J&P 11: Preface

This being my third J&P Tucson Tour in a row, I was already pretty good at getting ready for it.  I decided to take my Surly touring bike with loaded panniers.  This wasn’t necessary, since the tour offers to tote everyone’s bags in a van, but I really wanted to begin conditioning for this summer’s long multi-day riding.

Pulled out my list from last year, piled everything in one place, and quickly realized that trying to fill 4 panniers with such a small load was silly.  I ended up just using two rear panniers, and even they had plenty of excess volume.  Because of this, I added jeans, belt, a big fluffy sweatshirt with a hood, and a bottle of wine.

This year’s packing list (for reference next year):

Bike Wear Keen SPD touring shoes 2 cycling shorts 2 cycling jerseys regular riding gloves helmet sunglasses Civvies 1 tee shirts Jeans 2 Nike Dri-FIT long sleeve shirts 1 hoodie sweatshirt 1 golf shirt 8 pairs of socks Belt 1 underwear Weather Wear Arm warmers Leg tights Raincoat Full fingered riding gloves

Thermal beanie Rain pants Shoe toe covers Full Louis Garneau shoe covers Scuba gloves Toiletries Kit Nail clippers Razor Small hairbrush Toothbrush Toothpaste Sun lotion Lip balm Hair gel Moisturizing lotion Ear plugs Medicines Afrin (for cold mornings) Naproxen sodium Claritin Bandaids Chamois butter

Tools & Bicycle Gear Frame pump Spare tube(s) Allen set Tire repair kit Other Camera Journal and pen Wallet & cash Eyeglasses Signed ride waiver Cell phone & charger Opus e-reader Artie (don’t forget) Fuel Granola bars Cookies Oranges 2 water bottles Bottle of wine Wine opener

With the two rear panniers only, the bike was back heavy, but the Surly is so stable it seems to handle this problem with ease.