Recommendations for mountain bike travel kit

Bicycle:

Spokie IS my bicycle. He is a strong, heavier made bicycle for touring. He handles me and all of the weight, and if I wind up going to remote places, which Spokie recommends, I will be riding with all the weight on rough terrain. A bicycle should have touring style geometry, which Spokie does, as this gives a longer more stable wheelbase and more comfortable riding position.

Spokie is a steel bike. I've heard that because of rust issues aluminum frames may be better for places where you will be in a lot of moisture. Steel bikes can be welded a little more easily than aluminum though welders for aluminum are increasing world wide. Mountain bikes will be better supported internationally and so would be a better choice for international travel.

Spokie has middle of the line components. Low end components may not work well and may wear out too quickly. High end components are usually more of a weight concious matter which doesn't add up for touring.

Spokie has a way to talk to me I cannot explain. It is mysterious.

Trailers:

Spokie and I have started to use a BOB trailer in recent years for the sole purpose of weight distribution. These trailers are great. They can be used as the sole carrier of your kit which works out well for those people who have bikes that cannot be fitted with racks and panniers.

There are other useful purposes for the BOB trailer usually flipped upside down. We have used our BOBs as a table for eating and food preparation, as a food protector from smaller animals, and though we have not done it we have heard that you can even use the BOB as a grill over the fire for cooking.

The BOB trailer comes with a huge wet sack for storing your stuff in which is a great way to go. Spokie and I didn't get the stuff sack with our BOBs but we do use wet sacks for keeping things nice and dry.

Panniers:

Spokie and I have been using JANDD Expedition panniers for our rear and JANDD Mountain panniers for our front for many years now. These panniers are really just backpacks rigged to fit as panniers on bicycle racks. One then has to treat your kit in the same way as you would backpacking in terms of keeping things dry and so on. The expeditions have a number of compartments for storage segregation and Spokie would recommend using stuff sacks otherwise.

Another popular choice among bicycle tourists these days are Ortlieb. They are essentially a wet sack made to fit racks. They do keep things dry as any wet sack would and for the most part you would have to segregate your kit with stuff sacks. We have cycled with a number of people who use these. One thing we have noticed is they will tend to rip easily. One gal we were riding with in India was sideswiped by a rickshaw, and this cut a big hole in her rear pannier. The material of the JANDD panniers seems a little tougher and easier to mend when it does rip.

Racks:

Spokie recommends the use of steel racks. We are using racks by Tubus. These racks are strong and being steel can be welded. They are hollow and that makes them lighter than one would expect. Something like a top mount front rack would be fine to be made out of aluminum and we have used those.

It is a good idea to carry a few splints for racks in case they break. You may rely on finding something along the way to mend a rack for a time being but carrying a couple of long nails and a hose clamp or two could be a safer bet.

Tires:

Spokie and I have learned that if you are fully loaded you really can't ride a lot of terrain off road. You will need a hard enough surface to support the weight. This means that you can use as light of a tire as you want to try and get away with. Spokie and I have toured for many miles on 26X1.25 Tioga City Slickers which even wound up in off road dirt track. And certainly the reduced rolling resistance and rotational weight weighs into the choice for smaller lighter tires.

On the other hand Spokie recommends the use of fat tires for anyone who can handle them for all around conditions. If you can take on less miles, and a little more effort, fat tires are more comfortable, easier on the spokes and wheels, more obsorbing of road vibration, and with more rubber they are a little more puncture resistant. And for off road touring in remote areas where one would be away from major cities for some time it is a real good idea to go with the most rugged tires you can.

Spokie cautions against buying tires based on what you read or hear. Try to get tires you can look at in a shop rather than online. I had an experience with Schwalbe where I purchased some Marathon XR tires online touted as being the toughest tires on the planet, and when I got them I found one out of three had a few slices in them which looked like maybe a box knife had hit them. Schwalbe did not replace the tire assuming that it must have been me who did the damage. Further, these tires were ridden only slightly farther than San Francisco to Seattle and were starting to separate in places. Not what I expected from what I had researched and I am glad I was not way out on the Tibetan plateau somewhere when this happened.

