The number of hours spent discussing and researching is countless. Maybe because we had too much time (i.e. years) to think, assess and review what we would bring with us. Reading blogs, analyzing test results from various websites and magazines just made us complete geeks in new materials performances, weight, maintanability, norms, standards, eco-friendly labels, sustainable development initiatives and fair-trade criteria. We ended up being a little confused at some point with the amazingly high number of options we had to choose from. At the end, our list is made of a mix of what we already had, what we thought would be best for us and what we wished to have just for the sake of having it and for no technical reasons.

We started bike touring on our tandem almost 20 years years ago. At the beginning, we were travelling super light as we always stayed in hotels, b&b or lodges wherever we were travelling in the world. We slowly picked up on bike touring throughout the years, gradually adding stuff to gain in autonomy and freedom. Now we can say we are ready.. and probably we have too much stuff with us. We will see what will remain after few months.