Logistics for a sagged multi-day tour

[divingbiker]

I'm attempting to pack for a 5-day ride. It is sagged, so I will be loading my camping stuff and clothes on a van as we go from town to town. Most of my junk will be in a big rolling duffel bag. I'm planning to put each day's clothes into a ziploc bag and keep organized that way as much as possible.

But I'm trying to figure out what kind of bag I should take to haul my after-ride clothes and bathroom stuff to the buildings with the showers, etc.

I haven't camped in years, and don't have any idea what would be semi-waterproof and handy.

Anybody who's done RAGBRAI, BRAG, etc have any suggestions?

[withm]

Maybe a small backpack would work. If you have a travel store near you, or luggage shop they ought to have some that would fold into it's own pouch, but could be used for bathroom stuff, change of clothes and a towel. Dirty laundry goes into a larger trash bag to keep separate from clean clothes.

That's what I would use anyway, that is, if I have understood your question correctly. Take lots of zip lock bags! You never know....

Tell us more about your trip? Where are you riding?

[F8th637]

I'm interested in this as well since I'm about to sign us up for a SAGged 3-day tour. Looking forward to some input!

[divingbiker]

Maybe a small backpack would work. If you have a travel store near you, or luggage shop they ought to have some that would fold into it's own pouch, but could be used for bathroom stuff, change of clothes and a towel. Dirty laundry goes into a larger trash bag to keep separate from clean clothes.

That's what I would use anyway, that is, if I have understood your question correctly. Take lots of zip lock bags! You never know....

Tell us more about your trip? Where are you riding?

Yes, lots of zip locs and trash bags, good idea. Maybe my waterproof bag for kayaking would work for taking stuff back and forth?

I'm going to Nebraska to do the Tour de Nebraska (http://www.tourdenebraska.com/). It's a 5-day, 300 mile trip that starts and ends in the same town and makes a loop through 4 very small towns. 175 people will be riding.

I was planning to sleep in the gyms, churches, etc that they've got lined up, but my neighbor said that when she did a multi-day MS walk, she really wished she was camping so she'd have her own personal space in the tent. So now I'm going to be taking a tent.

It just seems like an awful lot of stuff to be hauling along, with a tent, air mattress, chair (they recommend taking one), regular clothes, cycling clothes, etc.

I just got my bike boxed up, so at least that's taken care of. I'm rambling here because I feel so overwhelmed...

[Eden]

+1 for the kayaking bags. I have some really light thin ones that I use to transport my clothes in my messenger bag to work and back as even though the cloth on it is waterproof, water still seems to be able to work its way in around the top. Mine are Sea to Summit bags and though they are very light and pack down to almost nothing when they are empty are proving to be nice and durable.

[withm]

Sounds like a great trip! I hope you get good weather, have a great time, and can tell us all about it when you get home.

Have fun!

[7rider]

Not much to offer for advice -- my only experience is a 2-day MS tour I did where I camped. I think I just brought my hanging toiletry bag and a plastic grocery bag (reduce, reuse, recycle! ;)) for the dirty laundry. And I think I showered (and pretty much lived off-bike) in my Tevas.
But I did want to wish you good luck and I hope you have a great trip...full of sun and puffy clouds for shade. Not too hot...not too cold, and little wind, always at your back!

[ridebikeme]

Sounds like a great ride! I have rode in many tours like you are talking about( I leave for one myself in a couple of weeks). I TOTALLY agree that camping in the gym with others can be very challenging! Having your own space is much more enjoyable, and you can choose to be as close or as far from others as you want. In shared spaces, people tend to be noisey, people have all different schedules as to when and how long they sleep...somthing that affects everyone. You will also have people that may try to pack and repack during that time... zippers, opening bags etc.... I would definitely set up a tent!:D

[Trek420]

Ear Plugs!

[Tuckervill]

I like these bags from LL Bean, although I'm kicking myself for not buying one when I was in Maine last year. http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?page=personal-organizer&categoryId=51638&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&parentCategory=4525&cat4=2936&shop_method=pp&feat=4525-tn&np=Y

They come in a few different sizes.

eta: I second the foam ear plugs! Can't sleep without them when I share a hotel room with my dad or husband! If I were going, I'd bring a tent, too. If it were raining, I'd even set it up inside the gym so I could have my privacy!
Karen


I'm attempting to pack for a 5-day ride. It is sagged, so I will be loading my camping stuff and clothes on a van as we go from town to town. Most of my junk will be in a big rolling duffel bag. I'm planning to put each day's clothes into a ziploc bag and keep organized that way as much as possible.

But I'm trying to figure out what kind of bag I should take to haul my after-ride clothes and bathroom stuff to the buildings with the showers, etc.

