I haven't posted here lately because I've been so busy riding my bike and planning my trip - fun stuff!!
I spent a considerable amount of time here last fall and winter discovering all kinds of useful information about traveling by bike, and all of it helped me plan my trip. For example, I originally intended to carry a backpack instead of panniers, but quickly learned the shortcomings of that idea from many people around here.
My trip goes from Amsterdam to Rome over 3 weeks. It's me and my good friend and it will be the credit card variety. We have a limited time available and opted for heavy planning at the expense of a lot of freedom on the trip. The upside is that we will get to visit some really cool places like Amsterdam, the Black Forest, Bellagio on Lake Como, and Florence while still staying in lots of small towns along the way.
Anyway, I also plan to blog about our adventures during the trip and have put together a website at
http://sbrdesign.com/wordpress/. Take a look if you're interested and let us know what you think. I also tried to put quite a bit of information in the Equipment section because I always was interested in seeing exactly what others were using. There is a PDF at the end of that section with my most current packing list.
Also, feel free to register on the site for email updates and to leave comments.
Thanks!
Tod (SBRDude)