Touring Essentials
 

Can anybody list me some touring essentials I'm cycling the length of france. I'm a complete beginner. Things like:
[list=1][*]Swiss army knife[*]Innertubes[*]etc...[/list=1]

I need all the advice I can get! :)

visa, american express gold, rent a cell phone

There are books at Libraries and bookstores where that information is more readily available. It will also give you just one point of view. Here you will get many, and it could become confusing.

There are many suggestions here on the forums, if you wander back through the archives, that will give you a great many useful ideas. Good Luck

At the very least you'll want enough tools to fix a flat and carry out basic repairs/adjustments to your bike.

Depending on the type and age of the bike you get you may only need a folding hex key/screwdriver tool which will pretty well fit any fastener on the bike, chain tool and spoke wrench. For flats you'll need a spare tube(s), patch kit, tire levers and a pump. Other bikes may require more tools such as various size wrenches (spanners).

Some spares, such as tubes and spokes would also be a good idea. Most people also carry such things as duct tape, first aid kit, cable ties on a regular basis, not just for touring.

From there the list goes on depending on what type of country your travelling through, if you're camping and cooking, or staying elsewhere, climate at that time of the year, and personal equipment.

http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/

Here is the link to Ken Kifer's Bicycle Pages, a large, very, well organized site about bike touring and camping. Lots of links to others, also. Many list the equipment they carry and why.

Tom

When you have what you think you need, load up you bike and do a weekend shakedown tour. If you are camping, camp at Youth Hostels, so you will always be near to help and convenint facilities. (You can even just ride the loaded bike back home and camp in your garden).
Take the bare minimum load, but everything you need. The art of packing is to leave stuff out.
There are plenty of packing lists, such as:
http://www-math.science.unitn.it/Bik...king_List.html

In bike-shop country, some of the tools may be left out, esp if you dont know how to use them, but try and learn to fix the bike yourself.

I would recommend going with friends, so the amount carried can be reduced through sharing. Everyone wont need to carry a pump, tent, stove and all the tools. When things go wrong it is a lot more endurable, if you have someone with you who you can blame.

One advantage of France is every town has a bike shop, so as long as you have enough tools to fix a flat tyre and tighten up a loose screw anything else can be got in the next town.

As for the kit list, are you camping, hostelling or B&Bing ?

Camping and hostelling is the plan. Theres a group of three - five of us going at the moment.

The most important item.

The Bike - see your other thread

Just make sure it's got a good rear rack with a dog leg, Topeak do a good one for about £25

You will also need 3 bottle cages and the largest bottles you can fit in them

Tools enough to fix a flat tyre, don't bother with spare innertubes etc, you can buy them when you need them

You will also need two good panniers, Ortelieb are best, otherwise get the best you can afford, a bar bag is also required, as it's where you keep all your valuables

The tent (s). You could write books on the subject, ideally you want to look at 2 or 3 man tents by companies such as The North Face, Terra Nova/Wild Country, Mountain Equipment. All of them are great and all of them are expensive.

So your next best option is Army Surplus, the British Army use the Vango Force 10 ridge tent (don't touch the newer dome design of the same name) - They can be got from companies such as Anchor Supplies (they have a web site) by mail order from about £70 last time I looked - they are good solid (and heavy) tents.

Like the bike, you are better off with a good 2nd hand tent rather than a new crap one. - You can not buy a tent worth having for less than £150 new.

Sleeping bag - best you can get (Army Surplus for £20)
A Thermarest
A Stove. A Trangia is good (again Army Surplus)
A good torch which can double up as a front light

Then very few clothes, you will be amazed how little you need.

Two adages when packing

"Every ounce counts" and "If in doubt, leave it out"

You will need to pack and repack before you go, each time cutting down the amount you are taking, 1 pair of trousers, 1 t-shirt, 3 pairs of sox, a jumper, some rain gear, a hat and that is about it.

You will basically spend your time waring your one of your pair of bike shirts and one of your pair of bike shorts, everything else is extra.

