Baby wipes or body wipes aka the ones in old folks home work well in a pinch. It's worth having a pack on hand for a quick once over.

Logic tells us that if GPS were a necessity no one would have toured before it became available to the general public.

You said, "OTOH 3rd week of the no-soap thing & haven't stunk despite recent warm weather & skin feels a bit better." This is what my barber was telling me to do. He claims that soap is the worst thing your your hair and skin. He's a young feller - late twentyish - and a friend of the family. He's one of the new type of barbers that are seriously into their craft. Anyhow, I've tried the no soap thing and it works. Old habits die hard though.

My favorite flavor of Dr. Bronner's is eucalyptus. Its the perfect addition to a hot soak in the tub. I used to take a very small bottle of it on hikes. Great for washing up out on the trail.

Yep there's a lot to be said for logic I just figured that seeing as how it would be my first foray outside of town that I'd run it by you guy's first,it would really suck if needed one and didn't have one.

All those comedians making up sketches about lost husbands refusing to ask for help weren't basing that on some kind of reality...

If somebody who was from my state pulled up and asked me for directions now I'd treat them with a bit of suspicion, unless they were obviously old and didn't have a handle on technology.

Of course it also depends on where you are touring, try standing at a minor intersection in Japan or China and matching up the symbols on your map to to ones on the signs, yep, you can do it eventually, but hey, why ignore another source of information just because they didn't do that in the old days.

Technology is nice, but it is not an absolute necessity. In most North American tours it isn't even a necessity. I find GPS/smart phone really handy for getting through large cities. Once out in the rural areas things are relatively simple.

The population was 2/3 back then. Freeways were 1/10th. A whole lot of highways were 1 lane a side.
Nice try tho.

For me in the past ten years of touring:

1. P38*

/done

*oops --> with more & more pull-tops probably not needed either

final answer: you don't NEED anything!

Then how have I been able to tour as recently as this Easter weekend without GPS?

I rode across the U.S. and then some back in '99 without GPS (or a cell phone). 'Bout 6000 miles. I will admit that I did get "lost" briefly 3 times.

Or ... this is demonstration of law of conservation of intelligence. (Much like conservation of energy.) Before these devices, the human brain had some pretty amazing powers. Now it needs GPS to find Target. In 10 years, it will need a self-driving car to get there.

Ben

ftw!

don't be too sure about that!

LOL, "are you sure that's the right squiggle dear?"

This is a perfect example of where you'd need peanut M&Ms. It'd take about 45 minutes to figure that sign out, and you'd need to eat something. Or you could just bribe someone for directions, with the M&Ms. 😁

Mostly lived in DC region & it's still the most confusing area for routing I've ever seen. Roads cross each other, change names etc. OTOH on last regional tour I used phone to re-route after getting side-tracked & the phone sent me 15 miles out of the way. Also seen some Pennsylvania areas where road signage is very sparse.

Paper maps still work. State bike route guides, and a road map are readily available, and are great supplements to phones and GPS units.

Same with Boston. My favorite map is the Metropolitan AAA road map. Scale is appropriate to provide detail to find good roads, but covers enough distance, about 50-60 miles from downtown, to plot a century. I use my phone to locate myself on the paper map.

I have used one for DC too, as well as Philadelphia and Toronto.

Oh good, I've always wanted to see coq83

Someone mentioned good clothes. Personally, I've grown quite fond of Merino wool for all my outdoor activities. It's soft, comfortable in a wide range of temperatures, and most importantly, it is INCREDIBLY odor-resistant. I've worn the same shirt for 5 days straight without showering, and it passed the sniff test on the 6th day. Me, on the other hand...

LOL, I'll second that. 😁 That's why we need those wet wipes, for mobile bathing. 😉 I've been experimenting with thrift store finds, since it's way cheaper that way, and I'm really liking the wool blends. Like the sweater I'm wearing now, is 80% polyester & 20% wool, so it keeps you warm, doesn't smell, and most surprisingly, doesn't shrink. 😎

Haha, this is the best!

Try riding in Vietnam cities. Most of the blocks are triangles. Plus one of those streets will likely be one way. Almost every circle has 5 or 6 exits and doesn't have lanes. Street names do not always continue very far. Millions of motorcycles, but NEVER will 2 be going the same speed. ha

Maybe not something you buy but a good skill to have. Snot rocket clear of you and your stuff

Absolute bike touring necessities? Bike. Map. Desire.