Gears within gears
Bicycle tour gear is kind of weird isn't it? They say that what you own ends up owning you, but on a bike, gear is all you have - your home, your survival, your wardrobe, your kitchen, transport, your way of life. It is essential in a way most stuff you own in a normal life isn't.
You can spend years and all the money in the world researching and refining your perfectly curated setup, or you can beg, borrow, and bargain your way into gear that could end up taking you to the ends of the earth.
Still, even with a traditional 4 pannier set-up like we will be using, space seems very limited and to fill up so easily. And yet, people with lightweight bikepacking set-ups seem to manage just fine! I suppose that's human (or is it capitalism's?) nature - however much space you have, in your home or on your bike, you'll probably fill it sooner or later.
Obligatory gear list:
- Bike:
- Surly Bridge Club
- Ryde Rival 30 rims w/ Deore hubs, sapim spokes
- Schwalbe Supermoto-X 27.5 x 2.8 inch tyres
- Gusset beard handlebar w/ ESI chunky grips
- Shimano 36/22 x 11/36 gearing
- Shimano cable disc brakes
- Brooks leather saddle
- Tubus front and rear racks
- 2 x Vaude back pannier, 2 x Vaude front pannier, Vaude handlebar bag
- Camping:
- MSR Elixir 3 tent
- Thermarest Trail Pro regular wide
- Thermarest Saros 32f / 0c
- Bamboo bag liner
- MEC inflatable pillow
- Helinox chair
- Mavic mini drone
- MSR stove and pans
We've just arrived in Spain! Everything went smoothly enough, but flying with bikes and masses of luggage is still not recommended.
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You won’t regret carting your Helinox chairs along I have used them on several long distance tours, just the thing for relaxing in after being hunched over the handle bars all day. Also looking forward to seeing how your Surly Bridge Club goes, I have one but haven’t ridden it yet as it’s in storage with my friend Frank in Aussie…….a Covid thing, as bikes are difficult to get in NZ. Hope to ride it before the end of the year.
Not many journals of late so looking forward to following your intrepid journey from my arm chair in NZ
Cheers
Sandy
2 years ago
Haha, thanks as lot! If we do, we will.
Despite thinking we were quite restrained with our packing, as soon we got everything in our bags, bought food, toiletries, last minute additions, it feels like we are barely containing it all. It feels like it would be easier if we cut down but I'm not sure how! We've still got the chairs 🙂
Sounds familiar! We had to get ours from a small shop about 150 miles from where we live. Really happy with them so far, they feel a teeny bit slow but realistically, I'm sure that's a bad workman blaming his tools.
2 years ago