I haven't camped in years, and don't have any idea what would be semi-waterproof and handy.

Anybody who's done RAGBRAI, BRAG, etc have any suggestions?

[F8th637]

Oh, good call on the ear plugs! In Italy it was the only way I got sleep in our first hotel. I'll definitely be packing those! Those LL Bean bags are great! DH and I use one whenever we go out of town.

[spokewench]

I see that this is a sagged ride; but some of the sagged multi day rides i've been on, they dump your bags on the ground outside when they get to the next destination. If they do this, you need to have a large water proof bag to put all your gear in or your stuff will be wet if it rains.

I used lots of little bags to keep my stuff organized; and used a small backpack to carry my clothes to the shower room. I have one of those toiletry bags that is foldable and also hangs up on a hook. This is very handy in the shower since you can hang it up on the hook along with your clothes and everything is nice and handy. I packed one biking outfit in each bag for each day; and then another bag for all my gloves; and another bag for all my leg warmers/arm warmers; one for my socks, etc. It works great.

[Zen]

What happened to the Mind Of An Engineer?

[divingbiker]

Thanks, all, for the suggestions. I'm gathering bags and may make a trip up to the LLBean store for one of those hanging kits. I've got some space bags that I might take along, too.


What happened to the Mind Of An Engineer?

I know, I know...it's driving me nuts that I can't figure this out!

But in my defense, it's been a hard week, with Bailey almost being euthanized and the tree falling and damaging my house. Too many worries and not enough time...

[divingbiker]

I like these bags from LL Bean, although I'm kicking myself for not buying one when I was in Maine last year. http://www.llbean.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?page=personal-organizer&categoryId=51638&storeId=1&catalogId=1&langId=-1&parentCategory=4525&cat4=2936&shop_method=pp&feat=4525-tn&np=Y

Thanks for reminding me of this LLBean bathroom bag. My coworker stopped by the LLBean store last night and got me one, and it will be perfect! It even has a little section with a hook for a couple of bottles, so you can take it in the shower!

[evangundy]

I'm about to overwhelm you with more info than you'll ever need ......
check out http://www.cyclingsite.com/lists_articles/ and after reading these, if you want more, go to the homepage and start reading. Bob & Rox set up this website a number of years ago, to gather info about Cycle Oregon and to help first-timers get a feel for what they were getting themselves in for. They had so much knowledge that they wanted to share, and wanted others to have input as well, and so it came to life. Even though this site has been around for about 10 years, every time I go there, I find something new I had not read before. (and yes, the Edna mentioned in emails and such is me and Dave (Slug) is my DH).

Happy reading and enjoy your tour.
Edna

[divingbiker]

I'm about to overwhelm you with more info than you'll ever need ......
check out http://www.cyclingsite.com/lists_articles/ and after reading these, if you want more, go to the homepage and start reading.

Thank you so much! This is great, and gave me some ideas I hadn't thought about.

[AmyN]

My husband and I have done several bike tours and are getting ready for three trips this summer. We have 2 gear bags - 1 for our camping gear and 1 for our clothes. I would highly recommend getting something with wheels. It makes it much easier to shlep your gear from the truck to your camp site. We got ours from REI and I know LLBean has rolling duffles. We also use dry bags for all our clothes. These are long round heavy tube shaped plastic bags that fold over and seal at the open end. We got them at a Bass Pro shop. I think they are really made for boaters. In addition, we picked up some light weight camp stools at Bass Pro that are easy to pack. Hope you have a great trip. We love touring and have met so many great people.

[Grog]

I'm a bit of an obsessive packer.

My approach is also to separate gear in large ziplocs, however not by day but by category. I have a ziploc for bike shorts, another for jerseys, another for accessories, one for off-bike tops, one for off-bike bottoms, one for socks. I find that the weather conditions the morning of often force me to change my plans for changing.

And the ziplocs keep everything dry in the event of rain. They make really really big ones now that you can use for the sleeping bag...

[shootingstar]

For the multi-day touring rides that we done which most we do on our own with no sag support, admittedly I'm pretty simplistic for packing in case of rain:

I keep my "cleaner" clothes in a separate plastic bag from another bag with cycling gear. Then another bag for clothing that needs to be laundered...when I get home. Toiletries in a separte little plastic bag. My toiletries I tried to use items that were used enough at start of trip, that I would use it all up by end of trip. Travel size toothpaste sometimes just wasn't quite enough for the length of some loaded trips.

That's all. On some earlier trips, before I started to wear cycling jerseys only in past 5 years, I was ..wearing T-shirts...and would wear an older t-shirt and later on trip, throw away the T-shirt..lighten the load.