You probably can imagine that preparing for such a long bike trip is not easy. We wanted to start with good equipment and be prepared for everything and well, it costs money. Whoever visited a hiking store could notice that they really have everything, quality is good but you have to pay the price! We are not wealthy but lucky and some companies are so nice that they provided us some very important stuff.
We’ve been quite lagged behind updating you, dear reader about the list of sponsor but we try our best to keep you informed:
Our main sponsor is 
We purchased panniers (back and front), handlebar bag, water bag and shower valve from Evobike who was so kind and gave us 50% discount on it’s products.
Felix had already good back panniers which he liked a lot so he decided he doesn’t need them. I used one too earlier but I was not satisfied with them and I thought I will need a better one for such a bicycle tour so I bought a pair of Ortlieb back roller city bag and both of us purchased the front panniers.
Before we bought them we read some blogs and opinions about pannier and everywhere we looked the Ortlieb panniers were preferred. I think that the bags have 2 very important attribute.
1. It is completely waterproof. This is very important because we have to face it there will be days when we have to ride the bike in the rain. If you have good equipment rain is somewhat uncomfortable but still possible to ride the bike. If you have waterproof panniers you don’t have to worry e.g. that you will sleep in wet sleeping bag. Once it happened to me that all my stuff got completely soaked. Not only were a few thing dry out of my pannier’s contents but it turned out that I have a jumper which moisture imbibed ability is incredibly good and so I was carrying some extra liter of water with me which was quite heavy. So I think you can imagine that waterproof panniers are very handy.
It is from similar material what you can see on dispatch-riders. You have to close it by rolling it down and buckle it to the side. The material and the rolling-closing ensures that there is no way that a single drop of water goes inside the pannier.
2. To apply it on and get it off from the rack takes seconds. You just have to take the carrying handle in your hand and the hooks are unfasten and you can easily take it off from the rack or put it back on the rack. Earlier I had panniers with velcro and it happened not once that it took the 2 of us to get it off from that rack when we arrived to the camp site and also to apply it back next day when we wanted to continue our way.
I also like that the bags have reflectors on both sides, it helps us to be more visible for drivers.
To tell the truth the size was a little bit surprising for me. The pair is 40l together but at packing in for the first time it seems a bit tight for me. It also would be nice to have some pockets not only one single case.
The back panniers:
The front panniers:
My handlebar bag is also from Evobike. I like that it is very light, it has 2 outer mesh pockets with zip, inner pocket, shoulder strap so I can take it with me if I leave the bike somewhere and reflector to be more visible.
We will take an Ortlieb water bag with us as well. To have enough water to drink is one of the most important thing. We are prepared with bottle holders on our bikes but it is always good to have some extra stock from water especially if there is quite big distance between cities. Our bag’s size is 4l. It has 2 straps with that we can attach it to our stuff so it is easy to carry. If it is empty it is really light and can be folded into a tiny piece. We can blow air in it as well and can use it as a pillow.
To this bag we also purchased a shower valve which can be applied to the bag. We can hang the water bag e.g. on a tree by its straps put the shower valve on the bag and have a nice shower! Isn’t it great?
Shower valve
Thank you Evobike! We will speak often of you when we take our dry clothes out of our panniers, when we have extra amount of water and have a nice shower from the bag!