Two friends who did your route last summer send a large parcel home after the first week with over half their gear.

A spare inner is one thing NOT to leave out. Ever had a tyre split on you? You can patch the split tyre (Ducktape or paper money), but not the inner. Bent or damaged valve? large puncture close to valve? A spare inner and some patches are really the minimal toolkit for every ride.

Catfish recommended a great book for me to read that I read called "The Touring Cyclist". I don't remember who it was by, but I'm sure if you went to Amazon.com, you'd find the book easily. It really helped me a lot. It goes through all different types of touring. I liked how he even had a part for the "credit card touring cyclist". I found the book to be extremely informative and resourceful. I'd check that book out ASAP.


Koffee

KB:
Glad you found the book helpfull, it is" The Essential Touring Cyclist" by Richard A. Lovett
CF

extra spokes, tools for changing them, tubes, patches, and spare derailleur hangers, and bike cleaning tools. Thats what I've needed in my journey so far.

Dave

What follows is merely my opinion not emperical fact:

Trangias: heavy and bulky
Force 10s: Very heavy and probably too hot for France

There are number of gas cookers which are lighter and very simple and it's worth investing in a good tent - it should last a good number of years.

Two-season sleeping bag for generally warm France which will stuff-up very small.

Ortlieb Panniers are very good and entirely watreproof but are also expensive. Altura and Karrimor are fine - get a decent bin bag to line it and voila - it's waterpoof.

Bungee straps for attaching stuff to your rack, spare tubes, normal camping stuff (a head torch is good for eating in the tent), sealable sandwich bags to store stuff dry (batteries etc.). and son...

Get a Youth Hostel card as it will make all your stays cheaper.

For a solo tourist, weight of bag/tent/cooking stuff can be excessive, so its worth getting modern lighteight stuff.

For a group, weight tends to be less of a problem. Not only are 3-person tents warmer, they have a much better volume/weight ratio.
For a French summer trip, you could probably kit yourself out at Millets rather than expensive designer labels. There are some amazingly good cheap bits of kit around.

Word of warning if you go for a gas stove.

In France you can only buy the old fashoned blue 'Gaz' containers which need to be pearced. You can not get the modern screw top (Coleman/Go-Gas/Microgas/Aladin) type.

In the UK (and not in France) you can buy a converter, that will convert an old fashoned pearceable Gaz container into a screw top - no idea how good they are. Might be simpler to get hold of an old type of cooker that takes Gaz containers.

I found out the above the hard way last year, having taken a Trangia that luckly ran on meths as well as gas, we were forced to use the meths for two weeks - we also had no gas light.

I also checked every single camping shop we passed and every single camp site shop, looking for screw top gas, all to no avail

As to comments re Trangia's, - Bulky and heavy - we had the choice of of a Trangia, a Coleman multifuel, a Primus Sportsman, a Primus 00 and a MSR wisperlite

Once you had included the pots and pans that they all need the Trangia came out 2nd lightest, and 2nd least bulky, MSR Wisper lite was the lightest and least bulky, but pots and pans were smaller, and we felt with 3 of us to feed, larger pans were required (MSR would have done for 2)

We also wanted a stove that had an alternative fuel option, so if one type of fuel is unavailable then you use the other, as it turned out, this was essential.

As for the Force 10, yes they are heavy, they are built like a brick Sh**house which is why the Army and the Scouts use them. Buy the best you can afford, but if you are going 2nd hand, then a F10 may be the best thing to get

I have a book from Lonely Planet called Cycling Britain, it's quite useful too and has routes in it. There is also a Cycling France edition.

don't go for a gas stove - they are no good, you can't use em on uneven surfaces or when it's very windy, and the gas is expensive

trangias are a bit bulky, but they are light, and use the widely available and cheap drink of vagrants - meths (a shop in London was recently prosecuted for serving bottles straight out of the fridge)

I really hate gas stoves - have lost a few nice dinners due to their instability