My Gear

Dawes Super Galaxy 2011. I love this bike! Perfect for touring. Steel frame and upright geometry gives maximum comfort. 27 speed with some very low ratios for the toughest hills. Shimano Tiagra groupset. It comes with a Tubus rear rack. I have added a low rider front rack (£17 from Ebay) which works fine. I added a 3rd bottle cage.

Luggage: rear panniers: Altura Dryline 2x16 litre. A great pannier but not fully waterproof in a downpour, so have added rubble bags as liners. Front panniers: Ortlieb City Rollers. The Rolls Royce of panniers! Extremely tough, roll top design ensures fully waterproof. Topeak Tourguide Compact handlebar bag. A new addition - very small and compact, but big enough to hold all my valuables. Easy click fix to remove from the bike easily and converts in to a bum bag!

Camping: Vango Blade 100 tent. A great tent - very roomy for a 1 man tent, and only 1.5kg. Robens Caucasus 300 sleeping bag. A very good lightweight down bag. Probably too warm for my Spain trip, but has a full length zip so easy to open up if too hot. Also use a silk liner. Pocket rocket camping stove, titanium pot. Thermarest Evolite Large self-inflating mat. Cheap foam mat - useful for sitting on and also put under the air mattress to protect from punctures.

Gadgets: Garmin Edge 500 GPS bike computer. Doesn't have mapping. Has speed, altitude, compass bearing etc. Afterwards you can upload your rides to a computer and see where you got lost! Samsung S5 mini smartphone. A great phone, also waterproof! On the 3 network which means I can use it in most of Europe at no extra cost. As well as  Google Maps, have installed Maps.me which allows you to look at maps off line. Kindle Paperwhite. Sansa Clip+ mp3 player. Used to carry a tablet as well, but the smartphone does all that a tablet can so just take that to save on weight and stuff to charge!

The bottom pic is my set up for 2015 with the addition of bar bag and foam mat.