Equipment
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After much consideration and research, I decided to go with the Giant OCR Touring bike for my cross Canada ride.
My LBS let me take it out for a test ride to see if I liked it and then set up all the additional items on it that I needed. When I picked it up the next day they set it up on a trainer and fit me to it properly and let me get a feel for how to use clipless shoes with it (new experience for me, they set it up with normal pedals for the test ride). My personal reasons for choosing this bike - Could not find any particularly negative comments about it on the web, most people seemed to be quite happy with this choice - the adjustable stem to allow for ease of change to different riding positions if desired - 3 water bottle braze-ons for those long days between communities (due to the small frame size because of my size, have to find a smaller bottle for the low holder) - the gearing set up that the bike came with as standard is what I was looking for (I know this could have been changed without a lot of trouble) - if I decide to do fully loaded touring in the future, this bike will be a good set up for that as well. A bonus was the suicide brakes on the handle bar tops. These are direct wired, not extension levers like the older ones from a few years back. Some may consider the disc brakes not a bonus but I do like them.
I was leary about using clipless peddles but through information provided by others on the TDC network, I decided to go ahead with these and am glad I did. As of this time (Mid February 2005 and the temperature just dropped) I have only taken two short 10 km rides plus the quick test ride up a hill so do not know how it will all feel after a long ride but for now I am happy. I had the LBS set it up with a rack, fenders, trunk bag and paniers. For most days, the trunk bag should suffice (it has expandable mini side paniers and an expandable top) but on those particularly long or bad weather days, I can add one of the side ones for extra water or clothing storage.
Since I enjoy photography as a hobby, it is my intention to carry my SLR camera with an extra zoom lens with me at all times so depending on food requirements, I will just have to see if it all fits in the trunk. I changed the saddle out (felt hard on the short rides I took) for my wide touring gel saddle that I have been comfortable enough on during my long 6-8 hour rides that I took in 2004.
Besides my camping gear, I will also be taking along my Notebook Computer to download images from my camera, store data, keep a journal, and try to upload to this website from when I get a chance, as well as a messaging system for friends and family to be able to contact me through email.