Camping:

Tent

Spokie says that a good 4 season tent with the ability to provide plenty of ventilation is perfect for most conditions. If you wind up in hotter conditions most modern tents allow you to set up without the rainfly. Spokie and I also use a 3/4 season tent which has a slick way of rolling the fly back and exposing webbing. If we get into really cold places with this tent we usually will have a 4 season bivi sack which we can slide into to make better than a 4 season tent.

Stove

Spokie and I are currently using MSR stoves. We use a Whisperlite International most of the time, and we use an MSR XGK in any case where the Whisperlite fails to work. This doesn't mean high altitude necessarily as bad karosene can clog the Whisperlite and we then wind up using the XGK. These stoves can be maintained in the field and are generally safe. Nothing can be done about the mess that is created using them however.

Water Filter and Purification

Spokie recommends 3 forms of water purification. First, use a good water filter to run the water through if getting it from a sketchy source. Second, boil the water. And finally use iodine tables to kill anything left. Of course it's not necessary to take all three steps but just to know them is a good start towards safety.

Sleeping Bag and Pad

Spokie recommends the lightest sleeping bag with the warmest rating you can get. Of course best quality will be had from quality vendors. Be careful not to buy a sleeping bag from touts in the streets of Kathmandu. It is possible to go 10 degrees are so cooler on a bag to save weight and then sleep in cloths and cover oneself with other gear. But, if going into high altitudes away from cities and population you should carry as heavy as you can handle.

As for sleeping pads Spokie and I sleep on a ridgerest almost daily. Sometimes we will sleep just on the ground. A hard surface is good for the body and the natural way for humans to sleep. A ridgerest is useful to layer out the cold from the ground. We do not recommend thermarests that are air filled as they can puncture, and then you wind up having to patch and so on. Get used to the
ridgerest instead. One time we were bedding down in some bush in Mexico and put our tent over a bunch of thorns. As we laid down the thorns went through the ridgerest in about a dozen different places. If we used thermarests that would have been a lot of patching. Instead we just relocated out tent and went to sleep.

Cookware

Spokie and I use stainless steel cookware we picked up in Pahar Ganj, Delhi for about 2 dollars. Use what works best. Keep it limited to just what you need. Eat out of the pot you cook in, use chopsticks, and so on.

Tools and Spare Parts:

For tools Spokie recommends a minimum set when you are touring in places where you can get to a bike shop within a day or so. Otherwise you should take all the tools needed to fix any problems you would experience. Try to be crafty and think of things that a tool can be used for. For example you can use a cone wrench as a spoon. Below is the list of tools we carry.

Spokie offers the same advice concerning spare parts. Carry as little as you need where there are cities, towns and so on with bike shops and stores. Otherwise carry as much as you need to do most any repair needed. Below is a list of spare parts we tend to carry.

Spokie and I know what your are thinking about alot of this stuff. Too much weight to carry and so on. We have had to replace spokes and cables a number of times out in the middle of nowhere, and a couple of time we have had to replace bearings and even our freehub. Also, there has been more than one occasion where we have been asked for an axle or a skewer. Bottom line is if you tour enough you will be needing something somewhere along the line.

Tools to have always:

Tools to have on expedition:

Parts to have always:

Parts to have only on expedition:

Extras:

First Aid:

Spokie and I carry a first aid kit with basic first aid stuff. And we also carry things like sunblock or zinc oxide, lip ointment and anti itch cream. When your skin drys and cracks it can itch like crazy. Spokie also recommends taking along extra triple antibiotic ointment.

Clothing:

Spokie recommends keeping the clothing light both in type of material and in quantity. We use a lot of polypropylene or silk to keep fluid wicked away from the skin. This kind of layer actually works quite well in hot climate too as it helps to sweat quickly and then the wind will blow against the sweat causing a cooling effect.

We use a semi water resistant shell for riding in colder areas, and if it is raining heavy we use a waterproof poncho which can even be flung over the handlebars and used like a tent while riding. This has saved us from hypothermia on more than one occasion.

Wool hats or ski hats are a must in colder climates and some good gloves if you will be in real cold areas. We usually carry a pair of heavy gloves and a pair of lightweight. The same thing goes for socks.

You will usually wind up stopping many times to put things on, and then stopping to take them off. This is especially true in rolling hills. Once you hit camp you will want to jump into something warm and cozy so be sure to have enough clothing so that you can have some on the panniers drying plus some to change into.