The Gear

The Bike
The bike is a Surly Disc Trucker which is designed to carry heavy loads comfortably over long distances.

This bike is a blend of road and mountain bike parts and has some things specifically designed for cycle touring. Its had a few changes from the off the shelf version to make it lighter and more reliable.

So to put it broadly, it is the shape of a road bike but the crank is closer to the ground than a regular road bike. The lower crank makes the bike closer to the ground and easier to balance.

The bike has mountain bike wheels and tyres, a road bike gear system apart from the rear cassette which is from a mountain bike. It has 3 sprokets at the front and the mountain bike cassette gives it some very low gears to go uphill.

It also has a rack system that allows the panniers to be mounted on the side and the pedals will work with our without bike shoes. 

The bike has wider handle bars than the standard road bike to make it more comfortable.
Finally it has a Brooks sadle. Its made of leather and after wearing it in its now super comfortable.

The bike weighs in at 15kg unloaded and when fully loaded is around 40kg.
Top speed downhill is 50km/h and its frightening at that speed with all the gear on
Average traveling speed is around 18km/h
Slowest it will go is 5km/h uphill

Specs
2014 Surly Disc Trucker
Shimano 105 groupset
SRAM PG1070 cassette
Mavic XM 319 26" rims with 36 spokes
Shimano DLX hubs front and rear
Tubus pannier racks front and rear
Ortleib Classic panniers front and rear
Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tyres
Brooks 2012 World Traveller sadle


Camping
The tent is a MSR Hubba Hubba. Its a 2 person tent so there is room for me and the gear
I cook with a Trangia cook set. Its powered by methylated spirits and comes with 2 pots which are used for cooking and eating.
I have a Robbens Cacasus 300 sleeping bag and a Rab silk sleep sack.
I sleep on a thermarest matress, use a plastic spoon from Decathlon for eating, have a leatherman for cutting things up and a swiss army knife for opening wine.
I also carry a water purification system that I will need for Africa 

Technology
I carry a HP laptop, GoPro camera, Sony camera and MP3 player, Garmin Edge 200 GPS, Nokia phone and assorted batteries, chargers, adapaters and cables.

Clothes
There is limited space and its all about functionality
2 x bike shorts
1 x Shimano MTB shoes
2 x t-shirts
1 x Canterbury Trackies
4 x socks
2 x regular shorts (worn with bike shorts)
1 x bike gloves
1 x warm gloves 
1 x down jacket
1 x waterproof bike jacket
2 x thermal tops
1 x thermal leggings
2 x underwear 
1 x jandals
1 x shoes


Bike Spares/Assorted others
I carry spare spokes, tyre, bike tools, pump, chain lube, 3 bike locks, puncture repair kits, a small garden shovel, sunscreen, sunglasses, bike helmet, 4L of water and various drugs (pain killers/anti inflamatory/malaria tables/various anti-boitic pills and ointments)

What it all looks like
I have split up the gear into different coloured bags so I know whats in each bag.

2 x blue bags (bike spares & technology chables/chargers etc)
1 x green bag for food
2 x black bags for clothes
1 x dark orange bag for the Trangia cook set
1 x orange square bag is the down jacket 
1 x red bag for shower/personal cleaning items
1 x small black bag for drugs/medicines etc
1 x handle bar bag for items I need during the day
1 x 500ml bottle methylated spirits
There is also a massage roller that I cut down, laptop and jandals and a red 1L drink bottle.

When its all packed up it looks like this