The Gear List

Our Plans:

First, know thy enemy. Our intentions were to be self-sufficient with everything. We carried enough food for up to 3 days, and were travelling from late winter through to almost mid-summer. If everything went as we had planned, then the only things we would buy would be film, food and souvenirs.

How we carried everything:

Fred: a set of both front (2x10L) and back panniers (2x20L), plus front handle bar bag (all panniers were AGU waterproofs). The handle bag had money and passports, as well as language and country guides.
Tip: A plastic lunch box was fitted between back panniers. This contained all things related to food, ie. cutlery, salt, fruit, bread, honey, etc.
Sharon: Pair of back pannier bags (2x20L) (Ortliebs), plus front handle bar bag (AGU). Our tent fitted nicely between the panniers on Sharon's rear rack, and the D-locks were under that.

Sleeping stuff:

We used 3-4 season sleeping bags with silk liner. Liners are essential for most hostels and are great for using on their own when the weather gets hotter, and they save the down from oil build up.A 3/4 thermarest each was our mattress. Comfy, warm and light. The tent we took along was a Fairydown Seige. It is a fantastic, 2 person, 2 hoop tunnel tent. The tent gave us the freedom to go places that weren't in the guide book, and sleep where hotels aren't.
Tip: If sharing; use a tent which is big enough to sit up in. This is great for those day's where the weather is against you. Ours was just a little bit too small...

Cooking:

Cooker: An old multifuel stove (Coleman Peak II). Multifuel cookers work on various fuels e.g. petrol, white gas etc, and is the only thing that would have worked; you can buy petrol anywhere. The cooker fitted inside a pot, which we then placed inside 2 aluminium "non-stick" frying pans. We started with only one pot but found that this would cook enough food for one person at a time- not good!

Water: We had an MSR Micro water filter along with us. It wasn't hard to use, and we didn't get sick, so it must have worked :) We carried about 2 litres of water on each bike.
Tip: One trick we discovered was VERY handy on those hot Greek days. We didn't have the luxury of a fridge, but we found a neat way to keep a few things cool (e.g chocolates bars). Just wrap the food in a cloth (we used a Katmandu travel towel-also very recommended), attach that to the back of your bike with some elastic, and keep it wet. You may already know, but when water evaporates, it requires heat, which in this case is supplied by your chocolate bar, so it gets cold. And you thought thermodynamics was a waste of time!

Clothing:

Since we were covering most lots of climates, it was inevitable that we had lots of cloths. Our main riding clothes were not cycling clothing at all. We both wore a light weight, long sleeved cotton top (sun protection, excellent breath ability, and doesn't look silly). And downstairs, we both wore a pair of travel pants; the lower legs could be zipped off if needed.
Tip: We both had cycling tops and shorts, but didn't wear them much. We found cycle shorts good initially, but after a few days, they were hot, humid and very uncomfortable. After a week, our butts had molded to the seats anyway, so all was good :). Same with the cycling tops, so we wore our cotton tops all the time. We both had extra clothes so we could put some "clean" clothes on for a museum or a beer at the local pub (also handy when washing the rest of the cloths). We both had a pair of waterproof over-trousers and a jacket. These were used a lot more than we expected, mainly for the cold.
Socks:We also had SealSkin waterproof socks, believe it or not. They were good, keeping our little toes nice and toastie. They were great if the shoes got wet, since you could have dry socks on, and they would stay dry!!!
Hats: Balaclava's worked really well for downhills, and folded up to make a nice wooly hat too.
Foot wear: Heavy sneakers for hills and cold days (useful for tramping/hillwalking/hiking too) and a pair of lightweight outdoor sandals e.g. teva, nike etc. or jandals for walking around inside and hot sunny days.

1st Aid/toiletries:

We had the usual toothbrushes and all that. I'm not going to list it all. We were lucking that our first aid kit wasn't used at all, except for a couple of plasters and claritine (hay fever remedy).

Tools:

Again, we were lucky with the bikes, and only had a couple of mechanicals. But the tools we carried were: foldable allen key set (up to 8mm), small chain breaker, Gerber multitool (inc. pliers, screwdrivers and knife), puncture repair kit, homemade "hypercracker" (it looks a lot like Hoogie's; look here), a spoke tool and, of course, a pump. We had a few spare parts too: chain links, tubes, bolts for the carriers, and a few emergency spokes. Finally in this section, but neither a spare part, nor a tool, is the oh-so-important Duct Tape; useful for everything.

