If it is CC touring I would also point you towards a gravel build. Kona has had some nice steel framed gravel options. Don't know if they still make the wheelhouse but that was 853 and a laid back geometry. Plenty of brands will have a 4130, 631 or nicer steel in a gravel bike, if will be faster then the fuji or a similar tourer but in some ways more comfortable and fairly relaxed.