Probably one of the top 10 questions I have been asked was “What kind of a super bike do you have?” Neither did I have a super bike – not even close, nor did I collect any super gear. Everything pretty down to earth. Here is the description of both the bike and the gear to satisfy such curiosity 🙂
Full packing list here.
Bike
My bike, also known as the MPG (Miami Pearl Green 🙂 ) is a Trek 7.3 FX sports bike. It’s far from being a known touring bike but since I already had it for 1.5 years and I was 100% comfortable riding it all day for a few days, I decided it is perfectly ok to get me to Armenia. I needed to adjust it a little bit so that it can carry weight on both wheels, and to add bar ends to my flat handlebars so I can have more positions on the bike (even a slight change helps on a long road). But that was pretty much it.
I could have renewed my tyres but I just decided to wear them until the end and since I was starting my trip from a more civilized part of the world where the roads look like roads it was fine to start with my old bold tyres. I have got to change them later on.
Gear
The gear took more time to think through as I wasn’t an experienced camper or a bike tourer so most of the things I had to research and buy. I divided all the gear into categories for myself: bike add-ons, tools and spare parts, camping gear including cooking, clothes and other stuff.
Bike add-ons
3 main things to acquire where the helmet, bike racks – front and back, and clip pedals.
The helmet I have only used at the end of the trip and to be honest it didn’t give me any real sense of safety. In general, I felt comfortably safe on whatever roads I drove as 99% of the cars were respectful or cautious enough to give me enough space on the roads. Helmet though was a useful alternative to the baseball cap because the latter had a terrible habit of flying of my head in the wind (read more on the real fears of bike touring).
Bike racks are a must have if you plan to carry considerable weigh. One or two – this is a personal choice and I am sure it also depends on your expertise as I have seen some world tourers with 2 front panniers only.
Clip pedals – this was a useful addition and with a good advice from my friend Fabio, I got double sided pedals with one side being flat that can fit any shoes. I found it extremely useful to have the option to switch the shoes or ride unclipped.
Tools and spare parts
Here I got a good advice too – carry only those tools that you know how to use. I packed a universal tool with different allen keys and a chain tool, other wrenches that were still missing (I just made sure I have a wrench for every single screw on my bike), a patch kit, zip ties, tapes and a Sugru kit.
Spare parts – chain oil, a spare chain link, screws, spokes, inner tubes, a brake cable, brake pads.
Camping gear including cooking
Probably one single item I spent researching most was the tent and I am still not sure if it was the right choice. I didn’t have any issues with it but it’s the question of having a freestanding tent or not. Anyways, my tent is Vango Helix 200 model.
Next in the line are the groundsheet, sleeping pad, sleeping bag (I had two since I already had one and just wanted to add a lower temperature range – not optimal, I know).
My cooking equipment was so amateur that I won’t even bother to describe it here. The only item worth mentioning was the DIY can-pot that took a while to figure out but was my pride and joy 😉
Clothes and accessories
Here again, I didn’t have anything fancy. I did take padded cycling shorts but I ditched them soon after it got too warm in them and cycled 2/3 of the trip in my stylish Indian-looking pants. Rest of my clothes were not cycle-specific.
No matter the brand and the price, some items are really important for me to have – cycling gloves, cycling sunglasses that tightly protect my eyes from dust, wind and the sun, long sleeve shirts to protect from the sun and dust and a buff scarf.
Other stuff
Some stuff that is worth mentioning – solar panel to charge batteries if no access to electricity for a few days, water filter just in case you have no clean water around, and a phone mount called Finn. All of these can be skipped if your trip tends to be more planned out.
