Originally Posted by jordanrodgers

I was hoping I could get some good friendly internet insight from folks who have done this sort of stuff before. Me and my two roomates when our lease runs out are looking to up and head to Vancouver via bicycle. There's a few issues though I would love some insight on.

1-we don't all have touring bicycles neccessarily. I have a 87 Fuji Roubaix road bike, another one of us has a Giordana road, and the last of us is still looking for a new bike. Though the components are all good and fancy on these, and the frames steel, I feel like the geometry on these bikes seem a little too aggresive to be riding on comfortably for two months with panniers and trailers. However, I'd still like to know if this can be done safely and efficiantly on road bikes, or if we should just invest in touring specific bikes. Keep in mind now, we're poor so if the latter is the smarted option whats some good buys on touring bikes where we can get the most bang for our bucks?

2-How do we make this trip as easy on ourselves monetarily speaking. We plan on camping pretty much the whole way when not staying with old friends and family, and we plan on bringing along lots of peanut butter and superfoods like spirulina, different proteins and what have you (get those at wholesale cost). It's mostly those uncontrolable out of your hands bike or human mechanical maintenance problems I'm worried about. I hear there are ways to get your trip sponsored through different causes or organizations but really know nothing about that sort of stuff. Any recomendations?

3-finally, if anyone has done a trip like this before from Austin towards the Northwest, any recomended scenic routes, or places to stop at?

Any feedback on this would be very appreciated by us; Ben Josh and Jordan, Bike Gang