I recently added a budget page to the site. When we initially began planning this trip, we worked the finances out on the back of a napkin. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly if you know my ability to SWAG) once I put everything into a spreadsheet our napkin turned out to be spot on. I also updated our gear page with all cost and weight information. One of our hopes with this site is that people can use the information on it to help them plan their own adventures. As I look over our gear and budget, I realize that this could be intimidating. And in reality, trying to plan a trip like this is a bit overwhelming at times. If you're just looking to plan a tour out your back door to a camping spot 10 to 100 miles away, it doesn't need to be nearly as complicated or expensive as we have made this. So below is a very simple gear list with cost and weight information on what you need for your first bike tour. It might look like a lot with a total value of $1,000, but as you read through you will see that you already have most of it and in reality will only need to spend a couple hundred bucks. You could splurge and get a rear rack and some cheap panniers (or make your own panniers) to carry everything, or just take some bungee cords and strap everything to the bike.
When it's all said and done, this setup should weigh around 50 pounds and cost you no more than a few hundred dollars. Missing from this list is food and cooking equipment. In the spirit of making things simple, I left this stuff off because you can just bring prepackaged items or stop for cooked meals if you want to. If you really want to lighten the load, leave all the camping gear and find yourself a nice AirBnb. Hopefully this makes the idea of bike touring a bit more approachable for you and you're already eyeing up dad's old road bike.
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