A couple things to add after a morning visit to the bike shop:

(1) Here's a link to the specs of the 1998 Schwinn Frontiers we're riding. We haven't changed/added/deleted anything. We haven't noticed any problems, per se, until today I was checking out our sprockets. Both bikes have worn down teeth and I noticed 3 or 4 actual breaks in the back-middle sprocket. These breaks are somewhat small between the two surrounding teeth.
http://tinyurl.co.uk/7hlz

(2) Changing seats. Because our bums seem to be sure after every ride, I talked to the shop guy about changing seats and/or adding seat suspension. He said "No" for the need of seat suspension when touring. And added that we wouldn't want the wider (not big-time wide), more comfortable seats if we were talking about riding longer distances.

Just don't know if these bikes are worth outfitting if we need to change very much. Really would appreciate some insight as it's tough to get it in our position. If in the US it would be a lot easier to pop in a few bike shops and talk. But seriously...I know of one big, seemingly good shop in this city of near 700,000.

Thanks!!