greatscott

I just went through looking at a lot of touring bikes, what I settled on is a bit over your price range, however I did find bikes in your price range that will work, one of the best ones for $900, there's your wiggle room!, is the Fuji Touring Road Bike, steel bike that comes with rear rack and Deore drivetrain which is on the bike I got and it works really well. This bike does have bar end shifters, like mine, and like most touring bikes have.

Jamis makes a bike called the Aurora which is right at your $800 price point, but it comes with a road group Shimano Sora drivetrain which in my opinion isn't as suitable for touring or gravel as the Deore is.

In an effort to keep the prices down, neither bike comes with decent tires, but for a short 200 mile tour you will be fine, but when the time comes step up to the much more expensive Schwalbe Marathon Almotion tires, their light weight for a touring tire, have really good puncture resistance, tires durability is quite high, and they have the lowest rolling resistance of any tire tested in the touring category. Even my bike came with crappy tires, but due to C19 I can't get any tires for awhile, in fact due to C19 you may have a huge problem finding a bike!

If you can swing the price get the Fuji, if not the Jamis is the next best choice though a bit more limited, but the Fuji is only $100 more, I would beg borrow and steal to get the extra $100!!

The price of the Almotion tire might shock you, they cost around $85 each, but if you are touring with a load you don't want slow heavy clunky stiff riding tires like the Vitts that come on the Fuji or the Kendas that came on my Masi to slow you down more. Another recommended touring tire is the Schwalbe Marathon Supreme, these weigh about the same as the Almotion, the rolling resistance is more than the Almotion, but the Almotion has a thicker tire tread so it will last longer, plus it has some tread design which will be adequate for gravel whereas the Supreme is virtually smooth. Also the fuji and the Aurora come with 35c tires, which work fine for touring, but if you want a bit more comfortable ride you should probably go to a 38c tire, the slightly wider tire will wear a bit longer too and have a bit better control on gravel.

You also should consider fenders, Topeak makes a really nice fender called the Defender TX, these cost less than $50 and I like them better than the more expensive SKS full fenders I had on another bike, the Topeak are easy to put on, they don't make as much noise in any, and they stay in adjustment. But since I can't see the bike you have to have a bike shop make sure those will fit your bike, if not Topeak has other choices that are similar. Fenders will keep your bike from getting as messy, and prevent the dreaded soaking from the rooster tail be deposited on you.

I don't think you need a front rack to put front panniers on, you're not doing a cross country trip, so pack around 20 pounds worth of stuff in the rear panniers. It's nice to have a front handlebar bag, but it's up to you, I chose one because I'll eventually be doing more than short 3 or 4 day out trips, but I won't ever need a front pannier, because I only carry 25 to 30 pounds tops even when I do a cross country trip. Topeak makes really nice handlebar bags as well.

I'm assuming either you already have panniers or will be buying them, and I'm also assuming if buying them you probably on a tight budget there as well. So the best set of bags for under $100 is the ArcEnCiel Bike Bag Bicycle Panniers sold on Amazon, they're not the best but for $70 they do the job. I would suggest if you get a set of inexpensive bags is to spray the outside of the bags with a waterproofing spray, also line the panniers with a plastic trash bag that cinches up, because a cheap bag is not going to be waterproof, also put anything you want to make sure doesn't get wet, or leak out, put into zip lock plastic bags, including clothes, you don't want to find wet clothes when you get to camp.

Make sure you spend some time riding the bike loaded because you don't want to be surprised by how much slower and harder work it is riding a loaded touring bike once you start your adventure.

Read as much information about touring and what to take as you can off the internet, also google on Youtube how to eat cheap while backpacking, these videos will show you what to buy at Walmart that you can eat cheaply. Also do the same thing about buying cheap camping gear, a lot of stuff an be found at Walmart, and some on Amazon that won't cost you an arm and a leg. For example, you don't need a $75 stove when a $13 dollar Etekcity stove will do the same thing. You have to do a lot research to find stuff cheap that will work.