Bike Touring Clothes

By Dave Briggs · Published 2023-07-12 · Last updated 2026-07-18

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Bike touring clothes for multi-week bicycle trips need to be hardwearing and cope with different climates and environments. Here's a look at my bikepacking clothes for Iceland.

Clothes for Bicycle Touring

Like many things to do with long distance bike touring, the clothes you take for cycling in and wearing on a day to day basis have to perform different tasks.

One week, you may be cycling in hot weather, the following week it could be raining and cold. This is likely to be particularly true during my bicycle tour around Iceland!

While I've already written about the cycling waterproofs I use for bike touring, this article focuses on my regular clothes for wearing both on and off the bike.

Cycling Clothes For A Bike Tour

Each bike tour requires slightly different clothes depending on the time of year and climate.

For example, although this Iceland bike trip is in the summer, I need to pack clothes for wet and cold days. Unlike where I live in Greece (it's nearly 40 degrees as I write this!), hot temperatures are not going to be an issue in Iceland.

Over the years, I've realised that Merino clothes are a good choice for bike touring. When it comes to shorts, I love my Endura Hummvee's.

I've also recognised the benefits of layering. And, since a horrible few weeks cycling in Canada in the wet and cold, I've put a non-negotiable importance on having a dry set of clothes to change into at the end of the day.

Keeping these and other factors in mind, this is the bike touring clothing list for my Iceland bike tour:

Bicycle Touring Clothes List (Iceland 2023 Bike Trip)

• 1 x Shimano MT5 SPD MTB cycling shoes
• 1 x Merrell WP Maipo 2 Shoes
• 2 x Endura Baabaa merino short socks
• 2 x Padded inner cycling shorts
• 2 x Merino Boxer Shorts (Decathlon)
• 1 x Endura Hummvee 2/4 length shorts
• 1 x Endura Hummvee Zip-Off Trouser II
• 1 x Unbound Merino Short Sleeved T-Shirt
• 2 x Decathlon Merino Trekking T-Shirt Long Sleeved (Travel 100?)
• 1 x Unbound Merino Long Sleeved T Shirt
• 1 x Unbound Merino Hoodie
• 1 x Endura GV500 Insulated Jacket (Packs small)
• 1 x ICEBREAKER Flexi Chute Merino Neck Warmer
• 1 x Decathlon Lightweight Merino Beanie
• 1 x Decathlon sleeping mask (is this clothing?!)
• 1 x Decathlon trek hat (100 range?)
• 1 x Swimming Shorts (for hot pools)
• 1 x Fingerless Cycling Mitts

Does this seem like a lot of clothes to take on a bike tour?

Yes and no. The tour is 6 weeks long (check the route out here), and so there will be periods of time when clothes are wet, being cleaned, or drying.

Also, I'm not asking you to carry it, am I !

I'll do a post trip review and add it here as to how different parts of these cycling clothes worked out on the bike trip.

Related:

Dave Briggs
Dave is a UK travel writer living in Athens since 2015. With 20 years of firsthand travel experience and over 80,000 km of bicycle touring across six continents, he's been blogging at Dave's Travel Pages since 2005. Every guide is based on places he's actually been.

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