Our Gear List

We are having a rest day in the Alsace region in France, around 80 kms south of Strasbourg after cycling for 6 days through the Rhein river valley from Landeck in Austria. 

A good opportunity to briefly talk about the stuff we took on this trip. Not quite as exciting as a travel story and Deborahs travel pics but for those of you that may consider doing something similar it may be of some interest. 

We are pretty happy with what we took. As always there is some stuff we could have left behind but generally we used most of it. I guess we went middle of the road; not too heavy but not ultra light. We felt that for a trip this long a bit of extra comfort would be nice. 

The Bikes - nothing too fancy, two standard Merida Crossway 500 bikes. We bought these for commuting to work but they are fine for this type of touring too, especially in Europe where most parts for these bikes can be found ok.  At the time we paid approx $1000 NZD per bike  including the back carriers (but not the bags). Standard 3x10 chain ring set and hydraulic disc brakes which is good on a wet downhill carrying the extra weight of the bags. (You will need some extra sets of brake pads and learn how to swap them too)

Tyres are Schwalbe Marathon green guard 700x36c - what can I say; I guess 95% of the touring bikes we see (especialy longer distance ones) have a set of these tyres albeit in various types and sizes. We did over 2500km on these so far with hardy any wear and only one small puncture between the two of us. 

We also use Brooks leather saddles. Some people love them, others hate them. We really like ours and other than the inevitable leather patches we have developed on our bums we have had no problems with being in the saddle almost every day. ( tip - pack a shower cap so you can cover your leather saddle during the night or in the rain)

I recommend using a big bottle holder - we carry 2 liters of water each in a big coke bottle and drink most of that during a day of biking. You can buy the big bottle holders online, however I went Dutch on it and made them from a strip of aluminium from the hardware store; $5 and a bit of handy work and bob is your uncle. 

The aluminium strips are great for a bit of biking diy. Cheap, strong, light and easy to work with. I also used it to build the front fork racks for our front bags. 

The bar set up is simple. Standard bar that came with the bike, all I did is add some “bull horn” handles because it is really good to change your hand position from time to time when you are riding all day. Got them online for around $10 nzd and added some foamy bar tape for comfort. Works great. Also online I got the holder for my phone: Gub Pro 2. This has worked brilliant for me, very sturdy and I can easily loosen and tighten it with one hand to quickly grab my phone to take a video or photo. All you need is a simple silicone phone case so the metal doesn’t scratch your phone. The small side mirror has been very handy too to keep an eye on approaching traffic and my fellow traveller. 

I use a small Top Peak bar bag which can also be used as a “bum” bag around your waste so it’s easy to carry valuables like passports, wallet, sunglasses, Powerpack, etc and keep them easily accessible. Deborah uses a slightly bigger version to also hold her camera (Sony mirrorless a6000) with two  extra lenses. 

In Greece I installed a Dog Stick on both our bikes. Simply by strapping a red bull can with the top cut off to our front fork so we could easily pull out our dog sticks when needed. In Greece and Albania we had to use these sticks on most days when biking through the country to scare off farm dogs that would come at us. We didn’t really need them after Albania so I took them out some time in Croatia. 

The bags we use are Vaude front bags and Ortlieb back backs. Again both these brands are dominating the scene when you are on the road. I would say that it’s about 70% Ortlieb that you see used her in Europe. Both sets of bags have done very well. Easy to use and durable. We have used these for Bolivia, Tour Aotearoa and Europe with no problems other than minor maintenance stuff.  The Vaude bags we have are not 100% waterproof so we use a sturdy plastic bag liner which works well. 

Front left: tent and bike tools

Front right: cooking stuff and non food (see below)

Back left: clothes 

Back right: sleeping mat/bag and toilet bag, lock, etc

(Deborah carries the food and camera tripod in her front bags - needless to say our food supply is kept to a minimum :) - actually, in Europe there is a supermarket close to every camp ground so generally we stock up just before camping each day. 

Contents of my back left bag: mostly Clothes - I guess we could have taken less. Generally you only use two sets off bike shorts, t-shirts, socks, underwear. One to wear during the day, which you wash In the evening and then one dry set to change into. On top of that a set of warm clothing, a rain jacket and a puffer (warm) jacket which in my case also doubles as my pillow. 

We carry some extra stuff because we are meeting and visiting some people on the way and let’s be honest at some point you really want to change into something else; non bike related.  And NO we still don’t get the whole lycra thing. Many people wear it but man it does look a little bit like wearing your togs (swim suit) to town. So no Lycra bike outfits for us. We use loose mountain bike shorts with separate inners for some extra cushioned comfort. I also use Marino woolen T-shirt’s which are awesome!

