The only things you need to travel the world

I cycled from Europe to China and I travelled very light. I brought with me just the essential for travelling the world, bikepacking, hitchhiking and backpacking. I lived a lot outdoor, and I spent a lot of time deciding for the best tent to travel, the best sleeping back to go camping, the best gears for long distance journeys.

FROM AMSTERDAM TO CHINA, THE ENTIRE MOVIE:

Ready Rock. Thanks to @artie_5ive for all the Kilometers cycled together.

Gear list for bike touring, all the items you need for long term bikepacking, bike set up for world tour by bicycle.

My complete guide: https://youtu.be/z1C2aya1UNg

Join the Monterojo Hoodboy here: https://www.instagram.com/monterojo.hoodboy?igsh=MXhudnZ1eG9yMW9jaQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

GEAR LIST:
Here is the list with all the things I had with me travelling in the Balkans, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia:

Bike:
– Giant tough road MTB bike with tour energizer plus tyres and a bike rack

Bags:
– Backpack: Waterproof backpack (from Amazon)
– Frame bag: Restrap full frame bag 9 liters
– Top frame bag: Farad Leibe (made in Iran)
– Front bag: Btwn bike front bag (Decathlon)
– Steering wheel bags: 2 Riverside bottle bags (Decathlon)
– Packing cubes: Diego travel set Tucano packing cubes
– Zip lock bags for smaller items (IKEA)

Lock system:
– Cheap and small lock (anywhere, mine was €4)
– Bike alarm (Amazon)

Sleeping gear:
– Sleeping bag: Therm-A-Rest Questar 20F/-6C
– Tent: Hubba Hubba bikepacking tent 1 person
– Sleeping pad: Therm-A-Rest Z lite Sol (old version)
– Sleeping mask: Decathlon
– Random earplugs

Jackets:
– Raincoat: Inner limits (Columbia)
– Down jacket: orange swiss wool down jacket (Ortovox)

Clothing:
– Cycling pants: Castelli Servizio Corse (2019)
– Shirts: 3 merino wool short sleeve t-shirts (Ortovox)
– Long sleeve shirt: Merino wool long sleeve t-shirt (Ortovox)
– Pants: Forclaz zip-off hiking pants (Decathlon)
– Shorts: blue football shorts (Acerbic)
– Shorts: Genoa football shorts (Latzovic 21 season 2016)
– Pants: light linen pants (from the market in Bergamo)
– Pyjama: Thermic pyjama blue (Ortovox)
– Underwear: 2 regular pairs of underwear (Tezenis)
– Socks: 1 pair of ankle socks, 1 pair of knee socks (Ortovox)
– Socks: 1 pair of M’kinley short ankle socks (Decathlon)

Cooking:
– Camping stove: MSR PocketRocket
– Pan: MSR ceramic pan set
– Lighter: MSR Piezo Igniter
– Lighter: extra regular lighter
– Fork: Camping M foldable fork
– Spoon: any spoon

Devices/accessories:
– Apple AirPods Pro
– iPhone 13 Pro
– Garmin Edge 530
– Powerbank: VRURC 10000maP (Amazon)
– Adapter: Fast Charge Amazon 3.0 (do not recommend)
– Chargers: USB to lightning, USB to USB-C
– Solar panel (Amazon, never used)
– Microphone:
– Tripod (Amazon)

Shoes:
– Flipflops: Decathlon (€4)
– Trail runners: Hoka One One Torrent 2

(Repairing) tools:
– Pump: Decathlon (would recommend the Cycplus electric pump)
– Bike repair kit from Hema (in ziplock bag)
– Biking multitool (Decathlon)
– Pocket knife: Swiss design multitool
– Pinch tool (Prosit)
– Knife: Opinel 9 cm no. 9
– Spare brake discs
– Chain 2 extra pieces
– Spare inner tube
– Fire tool: Forclaz fire starter MT500 (Decathlon)
– White cotton cloth (for cleaning/fixing the bike)
– Bike oil (Decathlon)

