Please help me choose between the two.

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BluesDave

Formerly known as DavidDecorator
I believe that my beloved trusty old workhorse the Concept Conquest is nearing its end. Having spent £200+ on its fourteen year old self over the past year I am going to have to call it a halt. After all it only cost £120 new in 1999.
I use it for work so it carries a fair bit of weight.

Now I was going to go for a Ridgeback having read One man and his bike due to the fact I'd also like to use it for leisure and touring. Nice rides on a Sunday packing a picnic, trips to the coast etc. So having popped into Putney Cycles and spoken to their very helpful staff I was told to consider other brands as well. Perhaps because they don't stock Ridgeback, I don't know.
Anyway what they have recommended to me are, bearing in mind I carry paint, tools, filler etc in my panniers, are a Giant Escape 2 and a Specialized Sirrus Sport. The cost is about £80 more for the Sirrus at £450. Now the puzzling thing is that the furst member of Staff I spo ke to told me that the Giant rack could take £75k which is more than my current 25k rack he also said it came with the bike along with Mudguards but his colleague dissagreed.
The upshot is that I have fallen in love with both bikes, the Giant is white the Sirrus is black.
Both frames are aluminium unlike my current steed which is Carbon Steel. They are also half the weight if Concept or feel like it. They were like sitting on air and I've fallen in love with both of them but perhaps the Sirrus more. Typical weight I carry is about 40 k plus myself at 90k and occasionally a knapsack on my back up to 20k. Please help me choose.
 

BSRU

A Human Being
Location
Swindon
I would recommend the steel framed Ridgeback, I use one as my main commuter and it's great, with nice big panniers and lots of gears it is perfect for the longer rides.
One thing to note is that the Panorama has old style standard drop bars with an extra brake levers, personally I do not like the extra brake levers and had to change the bars to modern compact bars as the bars it came with were made me over-reach to the hoods.
 
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