Can anyone recommend a good touring bike

Also, I'm not sure I see the point of going all maintaince-free 'n' resiliant on the actuating parts of your gears (the internal gear hub), and then going back to complexity with STi's. Would'nt a separate bar-end shifter be better and cheaper, for use with a hub gear?

As far as I know, jtek is developing a 11 speed bar end shifter.