Long summer tour - decisions on kit?!

[Bluebirdjay]

I am planning on doing a bit of a pilgrimage from Plymouth to Roscoff and then all the way down through to Athens in Greece.

I would be tackling this during the summer and thus hoping mostly for nice weather.

What would people recommend as the essentials?

I am hopefully leaving in a couple of weeks so need to make decisions on the following:
Sleeping bag or quilt
Tent or tarpaulin
2 or 4 paniers

A bit of context: I am not particularly experienced at touring, however I am pretty fit and robust, having spent the last 5 months in the Army. I don't expect to be taking hair straighteners etc. with me and I am pretty content living in questionable locations.

Any and all advice will be ridiculously welcome!

Thanks for reading

Em

 

[Dave Davenport]

You won't need too much for a summer tour heading into southern Europe, my main kit list would be;
Tent
Lightweight sleeping bag
Sleeping mat
Cooker
Pan, dish, mug etc.
You'd only need summer clothes, probably one warm fleece plus toiletries, spares and the usual odds and sods.
You could probably get away with just rear panniers and a bar bag (keep all valuable in that and take it everywhere), or take front as well if you want a few more home comforts.
Have a look at https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/

 

[raleighnut]

^^^^^^^+1

Although I'd add a waterproof jacket to that, just a thin packable one.

 

[Dave Davenport]

And a sun hat & some factor 50.

 

[mmmmartin]

anyhting you need you can buy in a Decathlon in France or a similar shop. The only thing you will find hard to buy will be a decent tent. these are expensive. you can get one on ebay cheaper than the new price. you might want a green one if planning to do any stealth camping, not a blue or rd one some shops sell for festivals and the like. TerraNova is a good brand.
a decent sleeping bag is useful, you can get cheap ones but they tend to be bulky. a two season down bag wiht a zip so you can sleep on hot nights with the zip undone is good, and warm but pricey. a sleeping mat is also good and you can get those almost anywhere. you're going to france and europe, not mongolia, so anything you need you can get there.
the one thing you probably won't bother with is learning the language, which is worth far more than its weight in gold. tourers tend to fret about kit far more than they need to but ignore the need to speak to the people among whom they will be travelling. YMMV.

 

[robing]

A bandanna is useful. I wear one under my helmet. It weighs nothing and protects your head and ears from sunburn. I wash it in the sink and it dries out in no time.

Also wouldn't be without my kindle. Battery lasts for ages, get the paperwhite which is backlit so you can read in tent. You can get free trial of daily papers.

Lightweight zip off walking trousers are great. You can convert them in to shorts so you only need to take the one pair of trousers. Go Outdoors do some cheap ones.

 

[steveindenmark]

A bivvy sack XL

https://www.alpkit.com/products/hunka

A light sleeping bag

Exped light mattress

Light waterproofs

The rest are luxuries

 

[raleighnut]

A bivvy sack XL

https://www.alpkit.com/products/hunka

A light sleeping bag

Exped light mattress

Light waterproofs

The rest are luxuries

Sooner have one of these to a bivvy.

the tent

• raleighnut
• 12 Feb 2015

 

[psmiffy]

Top tip - dont pay much attention to other peoples advice on kit

Take what you want to take

Notwithstanding this - UK to Athens - you are going to spend as much or more time camped as cycling - so a good sized tent, living in a coffin gets tiresome after a while - decent sleeping mat, the further south you go the pitches get harder and harder - good waterproofs, you may not get much rain but when it does rain it will rain

 

[raleighnut]

Top tip - dont pay much attention to other peoples advice on kit

Take what you want to take

Notwithstanding this - UK to Athens - you are going to spend as much or more time camped as cycling - so a good sized tent, living in a coffin gets tiresome after a while - decent sleeping mat, the further south you go the pitches get harder and harder - good waterproofs, you may not get much rain but when it does rain it will rain

Totally agree, the Bikamper is good for a couple of days but ideally you'd have a tent that allows you to sit in one of these of an evening.

 

[steveindenmark]

That's good advice Smiffy. After 50 years of cycling I am still testing.

I took a loaded carbon road bike out this week with panniers. I had 18kg of kit and tent. It was never going to work, but for 50km it worked perfectly. Touring at 28km per hour without effort is a bit weird. But I wasn't happy with the handling and how the load handled and so the test was abandoned. I need to use font rollers and lighter load or go Transcontinental style. But I learnt a lot by experience. I could always use my Koga World Traveller, but that is too easy :O)

 

[MichaelW2]

Most campsites are commercial or municipal and a tent is essential. Summer tents need plenty of venting, something lacking on my winter grade Akto. A tent should stand independently of your bike, so you can ride into town or whatever.
Leave some luggage capacity for shopping, carrying food etc. I take a 20l unpadded duffel style day sac (free with paramo jacket) which triples up as a pillow and a stuffsac and a shopping trip bag.

Bar bags are almost essential for carrying valuables on and off the bike. Also good for maps.
A solar charger and USB-chargeable gubbins may come in handy. A wind-up torch-radio is useful.
If you choose cook-free camping, take implements to knock up a sandwich and share some tea. A cheese-sized tupperware box and a cup big enough for a piece of soft fruit are handy for packing.

 

[Ajax Bay]

A solar charger . . . . may come in handy.

Please recommend a solar charger you have found works satisfactorily in a European summer climate (@steveindenmark has a view).
Spork

 

[growingvegetables]

I would be tackling this during the summer and thus hoping mostly for nice weather.

Ah, yes - the weather. Absolutely no use to you or anybody else - but ......

Nearly 40 years ago I tried that on a wee motorbike - Dumfries to Athens. It started raining in Manchester, stopped raining for a glorious half hour on an Alpine pass, and I had a dry evening in Trieste; next morning, the rain started again. I gave up the plan and headed for home, through the worst rain-storm Austria had seen in 30 years. Still raining through Germany and Luxembourg. It only stopped as I was riding through ......... bleedin Belgium, of all places. And glorious sunshine all the way up the M6 home.

Lots of happy memories - but I sure hope you have better weather! Take something waterproof?

 

[Gravity Aided]

I normally carry a hammock of late, not that I do much long-range touring anymore, and use a tarp suspended over it. This cuts down on the amount I have to carry, but also makes it so I'm dependent on having trees at my campsite.