There are endless things to consider when picking a bike! The things that ended up being most important to me are...

Weight: Remember that you use pedal power to propel yourself, your gear and the weight of the bike. A slight incline that you wouldn't

notice in a car and that you can easily walk up will be felt on a bike. I put a lot of emphasis on getting a bike that was on the "lighter" side

while still functioning as a touring bike. I went with a carbon fiber frame though titanium frames are almost as light, but a little pricier.

Gear Ratios: Essentially, this is the outcome of your cassette and your chainring. If you were to compare it to a stationary bike, you can think

of this as the "resistance". The higher the ratio, the harder it is to pedal but the more bang per pedal, with the inverse being true for the lower

ratios. I modified my stock bike to have a ratio of 0.88-4.36 though in an ideal setting I would have a lower ratio, I think it will be ok.

Carrying Capacity: basically, how many eyelets are on the bike and the ability to either add them or put carrying clamps on the bike. There are

a lot of factors the bike manufacturers take into account when they design carrying points that I won't go into but in general, a steel bike

will have the most/easiest carrying capacity and a carbon one the least. This proved tricky since my frame is carbon but I made sure my fork

came with eyelets and with some finagling and careful placement of bag/racks/cages to ensure I do not compromise the frame integrity, I

made it work.

Position: The position of your ride is very much a preference. The geometry of bikes varies widely even amongst similar genres. I personally

found a slightly upright position to be more comfortable than the downward so I modified my bike's stem from a 70mm to a 40mm

(reducing the distance my arms reach out and thus lower me) and I will likely swap my drop handlebars for drop bars that have a 30mm rise to

make it even more upright.