“What are you taking on a trip like this? How heavy are your bikes?” These are questions we are often asked. To answer them and give you an idea of how we fit everything we need onto two bikes, we put together the following lists.

The Bike

It took us quite a while to find a bike that seemed good and strong enough to withstand our project. Unfortunately, most of the people working in bike shops couldn’t help us much. We heard recommendations such as “You need a very light aluminum road bike frame” to “a solid MTB frame is definitely enough”. We suspected that long-distance bicycle touring required something more specialized, so we started to do research on the internet, contact other long distance cyclists and even went to a convention for long distance cyclists.

We learned that the most important criteria were a strong frame with the right geometry, durable components and good brakes. Soon it became clear that we needed a steel frame because steel absorbs shocks better than aluminum, it is stronger than aluminum, and, it is much easier to find somebody who can weld a steel frame back together if it breaks.

After months of research and endlessly studying our comparative excel tables, we decided to buy Surley “Long Haul Trucker” frames in the US and shipped them to Aachen, where Ede at Mario’s favorite bike shop ( Radsport Lenzen ), custom built them to our specifications.

Here are our specs:

Front and Back derailleur	Shimano XT
Brakes	Shimano XT V-Brakes
Hubs	Shimano XT
Shifters	Shimano XT
Crankset	Shimano XT
Cassette	Shimano XT
Headset	Acros, stainless
Rims	MAVIC EX, 26’, 36 spokes
Spokes	2mm DT Swiss
Tires	Schwalbe Marathon Plus 26 X 1.75
Panniers	Ortlieb Classic
Racks (front and back)	Tubus
Settle	Brooks B17 (pre aged leather)
Handlebar and Stem	Ritchey Comp
Pedals	Shimano XT, SPD

Each bike weighs 15.1 kg (without panniers)

We will provide an update every 1,000 km about how the bikes are holding up. You can read it here: Bike Performance .

The gear

You’ve heard of people living out of a car. We are living out of a bike. To get ready for this trip, we had to reduce all our possessions down to what would fit into 10 waterproof, high-frequency welded Ortlieb panniers, while ensuring that we could be mostly self-sufficient. We started with our basic back-packing gear, did some research on what other long-distance cyclists brought with them, and thought through our particular interests. For example, we love cooking, so our camping kitchen needed to be well stocked.

After our first (and only) overnight test ride, we more or less figured out which things we really needed and what was just unnecessary weight.

Then, we established a system in which we treat each pannier as a room in a house, and we labeled them as such for easy access. The contents of each room are listed below:

Kitchen (8.2 kg)	2 MSR Whisper Light stoves 2 fuel cans 3 Cooking pots 2 sets: plates, cups, silverware, wine glasses Cutting board / knife Small grill rack Dish-washing equipment (sponge, soap, towel) Great variety of spices etc. for cooking (salt, pepper, sugar, oil, vinegar, dried paprika, garlic-salt…) Collapsible washing bowl
Bathroom & Pantry (7.0 kg)	All that one needs to stay clean and fresh J Washing soap Sun screen Solar shower Bag with food for cooking (varies) Bug spray
Library (7.8kg)	Travel and guidebooks for various places and countries Variety of maps Journals Envelopes and paper Eee PC (Computer) & external harddisk (to store photos) Ebook Deck of cards Batteries and Battery charger Lenses for camera (10-20 mm, 24-105 mm, 70-200 mmm plus 1.4X etender) Solar charger Huge variety of cables Little lantern
Medicine cabinet & Garage (9.6 kg)	Bunch of tools (screw driver, Allen wrenches etc.) Additional: Spokes, break cables, chains, tubes Repair kits: therma-rest, MSR stove Water purifier Oil and cleaning fluid Pills in all shapes, sizes and colours First aid & emergency kit Collapsible water containers (10 and 6 liters)
Wardrobe – Sheri (5.7 kg)	Shoes and Clothes for hopefully all weather conditions
Wardrobe - Mario (6.7 kg)	Same as above
Wardrobe - Both (3.0 kg)	Same as above
Wardrobe - Both (3.0 kg)	Same as above
Handelbar bag (3.0 kg)	Camera Various stuff, e.g. maps, compass, sun screen, snacks etc.
Handlebar bag (2.0 kg)	See above
Waterproof roll on the back rack (6.2 kg)	2 sleeping bags 2 silk inliners (for sleeping bags) 2-person tent (Nemo Losi) Liner for tent (Nemo “Pawprint”)
Waterproof roll on the back rack (7.4 kg)	2 Therma-Rests Tripod for camera Groundcover for tent Few Nalgene water-bottles

Furthermore we have 6 water bottles which we distribute onto the different bags and rolls, depending on how full the bags are.

On our bikes we can carry another three water bottles each.

On top of Mario’s roll on the rack, we fixed a backpack. This is very handy, because the things inside are easy accessible, e.g. clothes that we might wear or take off during riding, an extra lens for the camera, bike locks etc. Since a backpack is very bulky to store in a pannier, but also super handy to carry thing around with us while we are not riding, this is the perfect place for it.

So, depending on how much water we have, we both haul about 30-40 kg of luggage. This is indeed not light, and we definitely feel the weight as soon as we climb a grade of more than 0.1%. Nevertheless, we have been surprised at how easy the bikes are to ride, despite the weight.