Extras:

One very large dog stick (not for throwing 'to', but 'at' Boo-boo) would have been very handy in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Carrying it posed a problem for us, so we had to rely on a few stones in pockets. But our usual defence was to go as fast as we could. Other tried (successfully) methods to use if you can't go faster are to aim straight for the dog, making a lot of noise, pretending to kick it, pretending to throw something at it, and hoping that the owner will control it in time. One time none of these worked, and we were forced to get off our bike. As soon as we stopped, the dog stopped, realised that we were human, and left us alone.

Camera:

We took two cameras along with us. An SLR with a 28-210zoom lens, and a fixed lens APS camera, and used fujifilm wherever possible.
Verdict: The small APS camera was far better for action shots; it was easier to get to than the SLR, lighter and less likely to be stood on (really, its statistically proven!). If you asked me which of the two was better, I would have said the APS, because we took more photos with it. It was also great to take into the cities. Nothing screams "Tourist with lots of money" then a camera slung around the neck. But now that we've got all the photos back, there is no doubt in my mind that the quality of the SLR's photos warranted the extra hassle and weight of that camera. The lens size was a little big and required a tripod for most closeup shots. A 28-100 probably would have been better. I guess next time we would use a decent (digital) compact, and try to get the best of both worlds.

Maps; Go to library and photocopy the best road map you can find. It is good to find two different maps as they always hold different amounts of information. ..a road extra here, a campground there (maybe).Otherwise, tourist info maps can often be more up to date, and without showing every last footpath, will show most major asphalt roads or just which town to head for next. We often found a road on one map, but not on the other; locals are the best source of info when this happens.

The bikes:

I know some people think this is a really important section. I think that any bike, as long as it is comfortable and well looked after, will work. We both had our mountainbike with us. These were fairly standard jobs, with a couple of alterations. The most important would easily be the seat. I had a WTB Speed V (not bad, but should have had the Comfort V), and Sharon had a Serfas Women's seat (fantastic!! Why don't bike manufacturers stick decent seats like this on new bikes?). My bike had Shimano Deore and Avid v-brakes. The pads were Koolstop (grey), which are still the best performing, best priced pads I've tried; they lasted the whole way, and are still on my bike). Sharon's bike had "el cheapo" v-brakes, and Gripshift 3.0 gears. The Gripshift did break (a temporary fix with insulation tape lasted over 3 months), so I would recommend better gears. The cheap brake pads were fine, until we had one wet day on a dirt road, during which they completely disappeared. We had a spare set, which lasted the next 2 months. The bike also had a screw on cluster, and the wheel was stock standard. Thus, the wheel did start braking spokes in Austria, just a week from the end of the trip. A hand built, well tensioned wheel will always be the best. We started with normal pedals (no clips, not spds), but found them a pain. So we bought some big, booffy BMX pedals, with lots of screws for extra grip. These allowed us to have heaps of grip in all conditions, to wear any shoes (jandals* were the best in the heat), mean that you can move your feet around heaps (great for the knees), and also great for giving big scars on your calves. After the seat, this was the best upgrade to the bikes. The bikes also got some bar ends, and, importantly, some grips on the bar ends. A bell is very handy, a compass beside the speedo was a fantastic idea! If we were to do it again, we would probably get some touring handlebars (butterfly ones). For security, we had a D-lock (the long version) each, and also had a thin cable (5mm x 2m) that was attached to the seat. This would reach from the seat, through the front wheel and helmet and back to the D-lock (which was through the frame, rear wheel and immovable object). If there wasn't anything to lock to, we just locked the two bikes together, since that would be pretty awkward to try to move. But almost all of the time, one of us stayed with the bikes, unless they were in our hotel room. If we did it again, we'd only take one D-lock, since they are really heavy.
* Jandals are known as "thongs" and "flip-flops", and probably other names, depending where you come from.

If all went well with that, you won't have any questions what-so-ever. But if you do, feel free to drop me a line.
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