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| So- you are thinking you might like to take a bike trip with the kids... You've got the desire, you've got the will, and you've got the kids. Now you have to figure out where to go from there. On this page I'll share some information about what we looked for in the gear we found worked for us. In general, I would say buy the best quality you can afford. I'm not saying that you need to go into debt to buy your gear, but good gear helps a lot. There are times in your life when good gear is simply a luxury. In the midst of a bike tour, however, your very life could depend on it, and you don't want it failing when you need it most. | Raingear: Here is where you need to really consider you and your trip. We decided early on that we would not ride in pouring, cold rain. We took rain jackets but not pants figuring that, if it was too cold to ride with that, we wouldn't ride at all. If you are on a tight time schedule and will have to ride in the rain regardless of the temperature, then you most likely will need rain pants too. |  |
| Sleeping Bags: Consider the season. If there is any chance that a cold spell will hit while you are out touring, be prepared. Depending on what the temps do, your life could be in danger without the proper gear. We had a mishmash of different sleeping bags, but the down ones were lightest and warmest. Get at least a 3-season bag unless your tour is right in the middle of summer with no chance of cold nights. | Dishes: We opted for bowls. Plain ol' plastic bowls that I picked up for $1 each. We debated on whether to take plates or not, but decided in the end that bowls would work. We could eat anything out of bowls, but not everything off a plate (soup anyone?). Given the cheap nature of our bowls, I never worried about them getting destroyed - I could easily walk into any store and buy another one if I needed to. |
| Pillows: Yep, we carried four pillows 9300 miles!! We figured if we were going to be out for the long haul, comfort was key. And that meant pillows. For the kids we took pillows that we swiped from an airline. They were very small and light and were perfect for them. John and I got nice big pillows from Thermarest. They compacted down very small for travel, but fluffed up quite nicely at night. | Racks: A good quality rack is an essential.
I learned that one years ago - the very hard way. Read about that trip here:
'Nuff said!!  |
Panniers: We had a variety of brands and kinds of panniers - some of them very old (like 20 years or more...) If you buy good quality panniers in the first place, they will easily last tens of thousands of miles. Waterproof panniers are nice, but have the drawback of no pockets to organize stuff. Most of ours were nylon and we simply bagged all our items in plastic bags from the grocery store for rain. It worked fine, so long as we remembered to bag everything. |
Stoves: You basically have two options
here... well, maybe three. You could either a) not take a stove and eat PB &
J sandwiches or b) use a butane stove which uses canisters or c) use a stove
which uses liquid gas. There are pro's and con's to all three options
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| Pots & Pans: I looked everywhere for our pot!! All the camping stores had these wonderful little cook pots. And I do mean little. And for four hungry cyclists, they just wouldn't work. I also knew I wanted stainless steel. Even though it was a bit heavier than aluminum, it would be much less prone to dents. Given the abuse our gear took, durability was critical. I ended up finding the perfect pot at WalMart in a whole set of dishes and cookware. I discarded the plates and cups, but loved the pot! It is big enough to easily cook pasta for the four of us... | Waterproof Bags: Yes, rain is definitely a factor on a bike tour, and you have to be prepared for it.... Waterproof bags came in very handy for sleeping bags and journals and other items we absolutely couldn't risk getting wet. They are expensive, and wouldn't be necessary for a short tour - plastic bags would work just fine. For the long haul though, it's worth the investment in some good dry bags to protect critical gear. We found the dry bags from Cascade Designs worked great. I also had a waterproof compression stuff sack for my sleeping bag from Pacific Outdoor Equipment that worked great, but seemed to deteriorate in the sun after about 8 months. If I were to get another one, I would try to keep it in another bag or somehow shelter it from direct sunlight. Ziplock bags are great for a short trip, but aren't durable enough for anything longer than a week or so. |
| Tent: It's possible to spend some big bucks on tents! But we've learned you get what you pay for. Given the fact that you may be holed up in your tent for a day or two (or three or four...), you will want one that all of you can sit in comfortably to play cards or whatever you might end up doing while hanging out for hours on end. Remember - you've got squirmy kids around. Do you really want to have a tent where you need to lie down all the time? Do you want to be crammed in? Is that really worth the few ounces you would save by getting a smaller tent rather than one slightly larger? We opted for a fairly large, 4-person tent (REI Half Dome) and it worked out great. The other thing to consider is waterproofness. There were times when our tent was (literally) sitting a puddle of water. You want it to hold up well. We noticed a lot of wear on ours at around the 6-month mark and small holes developed on the floor. I'm not sure if a different tent would have held up any better under the difficult conditions or not. | Bikes: Depending on where you are going, you may or may not need really good bikes. For a one or two week trip, use whatever bike you have. It may not shift perfectly, it may shake and rattle a bit, but it will get you where you are going. On the other hand, if you are planning an extended trip, good quality bikes that can withstand the demands of hard touring are essential. I also learned the hard way that fit is critical. I would strongly suggest finding a local bike store that deals with touring gear - they are a great source of info! |
 Flat Tire Protection: If someone asked me what the hardest part of the trip was, without
hesitation I would say fixing flat tires. No doubt about it. Nancy thinks I fixed 50 or 60, but I believe it may have exceeded 100. It seems that in each bike store we visited the first thing we
bought were either tubes or patch kits, we even wore out one of our pumps! We started the trip with "goop" or tire sealant in our tubes, that nasty stuff that squirted all over us and our equipment when a tire blew.
The big disadvantage of goop is that our tires couldn't be patched when the goop didn't plug a puncture. This happened several times. Even when I carefully and meticuosly applied a patch to the tube, it would only
last several days before the goop would work its way through the patch an make another mess (one contributing factor to this could have been the extreme weight on the two tires on our triple).
That necessitated using more tubes which put us in a desperate situation a few times when we rode remote areas with no backup tubes. Because of this we switched over to using puncture resistant tire liners
between our tube and tires before we went into Mexico. We did have slightly more flat tires, but were able to successfully repair them with patches. |
| Tires: With each trip we take I learn valuable new lessons. At one time I believed the Specialized Armadillo was the toughest, most durable tire on the market. We used these tires throughout the entire trip. In fact I started out by using 1.5" Armadillos and switched over to 2.1" when I found I was getting only 1,500 miles on a tire. A triple is really hard on the entire drive train and by doing this I found out I could get more than 3,000 miles per tire. We then discovered other tourists using the Schwalbe Marathon tires (Schwalbe tires). A person riding a tandem from Alaska to Argentina was claiming 10,000 miles on this tire and neglible flat tires! We'lll go with Schwalbes next time. FYI: The most common culprit of flat tires was the metal shard from broken down retreads. |  Trailers: When I first loaded up our triple for the big trip, I had no trailer. I had four fully loaded panniers
and a mountain of stuff heaped on the rear rack. No way. When I took the bike for a test ride, it was way too unstable and without a second thought I got a
BOB trailer which turned out to be a good decision.
It made the triple longer and harder to back up, but much more stable when riding it. The two major drawbacks were that I had to carry an extra tube (the single wheel on the trailer is 16") and I couldn't tell
when I had a flat. One time while I was riding it seemed I was pedaling too strenuosly for the speed I was going. After the kids swore they were contributing as much as they could I
suspected something must be wrong. While inspecting the bike I found I was riding with a flat tire on the trailer. Fortunately it wasn't damaged, but from then on I had Nancy ride
behind and check it periodically. |
