What have you taken on tour and later wished you hadn't?

[froze]

Oh, on knives, I usually carry a cheap ($10) kitchen knife from Wal-Mart or Target.  That knife is practical for slicing apples and avocados and is easily replaced if anything goes wrong with it.  They typically include a sheath which makes it practical and easy to store the knife.

When I think about it, it has been years since I went on a tour and carried an extra tire.

All I carry is a cheap made-in-China lock blade knife myself, it is extremely sharp though, with a titanium coating, but it cost me $20.

There is some cheap stuff you can get for bike camping that will work just as well as expensive stuff and you're not driving up the weight much by doing so maybe a few grams, in fact I've seen mess kits that cost a lot of money that weighed more.  My mess kit only costs $10 from Walmart, called the Ozark Trail, it's made of stainless steel, it's lightweight, and I made it lighter by not carrying the pot, I just carry the pan and the lid, and I have a stainless steel cup that I cook stuff that would normally go into a pot, that cup also came from Walmart for $5. 

I don't buy those dehydrated camping foods, those darn things can cost $8 and more, might as well eat out!  There are YouTube videos on how to eat cheap while backpacking or bike camping.

When I first started doing this bike camping stuff I carried a spare tire, but I never had a flat not alone destroy a tire.  I have since gone over to an even more flat-resistant tire called the Schwalbe Almotion, this thing is extremely tough, the only way I could destroy that tire is if a car hit me, but then I would have bigger issues than a tire. So I stopped carrying a spare, and I only carry one tube.  I can fix all my flats on the side of the road, not a big deal.  Since I don't carry a spare, and since I don't want to fix a flat on a loaded bike, even though the Almotion tire has a very high flat resistance to it, I installed a set of Clear Motion Rhinodillos flat strips, they're lighter than the Mr Tuffy and they are much more resistant to flats, I couldn't drive a tack through one but I could through a Mr Tuffy, plus the Rhinodillo has a soft edge that prevents the strip from chaffing a hole in the tube after a while of riding.  An overkill perhaps, but what the heck!

[davidbonn]

If you can post a link to that knife I might be interested.  I'd be skeptical of the Ti coating, because it will make the knife that much harder to keep sharp.

Gerber and Columbia River Knife Technology used to have awesome tiny locking blade knives that were excellent for backpackers.  Also the tiniest swiss army knives were a decent choice.  For cycle touring I think a somewhat larger and cheaper knife opens up some better eating options, if only to slice apples and avocados.

Freeze dried backpacking food is not only expensive, it is not very good for you in providing a balanced diet.  And if you just care about calories to weight you get about the same calories per gram from Snickers Bars and far more from cashews.  And you don't need to cook Snickers Bars or cashews.  And eating nothing but freeze dried food is going to cause nearly as awful vitamin and nutrient deficiencies as trying to subsist on Snickers Bars.

A kg of cashews is about 6000 calories.  A kg of freeze dried food or Snickers (without the packaging) is about 4500 calories.

I tend to use freeze dried food only for very short fast and light trips.  And I use them sparingly and in small quantities.

For tours of less than about 1500 miles I run tubeless.  The advantages of tubeless tires (especially in the kind of riding conditions I see) far exceed the disadvantages until I have to replace tires in a campground.  And on the average I find I need new tires every 1500 miles or so.

[froze]

https://frontierblades.com/collections/tac-force-speedster-model-knives/products/8-tac-force-tactical-spring-assisted-folding-knife-blade-pocket-open-switch

I did forget something about that knife, it is NOT titanium coated, I for some reason forgot and then assumed it was due to the color of the blade, but it is a very sharp blade, and it's cheap.  I bought it about 10 years ago, at that time it was $20 on sale, it has gone up in price to $25 when on sale which is now.

I keep that knife in an outside side pocket on my handlebar bag, just in case a dog or something tries to attack me, I also have a small skinny thing of pepper spray for dogs as well, which is located in the same side pocket.

[davidbonn]

Thanks for the link!  Looks promising.

[canalligators]

My battery powered CPAP machine, on a challenging  3-month tour.  We were all seriously sleep deprived every night, I slept like a rock. I have only a moderate case of sleep apnea.  After two months, I decided that I needed the space in my panniers, less weight and one less thing to charge - more than I needed the CPAP.  I sent it home.

I have taken it on subsequent trips and will continue to. Since I won’t take another tour that’s so challenging, toting it is worthwhile.

[Gypsea]

I've not carried one, but I read that a derailleur hangar is a good spare part to carry. Thoughts?

[canalligators]

Depends if you are likely to need it.  I would only take one if I was going somewhere very remote, or I was riding a technical offroad route (i.e. likely to damage it).  Not on a road tour in the first world.

[David W Pratt]

The thing I have occasionally taken along, and always regretted, is a schedule.
A loaded touring bike is ill suited to making up for lost time, and a due date tends to poison today with a reservation in a week.

[davidbonn]

The thing I have occasionally taken along, and always regretted, is a schedule...

I think we all need to plan our trips, but plan to ditch our plans.  For any of my trips it is rare for me to stick to the planned itinerary for more than three or four days.  Usually making any kind of reservation more than a day in advance is a bad idea.

Usually I do not strictly follow ACA routes, guidebooks, or ridewithgps routes.  They are invaluable for inspiration and give me ideas but generally I try to compose my own route and itinerary.  Sometimes that works spectacularly well and other times it completely falls flat.  But that is half the adventure.

One very long tours I'll usually have a short day or a zero day every two weeks or so to plan out and research where I'll be that next two weeks in very broad and vague terms.  Yes, plans are useless but planning is essential.