I thought I would share some info about our equipment. I've had some questions about the bike, single versus tandem, route choice etc.
The tandem we are riding is a 1985 Santana Arriva. We bought it new from Bill's Bike Shop back in the day! If you look at the bottom of the list of our tours (right side of page--scroll down!), you'll see our first tour was in 1986 the year after we bought the tandem. We had no idea what we were doing. I don't even remember who had the bright idea of bicycling from Corvallis OR to San Francisco. Hap's oldest sister, Gail (and Walt) live in Corvallis and we have friends in San Francisco, maybe that's where the idea happened? Who knows? I do remember Hap trying to put the bike in a box the airline provided (free back then), and us calling the airline at 3 am the night before our flight asking if we could carry a wheel on the plane. The answer of course was no. Somehow it all fit! We had gotten the panniers (bags) for the bike the day before, borrowed a tent from a friend, rode down the road and said yep that works. We made it to OR, put the stuff on the bike and off we went. We fell in love with touring.Since 1986 we have taken at least one bike tour every year. We started with two weeks while we worked and now we spend a couple of months on a tour. The longest trip was in 2007, a one year 10,300 mile tour. It was awesome.
The tandem has been repainted twice and had countless complete rebuilds, including new wheels almost every tour. The panniers (bags) are Arkel tandem panniers on the back and smaller ones on the front. Our tent is a Sierra Designs four person Antares tent. We have been using our "condo" since 2007. Before then we had two tents, Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight two man and a three man tent. For our mountain bike back county tours we use one of the smaller and lighter tents.
For Our "bedroom" we have two Neo lite Thermarest pads, two travel pillows and Big Agnes.She is our double wide down sleeping bag. And she is awesome! No chance of getting cold.
The kitchen includes a Whisperlite stove, one Titanium pot, one Titanium skillet, two spoons/forks/knives, two bowls, two coffee cups, a sharp knife, big spoon and spatula, two coffee mugs and a cutting board.
Clothes: Each of us has: two jerseys, three bike shorts, two shirts, two long sleeve shirts (one heavy, one lighter), two pair shorts, one long pants (for Sunday go to meetin clothes!), one "nicer" polo shirt for Sundays, bathing suits, three pair under ware and socks, one pair wool socks. Cold weather stuff: each has one heavy weight shirt that serves as a jacket also, one pair tights, wind breakers and vests. For raingear we have gortex rain coats, pants and socks.
In the "office" we have an IPad Air, Iphone, Hap's flipphone (you'll have to ask him why....), a book "Bicycling Route 66", Pens and paper.
Miscellaneous Stuff: Lights (headlights, bike lights (flashing and non flashing), tent light, extra batteries, MP3 players, GPS unit an Etrex 20, First Aid kit, four water bottles and a spare camelback bladder for extra water.
So that's pretty much it!! Our gear weighs about 100 pounds. We went to a weigh station once and the whole set up weighed 450 pounds including us! The gear we take has been pretty much the same since we started. We take the same stuff whether we are on solo bikes or tandem. So it's easy to pack! The only difference is on our mountain bike trips we take a smaller tent, not as much cooking gear, two pair of bike shorts instead of two.
