Touring – Not taking the kitchen sink

Being a stylish young woman, my first instinct when packing for my trip is to take plenty of changes of clothes for on and off the bike. However not wanting to carry 5kgs of clothes with me, I’ve come up with the following wardrobe that weighs in at just over 1.5kgs.

Underwear – 3 pairs sensible black pants, 2 bras

Socks – 2 short merino pair, 1 long cotton

Woollen undergarments – one singlet, one long sleeved (in case it gets really cold)

Bike shorts – 3 pairs, 2 lycra and one new exciting mesh pair

Riding tops – 1 short sleeve (red for visibility), one long sleeved (fluro green for visibility)

T-shrits – 1 martha hucker shirt because you can’t be out with your bike without one and 1 technical tee that can also be a riding top due to its wicking powers

Shorts – 1 pair long shorts with plenty of pockets

Trousers – 1 pair après riding trousers to keep the sandflies and mossies off my legs in the evenings

Warmers – 1 pair arm warms and 1 pair full length leg warmers for those chilly mornings

As you can see from the short film below I was lucky enough to catch them all practising packing themselves into my panniers. Unfortunately my merino hat, sports bra and warm gloves were too lazy to join in.

Finally the most important items for a trip to the West Coast, wet weather gear. I cannot say enough good things about my Groundeffect SheShell and my lovely new Groundeffect Helter Skelters. They both keep you dry without over heating too much and both pack down into tiny light little packages.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my first ever attempts at film making. I will update tomorrow on the search for a name for my mascot!