Medicines:
– Deodorant (kept buying any new one)
– Etos spierbalsem (any cream for your muscles)
– Elfenor 5% gel (Diklofenak sodyum)
– Arnica e Artiglio del Diavolo (Just)
– Sunscreen: Esselunga SPF 50+
– Water filter (Amazon)

Wear-on:
– Helmet: (Decathlon cheapest)
– Sunglasses: (Oakley)
– Hat (kept losing and getting a new one)
– Knee protector (kept losing and getting a new one)
– Buff: merino wool buff (Ortovox)

Extra stuff:
– Notebook
– Passport (Italian is always a good choice 😉
– Towel: Nabaji microfiber 80 x 130 cm (Decathlon)
– Small cotton bag with cash
– Mini wallet genuine leather (Vera Pelle)
– Tissue (made by my grandma)
– Marseille soap
– Khefya scarf (bought in Istanbul)

00:00 Intro
00:58 The backpack behind
8:10 The middle frame
12:51 The front part
16:41 Secrets

#bikepacking #bike #gearlist #biketouring #travel #setup #outdoor

last year I cycled from the Netherlands to China 
through Middle East. Desert mountains rivers. High temperatures low temperatures, this was my first 
cycling trip ever. Exactly one year ago I was here like you watching YouTube and trying to understand 
what I had to bring and what I had to leave at home. I was always thinking that these people were 
packing too many things, having 60 kilos bikes; mine was just 25 kilos. I decided to be extremely minimalist. Still I had everything I needed. The only thing you need is the will to cycle, then you will cycle. I will 
show you the things that I brought one by one and throughout the video I will give you some secrets on 
how to set up your bike in a cheap and solid way. I will put all the prices as they are for the public 
but let’s be honest: I’m not paid to do this. You should look for alternative solutions: borrowing 
stuff, asking for help to people that have done this or similar things already or buying secondhand stuff. I divided my 
setup in three sections: the backpack behind, the middle frame and the front. Everything I 
had in my backpack was inside these packing cubes, by Tucano, they are for motorcyclists actually 
and they kept everything dry and in separated compartments. I had one pair of cycling pants, they 
are from Castelli, for these ones I recommend to have high quality cycling pants and if you’re a man one 
pair is enough you can wash them overnight they are going to be dry the morning after. I also had 
two regular shorts because I wore them over the cycling pants this made me look less naked because 
in some countries outside Europe it’s not the best to go around with tight shorts. These were just 
shorts that I had. These are shorts from Genoa football club actually used by Lazovic in 2016 and 
he gave it to me. These ones are from my football team when I was a child, Acerbic, so from a company 
from Bergamo. They also have pockets. Honestly for this you don’t need high quality you can just 
get whatever you want. When you wear cycling pants don’t need underwear so I just had two pairs of 
underwear. Honestly I used them just in the night or when I was not cycling so they are enough 
actually sometimes I use just shorts without underwear so two pairs is enough. Decathlon long pants 
and I had the ones that you can actually detach (zip-off) indeed in this moment they are short but they can 
be longer and they were my only long pants. Maybe this is the most important thing: t-shirts, because 
you’re going to use them every day and the quality of the t-shirts I think is very important important. 
You don’t need a lot of t-shirts if you have high quality ones. These are merino wool t-shirts, by 
Ortovox, and they saved my life because I just had three of them. Honestly you can wear them they dry 
very easily you can wear them for days. I highly recommend to spend money on this, even if you have 
to spend €100 and bring three t-shirts less, it’s going to change your entire trip. I also had this merino 
wool long sleeve shirt, by Ortovox. It’s very important to have different layers, so I was wearing a shirt 
this and the jacket and that would have been enough to be warm at the end of the day, also for 
this type of items spend money: high quality is important. Perhaps the item that I used the most 
was the jacket, Ortovox jacket, not the warmest ever still since I had different layers they were 
building up a good and comfortable temperature for me and I would definitely recommend to spend 
money on it. The rain coat. I had this good one because I live in the Netherlands and it rains all 
the time, but actually you can get a worse one a cheaper version the most important part is that it 
keeps you dry. I use it on top of my jacket because my jacket unfortunately is not impermeable 
so actually you could choose just to get an impermeable jacket as well. Three pairs of socks: 
