I'm Simply Remembering My Favorite Things

When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad... I know, I know, that's terrible. These are some of my favorite things, especially when I'm riding great distances on my bicycle.

Cycling cap: A very underrated piece of equipment. Riding in the rain without a cycling cap is just awful. You see, what happens is the rain and spray move through your helmet vents and rinse the salt and whatever else you have on your head (not nice things, usually) down into your eyes and mouth. Now if you have one of these dapper little caps on, the visor directs the water elsewhere and saves you having to taste your own sweat all day. It also keeps the spray coming off of your partners wheel out of your eyes. Best of all, you can wear it off the bike for that jaunty European look. Or maybe you look like a long lost member of the Village People but, whatever, if you're bike touring you are obviously not too concerned about appearances.

Nuun: I've mentioned this hydration product before, but I'm really loving this stuff right now. Simple and easy to work with, no mess, no sugar or, gasp, corn syrup. Just some electrolytes and a subtle flavor to keep you reaching for the water bottle. I'm honestly not sure that it has any performance advantage over plain water for most people but just the fact that I tend to drink more fluid if the fluid has some flavor, especially when the water is from a dubious source, clinches the deal for me. If only my local bike shop carried it...

Brooks B17 saddle: Not only does this saddle look really cool and give your touring bike instant street cred, the thing is also super comfy. One problem with any all-leather saddle, however, is that if it gets soaked, it feels like you're riding on a slab of bacon. It also tends to get all stretched out and saggy if you ride it wet. In the future I'll get a Brooks waterproof cover for it to prevent the saggy bacon feeling. I didn't really know how comfortable the thing was until I got home and rode on some of my other saddles. Ouch.

Ortlieb Panniers: Easy to put on and take off, secure and worry free while riding, and utterly waterproof. That's all you need to know.

Thermarest sleeping pads: These self inflating pads are the only way to get a restful night of sleep when you're sleeping on the ground. I'll never attempt to sleep on a foam pad again. Marc had an REI branded one that was essentially identical to my Thermarest, and it worked just as well. Whatever you call it, a 1.5 inch self inflating pad is required gear for sleeping outside. You might want to throw in a repair kit too, though, because if the thing sprung a leak, you would be bumming. Neither of ours did, however.

Lithium batteries: I used lithium AA/AAA batteries in my camera and headlamp and anything else that used batteries. They cost about twice as much as regular alkaline batteries but they last forever (up to three times as long as alkaline) so you don't have to mess around with spares. I started using them in my camera for backcountry skiing because they have much better cold weather performance than alkalines and I couldn't believe how long they lasted. As an added bonus, they are much lighter than alkaline or rechargeable batteries. I'm not sure what the environmental consequences are though.

Defeet socks: These socks are indestructible. Get yourself two pairs of them and you're set for about ten years or so. Smartwool socks are good too, but not as cycling specific. Make sure you like the color of your defeet socks a lot though because you'll have them longer than any color trend will last. I have some with purple cuffs from about fifteen years ago that I don't really want to wear anymore, though they're still in fine shape.

Keen Commuter sandals: This is a cycling specific sandal from footwear innovator Keen. They have a relatively stiff midsole that can accept an SPD style pedal cleat. Although they are strappy and airy like sandals, they actually have a closed toe area, which I really like. Something about cycling with open toe shoes scares me a little. One nice thing about the Keens is that the metal cleat is well recessed in the sole so that when you are walking into a store or cafe on a hard floor you don't sound like you're wearing tap shoes. You don't scratch up the floor either, which will allow you to make new friends a lot easier. They are perfect for touring because they function very nicely as a comfortable off the bike shoe. A lot of people seemed concerned that they would not keep water out while riding in the rain. Well, duh, of course they won't, they're sandals. The thing is, any shoe will get filled with water when you ride in the rain. At least with a sandal, the water will run out and they'll dry fast if it ever stops raining. You will get weird tan lines though if you don't wear socks. Another thing people kept asking me was if they were stiff enough for efficient cycling. Stiffness in cycling shoes is highly coveted by racers and a marketing professionals. Unless you are either of those things, don't worry about it, it isn't that important.

Surly Long Haul Trucker: I do not think a better value exists in the bicycle industry. This thing is a bomb-proof and legitimate touring bike that retails for around $1200 complete. And the build on the complete bike is good enough that all you have to do to ride the thing across the country is put some pedals on it, add some racks, and maybe change the saddle to your favorite model. It's sturdy, handles superbly loaded or unloaded, has immense tire and fender clearance, has thoughtful details including all necessary braze-ons (even a spare spoke braze-on - so trick,) and sports a thick and protective powder coat finish. What more can you ask for? Well, I'll admit, it isn't my dream bike. I think if I could have any touring bike in the world, it would probably be the Rivendell Atlantis. Or possibly the CoMotion Americano, but those are both hand built bikes that would set you back a good three or four times as much as my trusty Surly. Surly is a good company too, and I'm happy to support them. They make a lot of truly useful bikes that aren't economically feasible to produce and they manage to make a go of it. Buy a Surly, it'll treat you right.

REI Qurterdome tent: Marc bought this tent specifically for this trip and I have to give it two thumbs up. For a tent that weighs under four pounds, you can't do better (or less expensive at $269) than this tent. We slept dry and comfy through some seriously hard rain in this thing, and considering the size and weight, it seemed to provide enough room for the two of us. One really nice feature that not many, or maybe any, tents in this weight range have is two vestibule covered entry doors. When you're sleeping in a two man tent with a person that you are not married to, you want your own door, trust me on this. There were only two things that could be improved on this tent and, honestly, they probably could not be improved at this weight, which is a primary consideration when touring. One, the all mesh canopy, while great for the extreme ventilation it provided, made the tent impossible to set up in the rain without getting a bunch of water inside the tent. Two, there was very little gear storage area, even considering the two vestibules. This isn't that big of a problem though because if you're gear isn't pretty waterproof on the bike anyway, you've got bigger problems. So, all things considered, I highly recommend this tent.

Clothesline: Simple but so nice to have. We got so that one of the first things we would do when setting up camp was find a spot for the clothesline. That way we could utilize whatever dry sunny air we had left to start drying and de-funking our riding gear. And also dry anything that hadn't fully dried from the night before. When you are traveling with limited clothing you have to do a little laundry almost every day, so you are always drying something. And then there are the times that all of your stuff gets covered in egg because your eggs broke all over the inside of your panniers. And the times when you've been riding for six hours in the rain and most of your stuff is a little wet. And the smell that comes from inside your sleeping bag when you've been sleeping in it for days and days and stuffing it slightly damp every morning. You get the idea. Here's another tip, Marc had some of those little spring binder paperclips with him and they are handy for lots of things, but they make great clothes pins for when the wind comes up and starts blowing all of your laundry all over campsite. Over and over and over again until you start swearing. Yeah, I bought some of those paper clips as soon as I got home.

That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but I can always post the addendum later. Now, grow our economy by going out and buying all of these things, even if you have no intention of bike touring. Seriously, how are we going to get out of this economic downturn unless we all buy more stuff we don't need?