>>1797063the german woman i bought my rocky mtn off spend years touring it in europe, america and japan.
similiar story with my giant atx.
a lot of rigid 90s mtbs are explicitely touring bikes. You'll see promo shots of people touring on them in the catalog, they sell panniers and racks alongside them, the focus on the frames is braze ons, even often mid fork braze ons for lowriders.
Deore was originally a 'touring ensemble', not a groupset. It was invented to tour on. A large part of their origin and history is as touring bikes.