Gear


  
This is stuff that no light weight cyclist needs to lug around!

There are millions ways to travel. I've met bikers on everything from single speed crap bikes and collapsible mini cycles to aluminum tandems and full suspension carbon bikes. I don't think there are any "right or wrong" way to do it, but you can avoid loads of problems if you analyze what you really need before taking off.

First, ask yourself some simple questions: How long will I be on the road? What kind of roads will I mainly ride on - sealed or unsealed? What's the possibility to fix up the bike along the way? How much gear do I actually have to bring with me? Will I be able to find compatible bike parts? Which climatic zones will I pass? etc. etc.

When you have answered these questions, you probably have a better idea about what your gear will consist of . For ex: if your journey will be 90% on asphalt roads, why use mountain bike tires.

My base concept is: simplicity and strength. Whatever you think about Shimano's stuff, It can pay off to go with their gear, thanks to the availability around the world. There have been books written on this subject and I don't have the time or ambition to go too much into details. On this page I'll tell you what I like/don't like and what I usually bring on a trip. For me, the gear below works fine, but there are millions of other solutions to it.   ::::

Bicycle  Camping  Clothes  Med. Kit  Misc.  Paul's essay about racks.  Update

Bicycle

The base.

Spare parts etc.

Tools.

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Camping

Vaude Space Explorer: Very fast to pitch, good floor, good weight to space ratio and relatively windproof. It's my favorite, even if it wears out a bit too quickly and is big for a single person. 

Sierra Designs has a lot of good models and they can take a lot of hardship. The Twin Peaks model= A three season tent I actually used on the coldest of my trips (winter ride through Tibet, down to -25C). Amazingly warm and ok to pitch, not selfstanding and a pretty bad floor. Light. The Orion seems to be a very good alternative for a single traveler. 

Rock Pegs fo pinning the tent down, very strong and durable. Forget about all the standard weak aluminum crap pegs. 

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Clothes

Very much what you like yourself. When I have going for long rides through different climate types the clothing sack has been filled up with:

Clothing is very much what you like and I don't think there any rights or wrongs. I would almost say 99% of all cyclists I've met have at least double the amount of clothing they really need. Later on on my journeys I've realized how much unnecessary clothing I carried in the beginning. Nowadays I get rid of stuff I haven't used the last two weeks.

As said before, Goretex is not that good and there are other better alternatives.

Windbloc and Windstopper sucks, trapping too much moisture inside and the warmth capacity decreases a lot compared to fleece without these fashion attachments.

Footgear. I have met amny cyclists who have bought boots which goes too high up on the leg and have ahd problems and pain because of this.

If you wanna try cycling in sandals/flipflops, try it out a bit back home first, some people gets a lot of pain from this. 

Also, if you're on a low budget, you don't HAVE to spend a fortune on gear. For ex, Ben and Cam had almost no gear when starting to equip themself in Katmandu for the winterride in Tibet. They mostly bought cheap copies and it worked out fine. It is imporant to some prior knowledge if you shoot for this approach. Check out how the clothes are working and especially how the stitching is done. The stuff in Katmandu for ex. is usually really bad crap (whatever the frauders who sell them say). Look around a lot before buying anything in places like those.

If not in the third world full of copy gear, there are loads of cheap alternatives in the west as well. Why bother to spend hundreds of dollars on horrendously expensive "functionwear-super-traveller-pants-bla-bla", when you can pick up military pants for a tenth of the price, which usually works better, lasts longer etc.

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Med. Kit.

I'm not a doctor and I should maybe not give too many recommendations on this topic, but this is what I usually carry. Going to the third world, don't buy anything back home for an extortionate price. Usually everything you need is readily available over the counter for almost nothing in the third world.

I may be a bit careless, but haven't taken any vacinations, maybe you better for some areas...

In some really remote areas I have brought scalpels, intravenous painkillers and "stitching-yourself-up-equipment".

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Misc.

Another very subjective category. Some love photography, others doesn't even bring a camera...here's what I carry.

And finally a little update.

On the last trip I started ( with Jeff's help) to get really silly about weight saving. We cut off everything and I really mean everything, which is not needed when touring. That was everything from laundry tags and gear indicators to too long straps and extra not-really-necessary pages in the passport. Insane?! Maybe, but fact is that we saved kilos this way. It doesn't help to cut off a tag here and there (even if every gram gone is a gram less to haul around...), but if you do it consistently, you can minimize the gear a lot, both weight and volume wise. 

Go mad with the knife, pliers and scissors! Drill holes in every single item, eat with a spanner (who needs fork and spoon?), cut off everything on your maps, except the planned route and so on.  

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