10 Essentials before you cycle around the world

When we are on the road, there are just some things that we would not be able to live without. It definitely differs from person to person (we all have different needs duh) but for the most part here are some of the essentials we personally feel has made our lives much better when we are on the road. 

1.Tent 

 Having a place to sleep at night is the most important part of bicycle life. After a long hard day of peddling, everything a cyclist wants is a place to rest. And having a good tent can make or break that. 

We use a REI 2 person tent that was a gift from our friends Dan and Nora and it has served us so well on this trip. Weighing only at 2.5KG, it is also easy to pack and keeps as warm on cold nights that fall below 0 degrees. 

2. Sleeping bag

Although many people we have met on the road use hammocks, we are from the equator and get cold really easily. So having a good sleeping system bag is really important for us to get a good night’s sleep.

No matter how light we have been tempted to pack, we have come to learn the hard way after freezing multiple nights in a bare tent that having a sleeping bag is really something that we cannot live without when we camp after a long day of being on the road. 

3.Sleeping pad

Yes, the sleeping pad is never to be underestimated. The added insulation it provides especially when temperatures in the night vary greatly from the day in parts like the middle east, we have found that having a sleeping pad really allows us to be warm and comfortable in our sleeping bag as our backs are not on the cold hard floor.

We use an inflatable one from Klymit and although it has punctured on us quite a few times, we have found it to be extremely helpful in keeping us warm.

4. Sleeping bag liners 

Yet again another luxury to some, but an essential for us. Having a liner helps to add another 3-5 degrees of warmth to the temperature in a sleeping bag. It’s definitely a nice to have, but in cold nights we have found it to be an uncompromisable essential. 

5. Water Bottles

Other than having a good sleeping set-up,  getting hydration on the road is key to keep going. So whenever we go off grid and know that we will be camping indefinitely without heading near civilisation, we try to fill up as much as we can at the nearest available waterpoint. Especially because we are on a tandem bicycle and have only 5 bottle racks, we have to make sure that we have sufficient water to last us however long we might need. 

Cooking often takes at least 1 litre of water for boiling pasta and cooking soups for the two of us. That alone would take up 1/5th of our water supply from our bottle racks! So to combat this problem, we often take along 1 litre water disposable bottles from any convenience store and bungee cord it to the back of our panniers for the extra liquids we might need. We also carry a Lifestraw with us just in case we might need to filter water and have insufficient water left to consume. 

6. Camping Stove 

Cooking is part of living off a bicycle. At the end of every long day of cycling and feeding ourselves after cycling the entire day was always the highlight of our night. Although all we have is a basic Coleman stove that we got from Walmart from our times in America, it has served us well so far and we have made many great meals from it ranging from Tom Yum soup to Beef Noodles.

Nothing gourmet, but leagues above having a cold sandwich out of a tin. 

7. Camping Pot

Yes, in order to cook we need something to cook in! None other than our small but trusty old pot from Decathlon, we have learned to make do with a much smaller cooking pot as compared to the ones we were using when we were doing vanlife but it  works just enough to serve our basic daily needs. 

8. Camping Utensils

We use the plastic set that comes with a tiny bowl, a plastic knife, fork and spoon from the the Decathlon cooking pot set-up and so far it has worked really well for us. On top of that we also have a metal fork and spoon set that we used from vanlife and it has served us very well so far. 

9. Multitool 

Another big part of bicycle life is knowing that whenever shit happens, you are your own bicycle mechanic. We have had to fix our brakes, adjust our handlebars and change spare tires multiple times. Without having a multitool, it would not have been possible every single time. 

10. Solar Panels 

We are digital nomads and being able to use our smartphones and filming gear is pretty much our livelihood. Sometimes when we do not get close enough to a small town where we can sit down and recharge all our electrical equipment at a cafe, we have to rely on solar power to charge our filming gear and even our smartphones. Although solar powered charging varies depending on the different times of the day when the sun will be out, we have found it to be greatly helpful in many situations. 

And here are our 10 essentials to go off-gird when bicycle touring! Hoping it helps :)