The industry's current gold standard for touring bikes, the Surly Long Haul Trucker, outshines everything else in its category.  As Surly blatantly puts it, "If you want to carry a lot of stuff while riding your bike long distances, you'd be hard pressed to find a better bike than the Long Haul Trucker."

The LHT has a tubeset and geometry specifically tailored to the needs of a bike that's going to be loaded with 100 lbs of gear yet can still be ridden bare without feeling like your riding a yacht.  There is a braze on for just about everything you could ever want (pump peg, 3 water bottles, racks/fenders front and rear, extra spokes on a chainstay - nifty!) yet the frame doesn't look or feel laden with unnecessary features.  The larger sizes (56 and above) are available with 700c or 26" wheels while the smaller sizes (54 and below) have 26" wheels.  This allows for an optimal weight distribution, center of gravity and handling for every size and also allows smaller riders to both easily straddle the top tube and avoid having toe overlap - even with fenders on the bike.

Equipment is kept practical and simple, yet is very high quality for a bike of this pricepoint.  Keeping with the touring mentality, loose ball XT hubs are easily servicable yet have good seals to keep the grime out while the Dura-ace barend shifters provide unparalleled reliability as well as an option to easily switch from indexed to friction shifting in case your derailleur goes South without a suitable replacement.  That isn't likely to happen, however, as Shimano's XT derailleur spec'd on the bike is designed to see years of hard use on a mountain bike where it is regularly exposed to conditions much worse than your likely to see on your average tour.  Intelligent choices are made elsewhere on the bike as well such as cheap yet functional Tektro cantilevers and levers, strong Alex rims, a basic yet high quality crank from Sugino with tried and true square taper interface, and aluminum bar stem and seatpost in a refreshing silver (which is the new black).

Comes in Truckaccino and Blue in almost a million sizes... 

Size	ST (c-t)	TT(effective)	HT Angle	ST Angle	Wheel Size	Stand Over	HT length
42cm	42	49.3	70	75	26	70.3	11.1
46cm	46	50.8	70	74.5	26	72.4	11.7
50cm	50	52.5	71	74	26	75.7	14.4
52cm	52	53.5	71	73.4	26	77.5	16.3
54cm	54	55	71	73	26	79.3	18.2
56cm	56	56.4	72	73	700	81.2	15.2
58cm	58	58	72	72.5	700	83	17.1
60cm	60	59.4	72	72.5	700	85	18.9
62cm	62	60.4	72	72.5	700	86.7	21