Originally Posted by velonomad
For where you are going strong wheels will be more important than who made your frame. with the exception of Koga Miyata ( provided you can find one) few off the shelf bikes will have durable enough wheels for what you want to do. Peter White is a very good wheel builder on the east coast.
Edit
Hey---Your route looks fun btw. I would pull the above from velo's post as well.
You're more likely to have wheel problems than frame breakage (although I did drop a chainstay in Thunder Bay on my first tour, so...)--but overall I messed with spoke replacement; wheel truing more often. There's nothing like a rubbing brake pad to mess with your mind
. As you said "crappy gravel roads"-- you might want to consider going with 26 inch wheels. If your route has a decent amount of gravel roads (probably some potholes, etc. to deal with) that would be more of a limiting factor in regards to speed than rim diameter. Plus you'll have a larger selection of tires with 26 " wheels (at least in the 1.75 to 2.25 range) I'd guess. Either way you go think stout and know how to fix em. Take it with a grain of salt. Messing with wheel problems is a momentum breaker though. You'll have a bomber trip regardless--later
If Jamawani was still here, he'd have some great advice for you since he has more than likely been on part of your route.
JAMAWANI come back dude
--your road knowledge is unmatched on this board. HEY JOHN---pipe in and give this guy some advice.