Cooking (ONLY for areas with no risk of bears, and if you don't mind a little extra weight): Bring along a vacuum thermos for colder months. After cooking dinner, keep your stove out and take the time to cook some old-fashioned oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon sugar while you admire the stars & stretch out. Put it the thermos and leave it in the foot of your sleeping bag for the night. As soon as you wake up, breakfast is hot & ready, you don't have to fire up the stove for a second time, and the raisins are incredible after an entire night of slow cooking.

Tent Poles: If they're too long to fit in your panniers, sling them under your top tube (be careful of their width to keep them out of the way of your knees.)