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LEJOG – Equipment list (Finalised)
Here’s the final kit I took on the trip. It is missing some kit, as group stuff we shared out. This included bum cream, para-cord, medi-kit, lock and portable pump.
In the below picks, all descriptions run from left to right.
Bar Bag
- Camera (with spare battery)
- Razor and blades
- Tissues
- Rain cover
- Shampoo, after-sun, razor gel, moisturizer
- Vaseline
- Gerber tool
- Topeak Multi-tool and Chain tool
- Jimi wallet
- Hand/body wipes
- Sowing kit and leeches (puncture patches)
- Superglue
- Tyre levers
- Phone
Rear Bag
- Rain cover
- Flip flops
- Pants
- T-shirt
- Trousers (zippable into shorts)
- Glasses cases
- GPS charger
- Head torch
- Ointment tin
- Spare brake pads, pen, notepad, socks x2
- Toothpaste, toothbrush, small towel
- Soap wrapped in scrubber material
- Plastic bags x4
- Merino long sleeve top
- Event jacket (it’s just a shell)
Main Bag
- Tissues
- Sunblock (20 and 40)
- Headphones, music players, portable speaker
- Route printouts (A4 printout, also showing elevation for each route)
- Electrolyte powders (for mixing with water, 700ml worth)
- Tickets, hostel membership etc… wrapped in a plastic bag
- Powerbar energy gels x6
All Packed
Additions
- Seal Skinz Socks – instead of taking overshoes, these socks are a reasonable replacement. They won’t keep you as dry, they will eventually get soaked, but your feet stay warm. They take up a lot less space than over shoes.
- Ointment – a small, pocket size tin of XXX, for any skin grazes, rubbing etc… Generally handy stuff to have
- Hand/Body wipes – in case we need to get oily and clean the bike. Or especially for lunch stops. I find wiping away all the sweat and dried salt crystals from the skin important in stopping rubbing and damaged skin.
- Cable ties – just a few of the wire cable ties, handy to have given how little weight and space they take up.
- Vaseline – replacement for the lipsil. Mainly because I can put it up my nose to reduce hay-fever. The tin, pocket size version you often see girls carrying around.
Dropped
- Over shoes – too heavy and bulky to pack. Replace by the seal skin socks.
- Lipsil – as mentioned, replace by vaseline.
- SLR – I had originally wanted to take my digital SLR. Given we won’t always be stopping to take photos, and most photos will either be of us, or landscapes I thought my compact camera will be a good enough substitute. I would still like to take my SLR but the size and weight of it make it virtually impossible to do so with the luggage I have.
Fully Loaded
This is what my and my brother’s bikes looked like fully loaded with the Topeak bags on…
Retrospective
This part comes after having done the trip. There were a few things we could have done with and without listed below.
Most Valuable Items
- Bum cream (as we called it) – until you fully condition it’s very handy to have.
- Decent, breathable, waterproof jacket – two of us had one, but one member didn’t and it showed.
- Sunblock – it wasn’t hugely effective, but it did work to an extent. When spending 7-10 hours in the sun you have to protect your skin.
- Hand/body wipes – excellent for cleaning off after fixing a puncture, or wiping away salt around the face at lunch time.
- Cable ties – generally handy, in our cases used to stop one of the locks unwinding while riding.
- Ointment – I took a small tin, which proved helpful in the evening for healing any saddle rubbed areas.
- Seal skinz socks – in Scotland, and also when it rained these were great. Just helped keep our feet warmer and better protected. They’re a pain to dry though.
- Chain lube – we used this every other day, it was needed.
Could Have Done Without
- Razor – take a disposable one instead, I used mine only once.
- 3 pumps – we only used 1.
- 2 locks – we would have been fine with 1.
- Washing up liquid – used to clean our bottles. All hostels supply this anyway.
- Insect repellent – wasn’t really needed, and we didn’t use it.
- 50ml shampoo per person. We took 100ml, so we only used half of what we took.
Could Have Done With
- 12 Toothpicks – for cleaning bikes and mainly chains. Odds sticks we found sort of did the trick. Some toothpicks are light and small though.
- Degreaser – we didn’t take this, but I wish we had for cleaning the gunk off the chain.
- Brake pad blocks – a spare set is worth carrying. Cornwall, Devon and the rain caused us to burn through a fresh set.
- Foldable fork – for eating, given how many pasta meals we ate for lunch that didn’t come with one.
- Attachable lights – firstly easily attachable ones, but ones that will somehow attach when you have your rain covers over your bags.
- Sweatproof sunblock – the waterproof stuff just sweats out as you cycle so wasn’t very effective.
- 2 pairs of underwear – taking a single pair for the evening was a bit of a pain. Washing them meant going commando for an evening.
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