 

Contents of my right back bag: sleeping stuff etc. I put some more detail on our sleeping set up below. The other stuff worth noting is the heavy d-lock for the bikes combined with a 1.2 meter steel cable. Adds a bit of weight but a good lock is important because you inevitably will have to leave your bikes behind at various times. The extra length of cable is important because you will need to attach your bikes to some structure and on most campgrounds that will be a sizeable tree. 

Some wet shoes for showers and swimming on rocky shores (which most of the Adriatic Coast is). A bag of straps (webbing material) which we use to reinforce the bike boxes when we pack the bikes to go on the plane. These have also come in very handy as a washing line but if you don’t need to pack your bikes a simple string for your washing will do.

 The Blue bag in the photo above includes the electronics. I guess you just need to make up your own mind how much you want to carry. I took a small radio and our GoPro (with chargers) and I haven’t used these at all so should have left them at home. I pretty much use my iPhone for all music, photo, video, mapping etc so that’s all you need with a charger and an extra battery pack for days when it’s hard to get a fresh charge. Deb uses her iPad and her canon mirrorless a600 camera with some extra batteries 

Hence getting power is the main worry. 

 Because we are using campgrounds most days, getting a camping plug adaptor is great as it allows you to tap into the caravan outlets many campsites use. A short extension cord helps because it means you don’t have to sit right on top of the power pole (or the toilet block) where you manage to plug in. 

The other item worth noting is the iPhone mapping app Pocket Earth Pro. Not sure but I assume it’s available on Android too. This is a Brilliant app. You can download the maps for every country for offline use and that includes a bike map mode that shows all bike routes and trails. It also includes a topography option so you can see all the height lines. It allows you to upload gpx files as well. Really recommend this. I have been using this for many years now and I am still  impressed how accurate and useful this is both in cities and in the country. 

we brought our all seasons down sleeping bags because we had them and have used them in summer and winter for the last 10 years or so. I highly recommend you buy a good bag and then look after it. Given that it’s summer we probably could have used a lighter one. We generally stick our sleeping mats in our silk sheet liner so we use the silk liner as a bottom sheet and just used our sleeping bag as a blanket so we can push them off if it is too hot. 

We use Therma-Rest NeoAir sleeping mats. These are awesome. A very lightweight air mattress that packs down to  less than the size a 1 liter bottle. Very comfortable too. The trick is not to inflate them too hard. This has been the first camping trip I have slept fine with no back aches or shoulder pain. They are a bit pricy but well worth it, especially for a longer trip like this. 

Not much to say about our cooking set up; nothing fancy. Two pots, cups and plates. The MSR pocket rocket cooker is great. Small and light weight and can withstand the wind. Using small Coke bottles for cooking oil and dishwashing liquid. But beware, I stuffed up my morning scrambled eggs twice (!) by grabbing the wrong bottle. 

The plastic bag has non food stuff like washing powder, bug repellent, citronella candle, toilet paper, etc. 

Cutlery (little black pouch) includes two sets of titanium knives, spoons and forks. Strong and lightweight. I really like these after using plastic “sporks” in the past, this is much nicer. Also a bigger cutting knife to cut meats, sausages and bread and a small wooden spoon for cooking. 

Bike tools (large black pouch) - I guess another topic where you just have to make up your own mind - I brought the general multi functional bike tool but also some bigger tools for removing the chain wheels and discs so I can replace spokes (two so far) and also take the chain rings and cranks off when we pack up the bikes for the plane. I brought a few extra spokes and brake pads from NZ and bought some more on route when I ran out :). There are plenty of bike shops in Europe, especially from Italy going west. They will sell you parts and lend you tools if necessary too - for example when I replaced Deborah’s bike’s bottom bracket the other day. 

We have used this tent for some years now. Formally it is a three person tent (we used it with Maaike in 2015) but much more comfortable with 2. Its a North Face Thalus 3 and it has been great. Really easy to set up. Not the lightest but comfortable and very reliable. 

That’s it, or most of it anyway. The one thing we missed after a while was a chair to sit on. We had a ground sheet (vinyl table cloth material that we bought in Greece) but sitting on the ground every evening gets a bit old (Or maybe we are getting old I guess). 

Anyway, we saw various travelers here using the Helinox One camping chair. Very comfortable for its size, less than a kilo in weight and packs down very small. The reviews online are great too so we bought a set online and got them shipped to my sister in the Netherlands so we can use them on the fourth and final leg of our trip :). In the meantime we just keep an eye out for any garden furniture or pile of rocks we can find in the camp ground 😊