Packing List

The Bikes

Chris’ bike: Surly Long Haul Trucker, 26 inch wheels, black
Maria’s bike: Co-motion Periscope Tandem, silver
S’s bike: she’s on the bike with Maria!
L’s bike: Marin Bolinas Ridge mountain bike. 26 inch wheels
T’s bike: Scott Aspect mountain bike. 27.5 inch wheels

Why these bikes?

I (Chris) bought the Long Haul Trucker years ago because it was the standard, and even now in 2017 it seems like it still is. Everywhere on the internets people recommend this bike, and I had owned two Surlys (Surlies?) in a former life and loved the whole philosophy of the company. The Co-motion Periscope tandem we bought specifically for an adventure like this. L&T’s mountain bikes I bought for local mountain bike trails, not to tour, but they’ll do fine with a little modification. It didn’t take much, just a set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus road tires. Somehow we ended up with 4 different tire types (26 inch presta, 26 inch Schrader, 650b and 700c). I could have planned that better, turns out 8 extra tubes is kinda heavy to be lugging across a continent.

Bike Related Stuff

5 helmets
5 sets of padded bike gloves
5 sets sunglasses
4 bike bells.
4 bike lights. (apparently you get a ticket in Germany if you don’t have one)
1 blinky bike light
L&T each have a bike computer, a Cateye 7 for tracking distance, speed and time. I think they’ll find it motivating.
allen wrench set
chain tool
spoke wrench
8 spare bike tubes (2 each for the 4 (FOUR!) different tire types)
patch kit
bike lube
chamois cream (just in case)
extra rack bolts (in case any break)
bike frame pump
zip ties

Panniers (Bike Bags)

Chris’ bags: Ortlieb Bike-Packer Plus, front and rear. Ortlieb Ultimate6 front handlebar bag. Yellow for visibility.
Maria’s bags: (same as Chris)
L’s bags: Ortlieb Backroller Classic, Ortlieb Ultimate6 compact front handlebar bag. Orange (color theme!)
T’s bags: Ortlieb Backroller Plus, Ortlieb Ultimate6 compact front handlebar bag. Green (color theme!)
Stuff Sacks: We all have a separate clothing stuff sack that is color coded to keep our clothes separate from everything else in the panniers. This was Maria’s idea and it’s brilliant. L’s is orange, S’s blue, T’s green, Maria’s silver and mine is plain mesh. Easy to tell whose is whose, which ultimately means less fighting.
Bungie cords to keep things attached to the bike.

So why did we go with Ortlieb? We’ve never ridden with panniers (Chris’ original trip was with a BOB trailer), but waterproof-ness is very useful and these seem to be the bombproof industry standard. Also, the various different color options were a major plus with 5 people in our family. And if anyone out there is in the market for these, we HIGHLY recommend thetouringstore.com. Wayne owns it and is great and helped Chris through lots of setup issues and questions. Call him if you have questions, he knows a lot about what types of bags and rack work with what bikes, etc.

Camping

REI Quarter Dome T3 – 3 person tent. This is for Maria, Chris and S. It’s a backpacking tent but not anything crazy light or expensive. Chris used an REI tent with great success on his earlier trip.
North Face Stormbreak 1 – 1 person tent. For L. Just a simple 2 pole tent but very light and reasonably priced.
Marmot Tungsten 1 – 1 person. For T. We went with a different tent so L&T wouldn’t get confused over whose tent was whose. But the point is for both of them to have their own.
REI Igneo 20 degree down bag for Chris. Down is lighter and warmer. Just don’t get it wet!
REI older 20 degree down bag for Maria. Probably 15 years old at this point, but still in great shape and still warm.
L&T: 2 Mountain Hardwear Mountain Goat 40 degree synthetic. 6 years old. No one makes a kid’s down sleeping bag or we probably would have bought it.
S: Mountain Hardwear Mountain Goat 20 degree (newer). She’s been sleeping in this every night in our home of her own volition, so I know she finds it comfortable.
Thermarest ProLite sleeping pads, 3 (for the kiddos). So far these seem great. Small, light, comfortable, the only issue is they are a bit of a bear to roll up in the morning and fit in their stuff sacks.
Thermarest NeoAir. This is for Chris, So far it is light, comfy, easy to pack, but it can be a little noisy if he moves around too much at night.
Exped sleeping pad for Maria. It can be pumped by hand, which is a nice break from blowing it up.
Thermarest repair kit (repair on the road!)
4 Petzl Tikka headlamps of varying colors. Chris gets a Petzl Actik to get a 5th color. And plus dad’s just need more lumens. Don’t think there weren’t extended conversations about this inequity.
Pillows! S got a Cocoon Travel Pillow
Maria got a Nemo Fillo.
L went all out and got the Sea to Summit Aeros Premium Deluxe, which is complete and total overkill. To his credit, he tried out every single camping pillow in the store. And then chose the most expensive one. It will probably pop in the first 3 weeks.
Chris and T went slightly less all out and got the Sea To Summit Aeros Premium pillow. Chris got green and T got blue. Chris’ review: “I used to camp using a stuff sack stuffed with dirty clothes as a pillow. This is a major upgrade and much more comfortable.”
2 sleeping masks.
A giant first-aid kit. I may have to select some things out of here, it’s huge and heavy.
5 color-coded toothbrushes.
toothpaste.
A roll of toilet paper.
Sunscreen.
bug spray
soap
5 pack towels
20 ft piece of rope. It may come in handy.
duct tape

So this is basically backpacking worthy gear, not so much for car camping. It’s light and works well, but it can be expensive.

