StarBiker

Yeah, I am sure you lost yours a long time ago.

indyfabz

I was 13 when I lost “mine.”

Anicius

I haven't found Calibre able to unlock those Amazon purchases that are copy-protected, but I think you may be able "own" Amazon books that are in the public domain. For those, a better, free source is Gutenberg.org. Calibre also allows conversion of e-books from one format to another and does a pretty good job of converting PDF docs into Kindle formats. If you want to read while touring, Kindle is a good idea, although on the one I have the graphics are generally poor. Still, you can load it with anything you want and the weight doesn't change, and you can backlight it for night reading. Although, I'm usually too tired or too hungry to want to read.

estasnyc

I haven't been able to find Nido whole milk powder formula anywhere . My local supermarket does carry Nido products but only the nonfat stuff.

Looking around, I did find formula containing whole milk in both Target and Whole Food Markets. I've yet to try either so I can't vouch for the quality but here you go:

https://www.target.com/p/kendamil-or...z/-/A-86918586

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/pro...ula-b099b2m7rp

ignant666

Here is an extremely obscure and little known source that has it in stock: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=nido+whole+milk+powder

I actually prefer the Hoosier Hill and/or Red Cow powdered whole milk, which both also come up on this search page.

Eyes Roll

Must have:
. spare tube.
.. tire levers.
... air pump.

Good to have:
.... multitool.
..... adjustable wrench.
...... front light.
....... rear light.
........ patch kit.
......... spare chain

mev

I put a patch kit higher on this list and a spare chain lower...

Not often but I've had days with more than one flat. My maximum was six on the San Diego Christmas ride and three in self-supported touring. So a single tube gets me perhaps into a mode of looking for a replacement right away.

When a tour is long enough I've stretched/replaced a chain or two. However enough warning and something I can do pre-emptively.

estasnyc

Oooohhhh..., you gave the proper incantation. I think I searched Amazon using only "Nido" or maybe "Nido toddler formula"

Choice #2 actually helps to argue my case. Somewhat slightly anyway. Nestle Nido Kinder 1+, which is what I found in my local supermarket, has nonfat milk.

The results I got from my Amazon search was polluted with so many garbage results.

I guess i should consider myself lucky. Had I completely bollixed up my incantation I might have unleashed the evil dead.

On a more serious note, I'll have to check out the Hoosier Hill or the Red Cow.

What is the shelf life of these powder formulas after you break the seal and open the container?

Eyes Roll

Spare tubes, then. If I were you who goes on long rides, I'd carry as many tubes as the expected number of flats during the ride/day, before getting home at dark.

In my early days of bike-riding, I did patch on the side of the road, maybe, a couple of times. I do not patch tubes on the side of the road any more, but only patch them after I get home. If I have a flat, I quickly remove the wheel, replace the flattened tube with a good tube, and am quickly back on the road.

mev

It is important for me to figure out what caused the flat, e.g. if there is a little wire in the tube I want to find it rather than put in a new tube and have it find the wire again. If there is a goat head thorn, I want to know that too. I don't find 100% of the causes but I can get pretty close. I learned this in my early haste to be quickly back on the road only to learn that I hadn't really gotten the root cause of the flat.

Once I've done that, it is little additional work to put a patch on the tube as well. Sometimes I'll put the patched tube back in, sometimes I swap in a new tube. However unless something damaged the tube itself (e.g. sidewall rip in the tire, valve stem breaks on tube), I've got the tube ready to go even if it isn't in the tire. There isn't as much of a notion of "after I get home" since I can be on the road for weeks and sometimes months.

ignant666

I don't know. Or to put it another way, the shelf life is longer than it takes me to use them up.

My recommendation is: buy the Red Cow first for the cool-looking metal can, and then re-fill the can with the (somewhat cheaper) Hoosier Hill. I have not noticed any very great difference among them.

Glad to help with the necessary incantations.

sbrudno

I would not suggest ear buds. Rather bone conduction as they allow hearing your environment and for safety reasons.
Then again, you might like to listen to nature...

ericoseveins

Great idea. I will check this out ASAP and let you know how it goes for me.

indyfabz

+1. I woke up to a flat rear tire after the first day of my 2014 cross-PA tour. Spent a good amount of time trying to find the cause. Couldn’t find anything in the tire. Nor could I find the hole in the tube. Finally pumped the tube with a lot of air and ran it through a puddle left over from the heavy rain the day before.

Found the tiniest of holes. It was so small, an air bubble would only appear every two seconds or so. Locating the hole helped me finally locate the tiny piece of wire in the tire. I had probably picked it up on a busy, wet road after grocery shopping just before camp. Had I simply put in a fresh tube without doing an extensive search for the cause of the flat, I almost certainly would have flatted again once I got back on the road, this time with the bike fully loaded.

sbrudno

Since we are discussing stuff to bring along on a tour, what would you use to mark the hole in the tube while getting the repair kit open and ready to do the deed? Marking pen? Ballpoint? Most holes are visible with the naked eye but these small holes not so much.

mev

While I wouldn't put it in "can't live without" category, I tried a bicycle speaker this year. There are places it made sense for me and places it didn't:
- Made sense on quiet country roads without much traffic and where I had good sight lines in my mirror
- Didn't make sense in heavier traffic, riding with others or in urban areas with cross streets.

I wasn't listening to music but instead would load a set of podcasts on my phone in the morning. I would then play them from a podcast app via bluetooth to a speaker on my handle bars. I didn't use it every day but I had enough quiet days e.g. on the great plains, where it was useful.

ericoseveins

This is terrific. So many great ideas that had never occurred to me before and I didn't even have to ask for any of this advice. It just came to me without any effort on my part.

Some people say that forums like this aren't really that useful and that people just like to hear themselves talk out loud on the internet. But those people are so wrong.

indyfabz

I didn't patch the tube. Put in a new one and kept the old one. I don't recall marking it. Maybe I put it in the tub when I got home and patched the hole then.

In any event...I don't tour with GPS or the like, so I write down my mileage at the end of each day. I also do crossword puzzles if I can find the NYT. As such, I always have a pen with me.

I also rarely flat on tour. I can only think of maybe 5 flats I have gotten since 2008. When I rode from Seattle to Bar Harbor, ME to Philadelphia to Ocean City, NJ in the summer of '99 I got a grand total of 3 flats. One was caused by a large screw I ran over in MN. One flat in 7 weeks of touring Spain and no flats during 7 weeks from Seattle to Cortez, CO. (Both in 2000.)

Calsun

Top of my list is safety glasses that block the air and dust and insects from coming up from below or from the sides. When something gets into one of my eyes I find it difficult to keep the other eye open. I was glad when these first became available as regular sunglasses were nearly worthless at providing protection for my eyes when riding.

chief9245

Definitely my Infinity seat. What a game changer. No need to wear padded shorts, actually not recommended with this seat. I did a 10,520 mile perimeter tour of the US last year and this made it so easy. If you have ever had to deal with saddle sores and just being in pain, you owe yourself to look into this seat. pricey but I would never ride without now. Just throw on a pair of shorts and go.
www.infinitybikeseat.com

sbrudno

I would have a hard time spending $327+ for a saddle but I see your point...