anyone ever toured with disc brake up front instead of canti/V brakes on rigid fork? are there too many forces at work? should i go with rigid fork/V-brake combo, or with shock/disc combo? i will have a pannier set up front, in other words weight. anyone have any experience with tubus swing rack, the one that is compatible with front suspension forks?

I've used a front mechanical disc (Avid BB7 with 203mm rotor) on a rigid fork (On-one Inbred Superlight fork) with an Old Man Mountain Sherpa rack. I'd say its an excellent set-up, though obviously with the OMM rack as with the Tubus Swing your bags are up high so its best not to put too much weight on the front, especially if your riding sandy roads.

I know only of one guy that has used the Tubus Swing and he seems to like it, but I think that the OMM Sherpa front rack is the best rack I've ever owned and though it is alu I don't think it will ever break. On my last trip I broke a Tubus Logo rear rack several times and though welding did work eventually, it was only possible because the breakages were at the dropout attachment eyes.

Well I guess, it all depends on where you go and for how long - meaning how much stress does the carrier has to take. In general, it is recommended to NOT use lowriders on front shocks, better use carriers like the tubus swing or faiv , where the weight is mounted to the top of the suspension-fork, not to the bottom. I myself had a discbrake setup with a rigid fork, which worked quite well, except that the caliper-mount was crap (bad techdesign). Some people may doubt this setup-solution for instance for durability of the fork (which I think it's not), another doubt might be for the coverage of the disc by the pannier - some people claim it could result in insuffient cooling of the disc by air. I believe it's not so bad, it mostly depends on your riding style. I did long descends in the swiss-alpes without problems. One thing which bothered me with discbrakes, was the need for adjustment of the caliper in changing temperatures (winter/summer), as the position of the disc will not stay centered if the wetter gets cold or hot. If you go for the disc-brakes, choose some which are postmount or have a postmount adapter. It saves you a lot of hassles.