You folks are awesome. Thanks so much for all the advice.

I should've been more articulate in my first post. It's not that I have $1400 to spend on a frame and I'm looking for the best one. Rather, I DON'T have $1400 to spend on a frame, but if I NEED something that expensive, there are (crappy) ways to make money quickly. I was really hoping for someone to say "dude, this way cheaper frame will do the job" and this is exactly what I've been hearing. Thank you.

What I'll probably do is head over to Urbane Cyclist and compare their touring frame to the Surly LHT. Both are in the $400-500 range and seem very popular. That leaves extra budget for some wicked rims

And yeah, wheels are another important one -- I want to ride 700s, but everyone is suggesting 26". Here's my concern. The Trans-Lab (yup, i'm riding this early to avoid the bugs!), Klondike and Dempster highways are gravel, but this only makes up about 2,000 km of my route, compared to another 10,000 km of paved roads. Speed is ESSENTIAL. I want to cover a lot of ground in not much time, I want to do side journeys to Innu Labrador and the First Nations reserves in north Ontario, moreover, riding against the prevailing winds for 7000 km, and I want to reach Inuvik before the Mackenzie freezes so I can kayak to Tuk. Will a good set of 700s survive the gravel stretches?

As for the bears, this is a bit terrifying, but I do have an arsenal of repellents that I brought to the Arctic last year (spray, flares, bangers, cheap bourbon)... just a matter of hanging my food and hoping for the best! If things get dicey, I can always scare them off by singing Slayer tunes.

One other thing -- has anybody ever experimented with PV cells to power your speedometer and/or recharge discman batteries? A good friend of mine is a master engineer working in green power, and I'm thinking about getting him to build me some toys...