Hey guys,

On July 4th I am embarking on a trek across North America; from Vancouver to Newfoundland. I am a casual biker: I commute around my city on an older, heavy mountain bike. The more information I gather the more excited I get for my trip and the prospect of building a bike in the future.

I'm here to ask for advice from those generous enough to give it. I just bought a Surly LHT frame and I want to build my touring bike around it. I have never built a bike before, I know next to nothing about gear, and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of work required to do this tour. I just put my Amazon order in (Yes!) which took ~10-15 hours of reading reviews, checking over my lists, adding and subtracting equipment, etc. In addition, I'm doing this trip in collaboration with a housing complex to do a fundraiser: there was a bad fire and 26 people lost their homes and most of their possessions. While some families had decent house insurance, many did not and are having trouble finding places to live. The complex was a fixed rent/low income housing unit, so as you might imagine these people are in a tough spot: Vancouver is a highly populated city and finding a place for a family for reasonable rent is difficult.

I have been doing a lot of planning, researching and organizing for this trek, and while I can research. I would like to know suggestions from those more experienced on the forum for what parts I should use on this bike. From my research I know I want to use:
Butterfly handlebars
Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tires
18 speed gears
Surly racks

but besides this, I don't know what to use. I was hoping to spend around $800-$1,000 for the remaining parts and labour. I have heard Shimano makes pretty universal stuff, and I want to use 26" wheels because they are more common than 700c, which is good in case of a tire breaking.

Again, I understand this is asking a lot and some people do not want to handhold beginners, but for those inclined advice on parts would be much appreciated.