Bike Touring Logistics

We have been taking bicycle touring vacations for many years, but up until now our longest trip was just a bit over two weeks.  Although we have both toured overseas before, it's been decades, and for the past 5-years we have been taking shorter "Credit Card" tours (eschewing heavy camping gear for the convenience of staying in B & B's or hotels).  For us this 10-week tour represents a return to self supported, extended bicycle touring, but with a twist.  We love riding bikes, and don't mind hauling gear, but we believe there is a sweet spot between minimalism and decadence.  This tour is our effort to explore and find that sweet spot.  We will be riding with rear panniers only.  Susan also has a rear rack and small handlebar bag and Darryl will have a partial frame bag and small dry bag on the rear rack.  It remains to be seen how well this experiment will work, but we will try to comment on it as we go.

This post will highlight our preparations, specifically it will show you what we our bringing, our bikes, and how we pack them up for travel.

Preparing for the trip involved hours and hours of pouring through guide books (we used the Lonely Planet Bicycle Touring in Italy guidebook extensively, as well as Lonely Planet and Let's Go Italy Guides, and Steve Rome and Croatia and Slovenia guides as well as reading lot's of blogs from other cyclists.  We particularly liked the posts from a couple who blog at  Going Slowly, and also read Cycles Seven account of a 2003 tour in Sardinia, as well as general reverences with Traveling Two website and other online resources.  Chances are wherever you are going you will be able to glean some valuable information online.  Of course we also spent a lot of time just gazing at the map and dreaming.

Susan did the lions share of the early route planning, although later on she had had her fill and just wanted to get on with it.

What Darryl will carry (~38 pounds w/o water or Food):

If you are curious about any of our gear choices, or just what something in the photos are just add a question in comments below, or email.  Clothing, Tools and Repair, and Electronics are detailed in below pictures.

Clothing - we just learned it snowed in Milan two days ago, we're hoping that we will bring spring and warmer temperatures as we will be stretched if we have to ride in cooler temps and/ or ride in the rain when its cold out.  We can always hole-up indoors.

Hopefully I have the bikes running really well and we can avid regular maintenance issues.  Major mechanical issues will require a trip to a bike shop.  We are still deciding if we will carry an extra tire, or will reley on careful riding and tire boots should we tear a sidewall.  The top right zip-lock has spare bolts, chain sections, quick links, lighter, patch kits, etc.

That's an iPad mini in the case under the headphones, we will use an Apple lightening to SD card reader to transfer photos to iPad and then upload to Picasa most likely.

Susan and I are sharing some items like toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, etc,  so see her pictures below for a full take on our toiletries.

 Susan will Carry the following (~26 lbs w/o food or water))

Notice tub of Acli-mate natural sports drink in the center of the tarp.  This product was formulated by our good friend Roanne Rouse, a naturopath who practices in Gunnison Colorado.We have been using Acli-Mate products for a few years now and they are awesome for aiding in acclimatization when heading up to altitude (or flying) as well as electrolyte replacement and recovery.