light ones, merino wool, and long socks. Actually these ones I’ve never used but it was good to 
have them in case I would have been very cold. It’s important to have good quality socks because 
otherwise you have to wash them every day, instead if you have merino wool socks you can leave them 
outside the tent during the night and the morning after they’re going to smell like roses. This is 
the most important item in the backpack. Having a warm sleeping bag is going to change your life. 
You’re arriving in the night, you’re are tired, you’re smelly and you don’t want to wear a pyjama that 
the morning after is going to be also sweaty, so you’re just going inside your sleeping bag naked 
and this is going to change your life, you don’t need to bring a pyjama because it’s warm enough 
so you arrive in the tent you are tired and you directly go into the sleeping bag this happened 
to me so many times. Having a good one that is warm requires a little bit of space but still it 
is quite compact it’s highly recommended so spend money on it because it’s going to last for years 
and years. The bag with medicines and the medicines this was filled by my mom. In the end, they are light and 
you never know when you will need them right so maybe you in the middle of nowhere and you need 
medicines: what do you do? A nice one was this cream, tea treat cream. It is good to have some freshness 
in places where you need. It here I also had one of my toothbrushes, I had three of them, I cut them 
so they require less space they’re very light of course. You want to have them one in the back 
of one in the front because you never know when you will need the toothbrush. Bag with money with 
money. Actually I like to have the bag with money in the backpack because I was not leaving the 
backpack on the bicycle so the bags stayed on the bicycle but the backpack was coming with 
me, so I had the money with me always when I was leaving the bicycle. Actually even if they were in 
this safe spot once I lost them. Why? Because I was in Turkey, I was in Istanbul, I was on a bus, when the army came on the bus I was sleeping and they knocked my head and they said: “we need your passport” in a very very 
very rude way, so I was a bit in a rush and I took off the passport from the same pocket where I 
had the money. Guess what? The money fell down, so two weeks later I checked for the cash that 
I had €700 and there was nothing anymore and I was like no it’s incredible and I thought well 
where did it happen ah maybe it was on the bus so I sent an email to the bus company and they 
answered to me: “you can pick your money up whenever you want”, so I had to travel back each hiking the 
entire turkey to Istanbul but well it was worth it €700 and actually they’re still here. In Istanbul 
I also bought this kefia from a Palestinian charity it can always be useful if you want to cover 
yourself if you want to cover your head from the Sun, if you want to use it as a blanket during 
the day as a light blanket. Free Palestine. Then I had a tissue, from my grandma. It can always be 
useful for many different reasons… I didn’t use it. As you probably understood, 
everything I brought with me was minimal, was functional and was light, still I wanted to bring 
with me some symbols, some items that had stories and that I wanted to have with me during my travel.
There was space for them: first of all the scarf from Atalanta, the team from my city and actually 
I used it during my travel because I flew back to watch the final of Europa league so this was 
in the end useful. The logo of the football team where I was playing when I was a child. The last 
game I played with them this logo fell from the number five shirt that was always my shirt so I 
got it from the ground and I always keep it with me. Ankle bracelet that I made in the Amazon 
forest in Colombia with leaves from the trees around. It broke the first week of traveling. My 
totem, from the Scout group I was part of. It is a jaguar and it is my spirit animal. Frame bag: this 
is a Restrap frame bag (9L) with three pockets: one, two, and three. This bag was always on the bike so I had to 
keep here things that would have not been stolen: no documents, no money, not important stuff. This 
was the bag that I could always access when I was cycling during the day: I kept here all the 
repairing tools. Decathlon multitool. You should not bring all of it just select the important 
stuff and bring those. I had one spare inner tube; actually I have never used it, I had just one 
flat tire. If you get proper outer tubes in my case they were Energizer S plus they are actually 
great, they’re going to make a bit slower but they’re going to keep your inner tube safe so no 