Cooking

The plan is to save money by cooking at least one meal a day on the road. With a family of five there are so many moving parts that if we tried to cook all of our meals I don’t think we’d make it more than 5 miles a day. Hopefully we can become real outdoor chefs on this trip because so far on our shakedowns we’ve done nothing but chili and scrambled eggs. They were delicious but 6 weeks of anything could get old fast.

MSR Whisperlite International: Maria had this from working at Sunflower years ago, and it’s still going strong. Burns on white gas, unleaded or diesel, whatever we happen to run into. I had to do some maintenance on it after the first shakedown, but that wasn’t too easy and I’m glad I did it in case we’re really in a pickle somewhere on the road. My only gripe with this stove is it has one setting: high.
Whisperlite service kit, in case it stops working.
2 MSR fuel bottles: to hold whatever fuel we get. Hopefully white gas is available over there.
A big pot: GSI Halulite 4.7L. It’s a big one, but we’re feeding 5 people who have been cycling all day. So far it’s been great on both shakedowns and is bulky but not too heavy.
MSR cookset. It has two pots and a skillet that fit inside eachother. Meant for backpacking and I don’t think they make it anymore. We could not bring in order to save weight, but I think we need to be able to use >1 pot at a time (i.e. sauce in one, pasta in another). Also it’s a good size for making coffee for two.
Foldable plastic cooking utensils (skimmer, serving spoon)
5 titanium sporks! Color-coded for each family member. If you’ve read this far you realize how completely dorky and unnecessary this is all getting.
5 camping plates, stainless steel. There was an arbitrary cutoff in not opting for the titanium version of these to save weight.
5 camping mugs. 2 are plain old REI ones, 3 are these ones by GSI. So far they’ve housed wine, chili and coffee no problems.
7 inch chef’s knife with blade cover. Nothing special, just sharp.
GSI cutting board. Plastic and very light weight.
GSI Ultralight Java drip Coffee Maker. Because coffee.
coffee grinder
Sea to Summit Kitchen Sink. For washing the dishes. The job no one wants at a campsite.
GSI scraper to clean the dishes and spatula if needed. Which will end up saving water over a regular sponge.
Coughlin 12-egg holder. We like eggs.
Sponge.
Campsuds dish cleaning liquid
Camping laundry soap, to go with the…
6 liter dromedary bag by MSR.
2 Platypus wine “bags”. We’re not animals. And they can carry water if need be.
wine bottle opener / knife.
can opener

Clothing

Chris’ clothing on the bike: 2 cycling shirts, 1 pair bike short shell, 2 bike liners. Keen sandals, cycling vest.
Chris’ clothing off the bike: 1 Smartwool shirt, 1 merino wool quarter zip sweater, 1 Patagonia down jacket, 1 Outdoor Research lightweight shell jacket, 1 pair shorts, 3 pairs socks, 1 pair lightweight Prana pants, hand-knitted stocking cap, 1 pair long underwear.
Maria’s clothing on the bike: (I’m not going to get into this or the next one. It’s a highly complex process involving lots of shopping online and in person, wearing clothing around with the tag still in it, and then returning just about everything. We’ll know what the final list is probably the day we leave)
Maria’s clothing off the bike:
T’s clothing on the bike: red athletic shorts, bike shorts, red KU shirt, Keen shoes
T’s clothing otherwise: extra athletic shorts, 3 pairs underwear, 3 pairs socks, green long sleeve shirt, grey T shirt, another KU shirt, black sweatpants, fleece jacket, long underwear bottom, plastic Birkenstock, swim suit, rain jacket, hand-knitted stocking cap.
L’s clothing on the bike: orange athletic shorts, bike shorts, orange bike jersey, Keen shoes
L’s clothing off the bike: extra athletic shorts, 3 pairs underwear, 3 pairs socks, orange long-sleeve shirt, Nike shirt, Sweden soccer jersey (from a neighbor), long adidas soccer pants, zip hoodie, long underwear bottoms, Birkenstocks, swim suit, rain jacket, hand knitted stocking cap.
S’s clothing on the bike: bike shorts, leggings, fox tank top, blue jacket, Keens
S’s clothing otherwise: one pair fleece pajama pants, long sleeve shirt, silver Crocs with sparkles, 3 pairs socks, 3 pairs undies, jean shorts, Sweden jersey, pink stripe tank, black and white dress, swimsuit, rain jacket, lime green stocking cap.
Scrubba Scrubba bag to keep clothing clean.

Electronics

5 Kindles (we may end up bringing iPads, but we’re leaning towards keeping the trip electronic-free just to expose the kids to that kind of existence) But kindles are very light, and they store a lot of books and use very little electricity.
Chris, as navigator in chief, has a bike gps device: a Wahoo Element Bolt
2 mini usb charger cables.
1 charger cable for the blinky light.
1 iPhone (with cell data in Europe) with charger cable
1 chromebook laptop + charger
1 Anker battery for keeping things charged up when we’re away from plugs
2 european plug adapters

The last bits

5 passports
wallet w/cash and credit cards
paper journal and pen
swiss army knife
yoga mat. Bulky and not light. If it keeps Maria’s back out of trouble it’s worth it.
maps (we’ll buy them when we get there)