An Essential Gear Checklist for Every Bicycle Tour

There’s very little else that can match up with the level of excitement and freedom that a bicycle tour can give you. It’s something that everyone should truly experience at least once in their lifetime.

That being said, sometimes people have bad experiences with a bicycle tour, especially first-timers. One of the main reasons for this is that amateur cyclists tend to go overboard with the preparation and end up lugging around too much gear. While you do need a lot of items to be adequately prepared for days out in the open road, it’s best not to get carried away.

Therefore we’ve compiled a checklist of the essentials for every bicycle tour:

A Good Bicycle

Remember, this isn’t a trip to the grocery store, you’re going to be cycling for a very long distance over a long period of time. Therefore you’ll need a bicycle that not only will keep up with the strain of continuous use and road conditions but one that’s comfortable for extended cycling.

While it isn’t necessary to get yourself a brand new bicycle, you might need to upgrade your existing one. First and foremost, you’ll need to get yourself a comfortable saddle. Just ask any veteran bicycle tourer and they’ll tell you to go for a leather saddle. Why? Because it literally adopts the shape of your bottom after a while.

Other essential upgrades include a steel bike rack, waterproof panniers and a proper set of new tyres.

A Toolkit

While you don’t need to have an entire toolbox with you, there are few tools and spare parts that you definitely should have with you on a tour. The following tools should be enough to deal with most minor issues with your bicycle:

Screwdriver
Patches for your tyres
Scissors
The appropriate sizes of Allen keys
Duct tape

As far as spare parts go, we recommend that you at least carry around a spare tyre with you.

The Proper Clothes

If you’re travelling in an area that’s either very cold or prone to rain, then you definitely need to be prepared with the appropriate attire. In terms of rain attire, a proper rain jacket is an absolute must to protect yourself. Additionally, you can opt for covers to keep your pants and shoes from getting wet. You can head over to this website, to get all your rain gear in one place.

To combat cold weather, you’ll need to equip yourself with adequately warm clothing. This is very important as you might end up getting sick otherwise.

Camping Items

Unless you’re planning to spend every night on the tour in a motel or hotel, you’ll need to bring camping gear with you. Even if you are, we still recommend that you carry around a tent and a sleeping bag, because you might end up in a situation where you can’t get to the next town or city before nightfall.