Originally Posted by
jmio
Now back to the original question, how long is everyones average tour? How much do you think it would cost to get dedicated touring bike, nice racks, panniers, and cost of travel for the northern tier route? I will definitely be stealth camping!!!!
I think you can safely quit saving money for a x-country bike tour. You have enough. Way more than enough.
$2000 will get you a nice touring bike and all the gear you'll need to stealth camp. Figure on $20-40/day for a comfortable tour, excluding gear cost, motels, and commercial transport. Biggest variable will be food cost, depending on how much cooking you do vs eating at restaurants. A x-country tour is normally completed in 60-90 days.
You're smart to start out working with what you've got and doing a few practice tours. Won't take but 2 or 3 to pretty much figure out what
you'll want for that x-country. Check out
www.crazyguyonabike.com where everything there is to know about touring can be found somewhere.