More Kit Planning

I have spent some time looking at the kit list with a view to shaving down on weight. The first stab at determining kit weight came in at 19.699kg, having binned the heavy front light and battery pack and also the kettle I now weigh in at 18.769kg. There may be a couple of other things I could do to bring the weight down but I want to think carefully about what to scratch from the list. The decision to leave the front light at home arose from the fact that there will be plenty of daylight to allow for delays of a couple of hours in any one day and I have a lightweight head torch that could be used at a pinch. One item that would save over 800g is the lock – do I really need to take a lock? This will need some thinking through but I think the answer will be yes. There will be times where I will need to leave everything to pop into a post office or supermarket, the challenge is effectively over if an enterprising chav nicks my bike and puts it on eBay.
I think the next thing to do is work out where I want stuff packed and then create a checklist – saves time when you are preparing for the day ahead. At this stage, I do not even know if all this stuff will fit into 3 pannier bags and a bar bag. On previous trips, I didn't weigh things and go into so much detail given they were only 3 days and 250 miles max. I did use a check list to pack though; the result looked something like this:



Lynmouth 2010



 I won't be taking the front mudguard and the stove fuel bottle will be stowed under the down tube. The tyres will be slicks and the bar grips have been changed for bar ends and a wrist pad to help mitigate numb fingers. The other change will be the width of the handle bar, by grinding off an inch from each end this will bring my hands more in line with my shoulders and should reduce the bend in my wrists thus taking the pressure off the various nerves that run through that area.

I am aiming to get a decent training ride in at the weekend, we'll have to see how much time is available!