If you want to buy a new touring bike that is fairly inexpensive yet can do virtually anything I would look at a Masi Giramondo 700c if you'll be touring mostly on paved roads, or a 27.5 if you'll be touring mostly off road.
I did a lot of research on touring bikes for the last 6 months after getting sideswiped and crashing my mint condition 85 Schwinn Le Tour Luxe and totaling it out. My price range was no more than $2,000 and had to be steel, and the Masi 700c ( I'm doing mostly pavement) won the competition by a landslide actually, even the much ballyhooed Surly Long Haul Trucker, or the Trek 920 failed to make it even into the top 3 choices because of price mostly when others had the same stuff and then some for less money.
For my criteria the 3 that came to the top was the Kona Sutra in 2nd, and the Salsa Marrakesh in 3rd. The Salsa was a interesting bike and was almost my number 1 pick but then I found out you had to use their proprietary racks and bags, I already had bags. The Kona came with racks but they were made of aluminum and not steel, I actually know people, and as well as read about people who's AL racks broke at the welds after time, and that the best racks were steel made by Tubus, well the Masi 700c (not the 27.5) comes with Tubus Tara steel racks, the only touring that offered steel racks.
Also the Masi had the lowest climbing gear of any touring bike I saw, and with my experience on my old vintage Schwinn trying to climb a grade with a load was somewhat of struggle and those grades weren't even mountain grades! The gear range on the Masi is the rear cluster is 11-36 and the front is 44/32/24, this bike is not made for top speed!
The other thing too was of all the disk brake touring bikes I saw this was the only mechanical disk brake used, which again after talking to other tourists almost all of them said (including a bike mechanic I know who tours) get the mechanical disk brakes due to ease of repair and adjusting in the field, and some had hydraulic and wished they had mechanical. So the Masi has TRP dual piston Spyer C brakes which most of the others only had single piston style; the other thing is that Masi put on a larger 180mm rotor on the front instead of using 160mm all around like all the other manufactures did, which only makes sense since about 90% of your braking is on the front and with a loaded touring bike you need that extra surface.
There are some minor quibbles with the Masi. First off is the weight at 27.5 pounds, but that is the weight of the steel racks and the 1600 gram a piece Kenda tires. The most obvious place to lose weight on this bike is to replace the Kenda tires with Schwalbe Marathon Supremes, these weigh around 485 grams each, so the tire change alone will remove nearly 5 pounds off the bike! and that's rotational weight!! Also the Supremes have the 3rd lowest rolling resistance of any touring tire tested. Some of you may be thinking that 27 pounds is heavy for a touring bike, well of all the bikes I looked at that's 27 pounds is on the lower side, the Trek 920 that cost more is at 29 pounds. Also since I won't be using front panniers I will remove the front steel rack, not sure how much that weighs but maybe a pound?
The other minor quibble is the seat, but you know that's a personal thing, some may like the seat and others will hate it like I do. So I'll be removing the B17 that was on my Schwinn and putting it on. The Kona came with a B17 but again the seat thing I didn't care much about in my decision.
And the last quibble I had with the bike, again minor, is that it comes without pedals, but all the bikes I looked at that came with pedals I would have to change them anyways, so that's really a non issue.
I bought this bike without a test ride, which sort of worried me but I had huge success with my Lynskey that way so I thought what the heck, so I ordered it from a bike shop who was an authorized dealer for Masi but they didn't carry the Giramondo. The very first impression I had when riding the Masi was how incredibly smooth riding it felt vs the Schwinn, and despite it's heavy tires it actually rolls just fine. I just got the bike 3 weeks ago, the bike shop has a free pro fit they do with a bike purchase of over $1,000 but they haven't done it yet due to the Virus thing, nor have I gone on a tour with it yet till I get the fit done and till the open up state parks. But the Masi, next to my Lynskey, has become my favorite bike to ride. I'm riding it almost everyday now trying to get my legs use to the extra 10 pounds over the Lynskey, as soon as the fitting is done I will practice riding it with a load for a month or so till the parks open then I will do my first short tour. I also ordered fenders for it but haven't put those on yet since the shop has them.
Sorry if I rambled on too much, but the Masi did check off all my boxes for what I wanted in a touring bike, you're concerns maybe different from mine, but by chance they're not different you now know about the Masi. The Masi is a American owned company based in Vista California and part of Haro, but the bike itself is made in Taiwan.
https://masibikes.com/products/giramondo-700c-2020Oh, I almost forgot, a fun fact about Masi, Masi was the bike ridden by actor Dennis Christopher who played the character named Dave Stoller in the award winning 1979 movie...Breaking Away! There were very famous pro riders who rode Masi bikes including Merckx, Coppi, and Anquetil to name a few.
