Basho apparently set off with not much more than his toothbrush and a spare set of underwear. I'll be setting forth with a bit more than that...

The Bike:

The bike is one of my favourites, a 1987 Japanese (I am a wandering Hyohakusha after all) mountain bike reborn as an expedition grade touring bike. She's made from triple butted chrome moly steel and fully lugged with graceful fine tubing. She looks good. All of the running gear is Shimano, Deore level or better. It rolls on hand built 26" wheels. It stops via Shimano XT V-brakes. And there are a few subtle little jewels in there, too: a Tubus rear rack, a Chris King headset, an XTR front derailer, an SP dynohub, Rivendel friction shifters and a Modolo Dumbo handlebar. It's comfortable and reliable and I've rebuilt it enough times now that I'm confident it will last the distance and that I can fix any small bicycle related problems I might encounter on the journey.

The Gear:

I have a full set of Ortlieb panniers (handlebar bag, front and rear panniers, rack bag) and I'll probably set off with the lot of them. I have a Big Agnes Copper Spur 3 season tent, a Klymit insulated air mattress and a too light for winter camping and I'll probably regret taking it down sleeping bag. There are other various and sundry gear items that are too boring and tedious to mention.

I will save us both the embarrassment of detailing my personal clothing and travel gear. My mate, Homi (the world's only long distance cycling Parsee) says I should try to keep my total tonnage to below 10 kg. That's just not going to happen, but it is good advice. I'm taking a full set of cooking gear, a spare tyre, a couple of spare tubes, and maybe even the folding chair. Add my mobile phone, charger, kindle, gps and usb battery and I'm already pushing 10 kg. So packing frugally, I might be able to get it all below 20 kg. Food and water will be extra. If I do decide to go outback on this run, I'll often be lugging 20 litres of water and a week's food (another 10+ kg) on top of that. It's a good thing there are no big mountain ranges in OZ. Mind you, they never wind up hills here, but prefer a direct line of sight assault, so there will be plenty of pushing until I hit the relatively flat outback roads.

Should be fun.