Here is my bicycle touring gear list I used on a one week cycle tour around the Fens area of England. I was very happy with how it performed, and the bike tour was awesome! I used the majority of this bike touring gear on a later bicycle tour from Greece to England.
Testing Bike Touring Gear In The Fens
One of the reasons for cycling around the Fens for a week, was to test new bits of gear out. I wanted to see how each piece performed, so that I could come up with my ultimate bike touring gear list.
In the end, everything performed so well, this bicycle touring gear list ended up being almost my definitive kit. Obviously, each bike tour is different though, and so small alterations are made here and there depending where I am in the world.
Hopefully, this list of bike touring gear can help you if you are planning your own trip. As well as the list itself, I have also made a YouTube video.It has proved to be quite popular over the last couple of years! – Bicycle Touring Gear for a One Week Cycle Tour. For more tips on touring, check out my bicycle touring tips.
Bicycle Touring Gear List
The Bicycle
I am riding a custom built Thorn Nomad touring bike with Rohloff hub, which has good quality racks both front and back. A Brooks saddle will keep my butt happy. The bike's name is Bea, by the way.
Panniers for Bike Touring
I will be using panniers rather than a trailer for this one week cycle tour of the Fens. Ortlieb Classic's feature in almost every cyclists bicycle touring gear list, and they do so in mine as well.
I will be using panniers on both the front and back, and will also be using an Ortlieb Rackpack which will provide additional room. An Ortlieb compact handlebar bag on the front completes the ensemble.
Bicycle Toolkit
As the bike is in good condition, I will only be taking a minimal bicycle toolkit for this one week tour.
Bicycle Pump
Two inner tubes
Puncture repair kit
Bicycle Mutli-Tool
Spanner
Oil
Camping Gear for Bike Touring
I will be camping every night on this cycle tour around the Fens, which should give me a good chance to test out the following gear.
Vango Lattitude 300 Sleeping Bag
Sleeping Bag Liner
Sleeping mat (foam style)
Karimmor DeluxeTravel Pillow
Swiss Army Knife
Cooking Kit for Bike Tours
As I am camping, I will also be cooking for myself on the road. (Although I do foresee fish and chips, full English breakfasts, and other treats on the way!)
MSR Whisperlite Universal
Coleman resealable fuel canister
Stainless Steel Cookpot
Stainless Steel Cup
Plastic cup
Knife, fork and spoon set
Lighter/matches
Water Bottles x 3
Food for bicycle touring
I normally aim to carry approximately three or four days food in my panniers when bicycle touring. These are the items that I will actually leave the house with, and I will stock up as and when needed along the way. You can read up here about the best foods for bicycle touring.
Oats (for 4 days)
Rice (for 4 days)
Brew kit comprising of tea, sugar and coffee.
Cupasoups x 4
Tinned fish x 3
Peanut butter
1 main meal from ration pack
2 x ration biscuits
3 x cereal bars
Half a loaf of bread
Cycling Clothes
No bicycle touring gear list is complete without including the cycling clothes! The UK is famed for its varied weather, and so I have packed a range of clothes to see me through warm, cold, and wet days.
Endura Hummvee 3/4 length cycling shorts
2 x liner shorts
Various cycling tops
sunhat / sunglasses
Wet Weather Gear
Sealskinz socks
Sealskinz hat
Gore jacket
Waterproof gloves
Other Clothes
A light pair of jeans
3 pairs of socks
2 pairs of pants
Light fleece
Electronic Gear
There is no need to take the laptop for this week long cycling tour, but the list of electronic gear is still pretty big. Amazing to think that on my first cycling trip around New Zealand, not one single piece of tech featured in my bicycle touring gear list!
Additional – You will probably spot that I have not included a camera on this list. I wanted to take one, but managed to drop and break it a couple of days before I left. Thankfully, my phone has a pretty good camera.
Garmin Touring Pro GPS
Samsung Galaxy S4
MP3 Player
Acer Iconia A1 Tablet
Kindle
Tecknet Iep1500 Power Bank battery
Various leads
Toiletries/Medical Kit
Lip balm
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Soap
Neurofen
Napisan
Life Venture Trek Towel
No doubt there are a few odds and sods that I have forgotten to include in this bicycle touring gear list, but this is about as thorough as I can come up with! Looking forwards to trying it all out 🙂 Here's that YouTube video…
You might also be interested in my bicycle touring gear list for cycling from Greece to England.
Roy Sargeant says
Hi Dave,
Great article complimenting a well thouht out kitting list. The only thing missing though, for me, was how and where you pack your kit on the bike. What do you put in each pannier and why?
Robert says
Sounds like you have just about everything! Would love to do a bike trip one day, still debating where to go. What was the total weight?
Dave Briggs says
Just 22kgs of packed stuff, including the weight of the bags themselves, the food and the water.
Andy says
What are these liner shorts of which you speak?
I tried paper pants under my cycle shorts against advice. I should have listened. It wasn’t long before the paper was soaked with sweat and bunching up. Iwas breaking in a Brooks B17 at the time so it was the worst of all worlds.
Thanks in advance
Andy
Dave Briggs says
They are basically padded shorts, which have the padded around the backside. makes the whole riding experience more comfortable!