3speed

Maybe "about the last choice" is a little strong, as there are plenty of worse options, but there's no way I would buy a bike for touring that doesn't have standard 9mm drop-outs(I know, it has a proprietary conversion piece option that you can hope never has trouble). The tapered head-tube is a deal breaker for me(I like a common 1 1/8"). That means I need a special fork or a special headset. And it just looks ugly if you put a regular fork on it with an adapter on the bottom. The flat mount disk rear break is a disaster and a totally f***** situation if you have a problem outside of the US or large parts of western Europe. The cable stops on the head-tube, while not a Huge deal, are a disadvantage to me. I'd prefer to see a standard Shimano style town-tube cable stop. For my mountain bike, sure, I'll run hydraulic disk breaks, 650b wheels, etc. For my touring bike, I want it to be common components that are available pretty much anywhere. I would totally own one for a US touring bike, but not internationally. I don't own a home with a garage where I can keep 10 bikes, so I try to just have one tourer in the collection.