Wiggle

Actually I've just looked into this a little, can I adjust the stem height? When I mentioned adjusting the stem I was referring to adjusting the angle of it. It seems I should be able to loosen the top bolt and adjust the vertical raise a little.

Edit: Confirmed, I just raised my stem a bit quite easily. I was able to get an extra inch of rise (while being sure not to go beyond the marked line). I've decided to keep the bar orientation as is for now but I have made it sit more flat. I am now able to rest my forearms on the bar comfortably in a leaned over position. I also confirmed my seat post again, it is at least a half inch below the bottom of the top tube.

Wiggle

After alot of adjusting of the bars and stem I have got it into the more traditional position for a trekking bar and it seems to be working well. I've also added a handlebar bag so now have a little more carrying capacity as well. I am leaving on the tour on Saturday morning. I plan to load up the bike tonight and take it out for a short ride to make sure everything is fitting and behaving well.

Wiggle

Thanks everyone for the help, I got back from our tour and it went quite well. Here is a short summary of what I learned and what, minor, issues came up:

Trek 7100 seemed to handle the weight fine. The bike rode well at speed, the added weight actually smoothed things out for small rolling hills. However, climbing out of the saddle and maneuvering at low speed was a bit dicey due to the back heavy loading. I'm not sure if I will be bother ever adding a front rack, it seems tricky with a front suspension and I was able to cope with the squirrely-ness after some practice. I was very glad to have the granny gears and I needed them while hill climbing while loaded and while biking into very strong headwinds (I'd estimate nearly 70 km/h at times).

A bolt on my front fender somehow came loose and disappeared. Wasn't a big deal though, it was a little noisy and then I was able to adequately hold it in place using a zip-tie. A bottle cage also failed on me near end of trip, minor issue obviously.

The Pilzer PR-4 rack I installed was great and I can highly recommend it. It is strong and wider than most other racks I saw, this gave us a good base for adding tent and sleeping bag equipment. I purchased some multi-strand bungee cables with carabiner ends from Princess Auto, they were ideal for holding things on the rack and when they weren't needed I simply stretched them out over the seat post.

The MEC Aquanot Panniers were also excellent. Even though it did not rain while we were there I was glad to have the waterproof construction as I was able to leave them outside of the tent and not worry about dew. They also were of very strong construction and the mounting system worked reliably. Only things I didn't like about them is that they aren't exactly pretty and the side pocket is a bit difficult to open in a hurry. But for the price I am very happy.

Trekking bars are much better than flat bars for touring use. I had more hand positions available and was even able to get a decently low and dropped position by laying my forearms down to get out of the wind though I still have some tweaking to do because I was only comfortable a few minutes at a time in this position.

bradtx

Wiggle, Congratulations on a fun tour.

I tend to throw a bike side to side when I'm out of the saddle and it takes a conscious effort to not do so when I have a load.

Brad

djb

glad you had a good time. Good intro to bike touring.