The bike and gears I used for my ride is described here. Because I was new to bikepacking, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I would need and what would be good options for me. My final selections of my bike and gears are listed in Equipment.
(i) Bike: People said and proved it that one could use any bike for a long-distance tour. I’ve seen people riding all kinds of bikes on their bike tours. I met a person on the trip who was riding his old bike on a tour from one end to the other of the Erie Canalway Trail and planned to ditch his bike once the trip was done. For me, I needed a reliable and comfortable bike. You sit on your saddle, and you peddle many hours a day, you want your bike to fit you well. If you have been riding, the bike you like to ride is perhaps the one for your tour, unless it is a road bike and you want to ride on gravel.
Some organized tours provide rental bikes. They would need information of your height to see if they have a bike that fits you.
(ii) Bags and racks: You need them to carry your stuff on self-supported tours. There are many ways to carry things on a bike:
Panniers: They are the most common ones. They hang on the sides of rear and front racks. They can carry a lot.
Cargo bags: They are smaller than panniers and can be mounted on front forks or seat stay without racks. But this depends on bike frames. My bike does not allow me to mount them on my carbon front forks. I had to have a front rack.
Trunk bags: They sit on the top of racks. I used one on my front rack. Without them, anything can be carried on the top of racks as long as they are securely tied to the racks. I carried my tent and sleeping bags on the top of my rear rack.
Top tube bags: They sit on top tubes, usually close to handlebars. They are handy for things you want to reach quickly (e.g., energy bars). I have a small power bank in my top tube bag to charge my bike computer or cell phone mounted on the handlebar.
Handlebar bags: They are attached to handlebars. I didn’t use them.
Frame bags: They hang in the triangle space of the top tubes, seat tubes, and down tubes. I didn’t use them.
Seat bags: They hang underneath seats. They are much larger than tool bags. I didn’t use them.
There are many other small bags you can attached to your bike. One thing to keep in mind is the balance of carried weights in the front and back, and the total weight (your bike and your filled bags) you want to carry. At the headquarters of Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) in Missoula, MT, they weighted bikes with bags of coast-to-coast riders who stopped there. The range of what they measured is 40 – 115 lb. Mine was 85.
Deciding what bags you want to use should go hand in hand with deciding what racks you need. This is not an easy feat if you start from scratch like me. You need to consider their weight, size, shape, way to mount, and capacity and ease to reach (for bags). Experienced riders may have tried different combinations for different rides. Newbies only need one set to get started. Any possible configuration of different types of bags should work. There is no the best. Learn from experiences, and you would find your own preference.
(iii) Camping gears: Bikepacking is not much different from backpacking. The gears you need should be small, light, durable, functional as you want, and easy to use (set up and pack for tents).
Tent: It includes a mesh interior, a rainfly (rain cover), a footprint (to project the bottom of the tent, optional, highly recommended), poles (to support the tent), strings and stakes (to secure the rainfly). Other factors to consider include double (mesh interior and rainfly) vs. single walls, space inside (number of persons, sitting up or not), ventilation (to prevent dew inside), freestanding (can be moved after being set up without stakes, at least for the mesh interior) or not (usually for rainflies), waterproof (for most cases) or not (in arid areas).
Sleeping bag: Its weights and sizes are related to the seasons they are designed for.
Sleeping pad: It can be air inflated or foam. In comparison, air inflated pads are lighter, smaller, and more comfortable, only if they don’t leak. Some of them are noisy (when a pad rubbing the tent floor as you turn). I had one that leaked at more than one places on my trip. I had to replace it with a foam pad.
Pillow: Optional. You can use your clothes. Air inflated pillows almost weight nothing and take very small space to carry.
Cookset: If you camp in or near populated regions, you can find food in restaurants, food stores, and gas stations. Otherwise, you need to prepare food at the campsite. You would a stove (with fuel) and its lighter(s), pots/pans, utensils and others. With so much online information on this, my only recommendations are they should be easy to use and carry, and reliable (I’ve read and witnessed stove failures on bike trips). You either choose a stove that uses fuel you can easily buy on your trip (depending on where you are) or you carry all fuel you’d need. You need something to protect your hands from heated pots/pans. You can eat directly from pots/pans. A plate would be handy if you need to cut and roll (e.g., a wrap), and share food with your trip companions.
Camping knife: I used it mainly as a cooking knife.
Water containers: In addition to regular cycling water bottles, you need to carry extra water for cooking and wash if no running water at the campsite.
Towels: They should be light and easy to dry (e.g., when hung from a tree branch).
Lights: This is essential. I used a headlight.
Hygiene: In addition to what you need for shower and tooth care, it’d be a good idea to carry wet wipes. Among others, after a hot, sweaty day of ride, your campsite may not have shower or even running water. On my trip, the nearby natural water (creeks, lakes, rivers) can be filthy. I didn’t want to wash my body using it. Wet wipes would be the best way to clean my body. Biodegradable and unscented materials are highly recommended for the environment and safety (not to attract animals, especially bears).
Water filters/purification tablets: They are not for camping only but can provide drinking water on the ride. Both need time to get water purified.
Poop shelve/tablets: For dispersed camping without toilets.
(iv) Other gears
Whatever you use for a day ride.
Dog Doger: Chasing by dogs are common stories from bikers. There are several ways to deal with chasing dogs. The most common and easy one is to spread water/sport drinks from your bottle into dogs’ eyes, which needs some skills. My tour buddy would walk his bike and sweet talks to dogs. I got a Dog Doger, a device that emits low-frequency sound that human cannot hear but dogs can, and they don’t like it. It worked well on big dogs. Smaller ones somehow ignored it and kept chasing.
Zip-lock bags: To store snacks (cherry tomatoes, mixed nuts, hard-boiled eggs, etc.) and trash on the road. I tried to use bags that came with food (e.g., muffins, tortillas) as trash bags but when they ran out, I used zip-lock bags I brought.
A small bottle of hand sanitizer: I clean my hands after using a vault toilet without a wall-mounted sanitizer.
Laundry clippers: To hang cycling clothes on tree branches to dry after a ride and your towel after a shower or wash. To tight opened snack bags if you don’t eat all of them once. I used small metal ones.
Emergency communication tools: Recently released cell phones allow you to use satellite to communicate when there is no cellular service. Otherwise, you’d need satellite messengers in case you need to make emergency calls.
Chidong Zhang's WA2MA Bike Trip 