I make no claim to having thought of all or even the majority of my gear list independently: it is the product of much building upon existing knowledge, combined with my testing on top to then refine my kit and find a setup that works best for me. I feel, therefore, that it would be remiss of me then to not list these inspirations, and just generally give a shout-out to some of my bike-traveling heroes!
When I first got my bicycle, I was inspired by Tom Allen and Alastair Humphreys to get into bicycle touring: Alastair’s 4-novel series on his 4-year world tour, beginning with Moods of Future Joys, and Tom’s film Janapar: Love on a Bike, detailing his first big trip (and meeting his now-wife) were instrumental in getting me out of the city and into a tent.
In terms of gear, Alee Denham caused me to really start geeking out on touring equipment. He still rocks a traditional touring setup to this day, finding the large-luggage capacity more convenient than strapping a million little bags to his bike. Based on his recs, I was similarly kitted out for my first tour down the Californian Pacific Coast.
I moved away from the Soma Wolverine frame pictured above after my first trip to Taiwan exposed it to be far too flexy under heavy loads, a consequence of its large triangle (62cm XL) and thinner tubing, combined with the fact that it was just not designed to be a heavy-laden tourer.
In the years since, I’ve spent far too much time on www.bikepacking.com, which can lead to some serious gear addi(c)tion. I rebuilt the bike around the burly Tumbleweed Prospector frame, and took it through several luggage iterations. It was in a (slightly) lighter bikepacking mode when I was fortunate enough to have it featured on bikepacking.com as a Reader’s Rig, so you can read more about the evolution of the bike there if interested.
Since then, I’ve synthesized more ideas from Greg McCahon, Tristan Ridley, and Ryan Wilson to help refine my current touring setup. Greg and Tristan make great videos of their journeys on Youtube, while Ryan puts up beautiful landscape photos on his Instagram and writes travel reportage for The Radavist.
The end result of my endless tinkering and part-swapping is a seriously slow and heavy rig, which I have dubbed the ‘DinoBike’. It hates flying and prefers ferries wherever possible to avoid the perils of airline weight limits, but it carries most conceivable comforts for a multi-year trip.
