I’m asking you to provide general pearls of wisdom to self-supported newbies road touring for two weeks, no camping… keep it simple, top 10 pearls or less, what you got?

Keep it light. I look at everything from the lens of wieght. If in doubt don’t bring it. Look at featherweight backpacking, blogs, and websites for information. Keep things a simple as possible, as the saying goes “don’t pack your fears”. It totally transforms the touring experience.

scroll and jump from theme to theme

https://bikepacking.com/bikepacking-101/

Don't set an end date. Keep your schedule so flexible that you can wad it up and throw it away.
You'll find that very liberating.

1. don't carry/wear/use NEW gear on your tour. everything should have xxx hundred miles on it already.

2. go over every cable, link, bolt, connection on your bike, know how to remove/replace/adjust, and carry the tools and spares you'll likely need.

3. never, ever wear denim in the rain, especially not while playing your accordion in a forest at midnight!

thanks, appreciate it. I’m familiar with that link.But I’m more interested on this thread in other’s favorite pearls than the typical on-line lists.

I never ever cared about wearing new gear on a tour. so I did not check any part on my bike before touring. ))

P.S. if one maintains a bike on a regular basis there is no need to check it for a tour.

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”—Mr. Spock

Some day, you might fly off for a week to Myanmar, with a fresh pair of cycling shoes you bought in China, with glue that doesn't pass the sticky test, and after less'n a week, the soles fall off, in which case you gotta find an itinerant cobbler to, umm, cobble your shoes together, assuming he has a portable sewing machine capable of stitching through soles. Street cobblers in China would have full-size industrial sewing machines, but this guy in the photo outside a temple managed it AWL right.

Same goes with other bits of clothing and gear and new parts you add to the bike, they need to be broken in, not fresh out of the box. Need to get some kilometerage (furlongage in Myanmar) on the stitches and the zippers and the cogs, etc. New stuff, if defective, tends to fail in the first few days of use.

I see it this way, I ride vintage, all my gear is old, almost as old as myself, therefore there is no need to test and retest before leaving on a jet plane as all of it has been tested for decades. Vintage has an advantage. At the same time vintage has certain disadvantages, too.

Don't try and cover too many miles per day, especially at first. Take some time to smell the roses or it can become grueling work. I can't tell you how many people that I've seen burn out and quit because of this alone.

Try and keep your gear reasonably light, as "the road will provide"

Start with a short overnight (or couple days) out and back shake down ride in order to see what changes you might want to make before you head out on that big adventure.

And finally, don't believe anything you read on bike touring forums : )

In no particular order

1. Don't listen to the old farts that tell you that you have to ride steel. Aluminum touring bikes are strong enough and, no, they aren't all that harsh to ride
2. Don't take too much stuff but don't take too little. Be willing to edit your load as you go along. The post office will send your stuff home if you don't need it.
3. Don't worry about your bike breaking. They usually don't. Just make sure it is in good order before you leave.
4. More "Tour". Less "de France". If you find yourself pushing for 100 mile days while riding past the World's deepest hand dug well because you have to "make miles", you are "de Francing", not touring.
5. Make everything on your bike as maintenance free as possible. Replace loose bearings with sealed ones.
6. Chains: If you are spending time cleaning chains while touring, rethink your lubricant.
7. Laundry: Bicycle clothes aren’t lingerie. They can be machine washed and dried. Life is too short to wait for clothes to dry
8. Laundry II: Life is too short to do laundry every night. Carry 3 days of riding clothes plus the one on your back. Do laundry about every 4 days.
9. Be flexible. Take detours. Don't be so locked into a route that you miss the World's largest ball of string (kind of part of the "de Francing" thing)
10. Point A doesn’t matter. Point B doesn’t matter. The points in between A and B are what matter.

you see, there is always a solution.

the first over-nighter is the hardest. as in, just going. once you're on the road and moving, you will wonder why it was so hard to just go. kind of like biking to work - convincing yourself to 'just do it' is the hardest part.

the rules of three ~ as in, if I leave "this thing" at home so I don't have to carry it, am I likely to die?
apply the rules of three to decide:
I can live 3 minutes without air. Since I'm not SCUBA diving, I don't need the SCUBA gear.
I can live 3 days without water. Do I need to filter water? If not, don't bring all the filtering gear.
I can live 3 weeks without food. ..... ok, I'll take food on an over nighter. But I try to keep it light: ramen; bag of tuna; oat meal; instant coffee. Most of my bike touring will cross a coffee shop or restaurant.

The best way to hand wash cycling kit at the end of the day is while wearing it in the shower (or river). Easy to get to the dirty bits and when you are done, you will be clean too.
Added bonus is that anyone sees you will think you are wierd :-)

>> Drops are NOT tour bars. Butterfly bars are goofy too. I never used either. LOL
>> Rim scratch brakes are 100% STUPID on a tour bike. I just replaced one that got basically gouged in a few days of frozen mud in China. I was slow getting a disc set up on my so complicated custom bike.
>> Belt and suspenders all bolts. 5 mm is NOT a rack bolt. Nylock nut on everything.
>> Schwalbe tires ALWAYS for durability. They have all sizes and thickness.
>> Have a BIG bar mount mirror. I can see behind half a mile easily. And have some thermos bottles that hold ice ALL day. I choke on hot water.
>> You want stuff to NOT NEED adjustment or fiddling or daily lubing. Rohloff14 rear, SA XL-FDD dyno DRUM brake. 32,000 miles and still stopping.
Cable TRP Spyre calipers are the BEST, on my Rohloff. I never tried belt drive. Pinion drive is getting more popular and reliable too. Sorry deFaileur fanboys.
>> Use a FLOOR mini pump. Flailing your arms in the air while pumping 100+ times is STUPID. These pumps are NOT much heavier either.
>> For medium width tires, nothing beats Velocity DYAD machine side rims with NO stupid eyelets. ZERO chance the holes will EVER crack. Use 2.3/ 2.0 spokes if possible. NO magic voodoo spoke tensioning needed. LOL. Mavic rims are all GARBAGE.
>> Steel racks are far stronger. Fact.
>> Coasting downhill because you have less than 99 GI is laughable. I used 114 GI just as much as the 22 GI low. Walking a couple miles/ hills won't kill you.
>> If you aren't enjoying the adventure and experience every day every mile, then go HOME.
Yah my bike here weighed 6% of a ton. LOL. And I don't even carry a tent or stove. >>>>

1. An ounce of ingenuity is worth pound of equipment.
2. Above all else be flexible.
3. Embrace the unexpected.
4. Know basic bike mechanics and have the tools.
5. Talk to the locals.
6. Have fun!