Three of us rode essentially the same bike (rebadged as a windsor touring) together across the US on the TA and found it all up to snuff. We did all swap pedals and two of us swapped the 26 tooth ring for a 24T. Some folks might not get along with the saddle but we were all fine with it. I thought it was awful when I first tried it but after a few hundred miles my butt got used to it and I have since happily toured quite a bit on that saddle. The tires at that time were different so I won't comment on the ones you will be using, but I am usually inclined to wear out whatever comes with the bike and then switch to gatorskins.

The racks were just a little flexy and two of us put on Blackburn EX1's since I had two laying around. The other of us used the stock rack with not real problems, but I did notice that it swayed a bit.