Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Crazy

Hello, my name is Andrew just for introductions. I have several real questions i realize i will probably get some negative responces to this but i figure this is the easiest way to get the answers im looking for. First off my plan or atleast idea. I currently reside in alaska and am looking to venture to florida what i would like to do ideally is buy a plane ticket to kansas and then purchase a bike and ride to florida. my questions; first off I am interested in the best possible bike i could buy for around 500 dollars to accomplish this 1000+ mile ride wether it be a brand new 500 dollar bike or a bike that sells for more new but i could find for around 500 dollars used. second what would be essential for this ride? I have a biking tent and a stove and prolly a dozen gas canisters a small cooking set and a sleeping bag. I plan to stock up on water obviously. and will be using something like a little kid trailer to carry all this preferably. but what else might be essential i mean absolutely essential for this trip? thank you

1) Ask in the Touring Forum and you're likely to get a more appropriate response, since you're going to be tent camping etc.

2) You're really planning on a 1000+ mile tour on a brand new, relatively untested setup? I'd want at least a couple of century rides under my belt with a new bike before I took it out on anything that long, to know if the fit and setup were totally dialed in for me.

Hello, my name is Andrew just for introductions. I have several real questions i realize i will probably get some negative responces to this but i figure this is the easiest way to get the answers im looking for. First off my plan or atleast idea. I currently reside in alaska and am looking to venture to florida what i would like to do ideally is buy a plane ticket to kansas and then purchase a bike and ride to florida. my questions; first off I am interested in the best possible bike i could buy for around 500 dollars to accomplish this 1000+ mile ride wether it be a brand new 500 dollar bike or a bike that sells for more new but i could find for around 500 dollars used. second what would be essential for this ride? I have a biking tent and a stove and prolly a dozen gas canisters a small cooking set and a sleeping bag. I plan to stock up on water obviously. and will be using something like a little kid trailer to carry all this preferably. but what else might be essential i mean absolutely essential for this trip? thank you

You're talking about touring, so probably you'll get better responses if you post in the Touring Forum.

I think you'd have a tough time getting a new bike for $500 that you'd like to ride for 1000 miles, so maybe used is the way to go. Maybe you could buy a decent steel touring bike off Craigslist or EBay (e.g. a Trek 520 from any year), ride it enough to get it adjusted how you want, then ship it ahead to some helpful, friendly bike store in KS.

Hey, I'm friends with twins who rode from AK to Columbia on almost no money, dumpster diving all the way. I think their bikes were dumpster models, too. It's amazing what you can find in dumpsters behind major bike shops. They had a great time. Very fluent in Spanish now. One got married. To the Touring forum with you.

why kansas? if for no reason, you should fly to milwaukee and search for used treks. they are great bikes and were built in wisconsin so they should be fairly abundant there. you could pick up a great bike, get it tuned up, and put new tires on it for less than $500.