My wife got me the Axiom Typhoon 45 liter (combined volume) panniers for Christmas; no problem with heel clearance. I think someone asked about attaching a tail light to the rack: this one works great for me after using some locktite: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...ilpage_o05_s00.

I bought a very small saddle bag (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s01) for tools, and a small handlebar bag (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o08_s00) for electronics (unfortunately, too small for my iPad Mini, though). I'm thinking of buying a pair of Cleveland Mountaineering Everything Bags (Cleaveland Mountaineering: Everything Bags) to mount on the front fork in order to hold a few things, like a rain jacket, and a couple of liters of water when I eventually reach the desert. With the ease of strapping my tent, bag, and pad to the Jones Loop handlebar, I feel like I will be set for storage...though I have been considering a Revelate Design Tangle bag to use as a feed bag or maybe for a water pouch (my dromedary bag would be too big, but I think that one of my Platypus bags would work). I'm afraid, though, that the tangle bag would mean losing both internal frame mounts--one of which has my whimsical "bird cage" (Amazon.com : Portland Design Works The Bird Cage Water Bottle Cage, Black : Bike Water Bottle Cages : Sports & Outdoors) and the other will hold, when it arrives, my Ti mini u-lock (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0155L1G9W/...I2WFLWIGRH5P6H).

Oh yeah, for those who keep telling me that I'm putting the cart before the horse, I've been riding up and down the local hills almost every day. (My neighborhood is built on the Indiana dunes.) My cadence is still too slow; I hope to focus on it after I pick up the Garmin Edge 25 Plus Cadence Bundle. (I cannot afford everything at once...or at least I don't want my wife to see packages arriving every day!)