jur

I have toured several times now, ranging from short long-weekend credit-card ones to full camping multiple-week ones.

The one big thing I found was that camping gear is the majority of my load.

Clothes: I carefully select clothes that do double duty, ie can be worn on and off the bike. This way I don't have to lug double sets. Especially with cold-weather clothing - just one set and use the layer approach.

We generally wash the day's stuff every day, just a quick hand-wash and rinse in a basin, of socks, undies, shirt and her knicks for the day. That set will dry during the night. A second set is worn. A third set is ready to wear.

This way our load is really light - just 2 panniers is more than enough. There is room for the food with that.

We just add the camping gear to that in another set of panniers.

When travelling abroad, I use duct tape and tape sets of panniers together, and stick each set in those cheap Asian woven plastic bags ($2 at thrift shops). These are light and fold up small so they are not a hassle to cart along. And being cheap if they break during a flight, well there plenty more, and the panniers are still held together with duct tape. We take a roll with us.

Clothing: Avoid cotton, except maybe for a T-shirt for day use only - cotton takes forever to dry. Polyester is the way to go with everything that is next to the skin. Wool for warm tops. Arm and leg warmers for warmth (on and off the bike). Zip-off pants (quick-dry type) also do double duty although I have shorts for cycling, the pant seats take a beating.

You get the idea - pack very light, be strict. Anything you pack must be capable of double duty.

TIP: The most useful thing I have found to be bungy cords with plastic hooks. These can be used for so many things, one important use is as a clothes line. Especially in motels there is often no clothes line and when camping, this may be far away or nonexistent. But with the elastic cords, you can make a clothes line from virtually anything in the room or whatever bushes or fence. Plus you hardly need any pegs - just stick the cord through a pants leg or through the shirt arms etc. The only pegs you need are for socks. Several cords are linked together for extra length as needed.

See? Double duty again.