Frame

Both Susan and I rode Jamis Aurora bikes on the trip. Mine is an ’04 and Susan’s was ’09. Both are steel. While steel has long been the consensus frame material of choice for touring cycling, much of the reasoning behind this consensus is flawed or at least not particularly supported by facts. There’s an extremely detailed article on this topic (as about most cycling topics) written by the late great Sheldon Brown. The summary is that frame material is much less important than having a frame that’s designed for touring; that is one with a longer wheelbase (both for steering stability as well as to move the saddle forward of the rear wheel), ample braze-ons or other attachment points for racks, and adequate clearance for large width (at least 32mm) tires (including necessary attachment points for cantilevered brakes if necessary). Because of conventional wisdom about frame materials though, it’s hard to find a bike with these features made out of anything but steel.

Sheldonbrown.com is a great resource for more factual information. If you’re in the market for a touring bike and aren’t confident in your ability to determine fit/comfort for yourself, you need to find a Good Bike Shop. Good Bike Shops are hard to come by and there’s no super reliable way to find them. A good way to start is just to call around and see who carries any range of bikes designed for touring. Most stores are mostly focused on expensive carbon fiber racing bikes (to my knowledge none of which can be used for long term loaded touring) and will only have one model, if any, appropriate for touring. Once you go to the shops, the Good Bike Shop should have employees who seem willing to spend a long time with you discussing your actual needs even after they find out you aren’t buying carbon, rather than getting you out the door on two wheels. They should be familiar with, and ideally experienced with touring (or year round bike commuting). They should pay a lot of attention to the fit of the bike. If you feel any sales pressure at all, it’s probably not a Good Bike Shop. If there’s any hint of snobbishness, it’s probably not a Good Bike Shop. It will potentially take many hours to try out different sizes of bike and tweak the fit so plan accordingly. Usually it’s a good idea to go on weeknights (or during weekdays if you can swing it) as even Good Bike Shops won’t be able to hang out with you uninterrupted all weekend.

So: Fit/geometry is more important than frame material, and provided the above requirements are met, the other topics under the bike section are probably more important.