Riding a bike or carrying luggage

When going on a bike trip, there are two options. Either you go riding a bike or you go carrying luggage. Since we wanted to preserve the fun of riding fast bikes and and not towing up each hill at least 25kg, we opted for the former over the latter and are traveling light. When the water bottle’s filled, it’s the heaviest single item and weighs as much as the rest of the stuff. Additionally to what’s in the picture above, we’ll have some Power Bars and the occasional banana in the jersey pockets. Other than that, you don’t really need much. A brief walk through

Bike essentials, helmet, gloves, glasses and actually the jersey, a pair of bike pants and shoes that click into the pedals. That’s the dress code during the day. The weather is supposed to be good, so we can leave the additional clothing for post showering in the evenings. A pair of underpants, a long sleeved shirt and some a pari of long trousers, of course all made of light technical fibers.  Regarding food, it’s the money that buys it. When there are things to repair, we have with us tools if it’s the bike or medical supplies (magnesium, vitamins, aspirin), if it’s the rider that needs repairing.

Hygiene is important, hence there are a number of items there. A towel could still be added, and the deodorant might still fall out of the selection, to be considered. Then the rest of the luggage groups are maps and paperwork, such as ferry reservations. Well maps on paper are still superior to electronic maps on small screens when you are on a bike with things moving and rattling all the time and electricity not as an abundant resource. The data center consists of a small bike computer, a Polar heart rate monitor belt, a smarter mobile phone and three external battery packs that ensure a maximum up time of th edata center. We’re going to try have constant GPS, Bluetooth and 3G data connections ongoing to keep you informed on what’s going on on the trip. Hopefully this’ll work out. More on that later.

To get it all stowed away there are some bags that do the trick. In a later post, Saturday or so,  I’ll show how this stuff looks like when packed onto the bike.

Tags: bike tour