punctures and I prefer to be free to cycle and not have to stop and fix everything then to be faster, 
to be fair. As you can see I was always using these plastic bags, from IKEA, they can always be useful,
in this case here I kept the repairing tools for when I got punctures and a small screwdriver. Other 
Ikea plastic bag in this case with disc brake never used it though. Also I had extra chain 
pieces also these ones never used it. Pinch gifted by Jan. I had this Decathlon pump honestly I 
would not recommend this. Besides the bag itself everything is just what you can get at Decathlon or 
wherever it’s not important the quality of these things, but for the pump to be fair maybe get a 
good pump this is the cheap version of Decathlon and it was not pumping my tires at the level I 
wanted. Nowadays I would get the Cycplus electrical pump. One thing about cycling tools and 
repairing kits: bring just what you need and what you can use. I know that for sure many people have 
a lot of things a lot of extra parts but to be fair on the road you will always find solutions so 
there is no need to bring everything since Europe when you need something you will look for it and 
I’m sure you will find it. Here I also add my knee protector because I had a lot of problems since 
at the beginning I was using click shoes and that gave me problems with the positioning of the legs,
with the cing itself and if you do it for 100/120 km per day that is very impactful for your knees. 
I think I lost it couple of times and I bought it back this is the Turkish version so there is no 
problem in buying it around the world. Speaking about my knee another plastic bag from IKEA, as you 
can see in optimal conditions. Here I had my cream that I found in Turkey once again for my knee and 
this is actually Voltaren but the version 2.0 the squared Voltaren and it actually solved my problems 
with the knee. My deodorant. Spear balsam from the Netherlands. Wherever you have a little bit of a 
problem before you start cycling you use it. Artiglio del Diavolo a cream again when you have pain and ear plugs 
you never know where you’re going to sleep, I sleep personally with earphones listening to music but 
they don’t weigh anything so having them and Save yourself a good night of sleep is crucial. Then I 
had soap to wash my clothes. An extra lighter. Water filter from Amazon I used it just in Central 
Asia and I had diarrhea so to be fair I don’t know if it was this, if it was the food, if it was 
Tajikistan in general, if it was the oxygen there, but I don’t know if I could recommend it it’s 
actually like the cheapest version. It’s better than nothing anyways. This is one of my two 
knives, this is a Swiss knife. It was my second knife so I didn’t use it it too much but having a 
knife is crucial so I would 100% bring two knives. Strong sunscreen that is crucial if you are a 
white European with pale skin like me. Decathlon tool to make fire, let’s see if it works.. It works. 
Actually I’ve never used it but it’s so light that why not? You never know what’s going to happen. 
Here the kitchen. The lid, a plastic bag that is impermeable and in which you can cook hot water 
and the plate, the pen as well. This is the MSR 1 person pan set so light, highly recommend, you can cook 
whatever you want here for two people as well a pasta whatever, and the stove fits inside. It is 
so small from being here it gets here and it works perfectly. Here I kept my tent. This is a Hubba Hubba
bike packing version, I recommend this tent, I spent a lot of money on it but it is super light I got 
the version for one person I would say get the version for two people because it’s always useful 
you never know what’s going to happen and it’s not that much heavier. You can hang it on the steering 
wheel and it works like a bag. I don’t know if you have heard of it but I’m quite pale so you always 
need a hat and you don’t know how many hats I had through these months in which I cycle, this is 
the the last one I got in China, of course it’s not original, but if you want to collaborate 
let’s collab. My favorite bag all over the bicycle it is handmade by an Iranian Artisan. I have been 
struggling a little bit with the top frame bags, until I found this. Earphones. Cables, cables for 
the Garmin, cables for the phone, cables for the microphone that I’m using right now because yes 
this microphone was also in this bag and all these cables I thought I’m going to use them on the same 
adapter. Turned out this adapter is [ __ ] don’t get it in Amazon because it didn’t work and I had 
to use the adapters around the places or just use one adapter at a time so they it supposedly 
have four spots but just one works so no no no. My wallet with documents. Buff, merino wool, again 
by Ortovox. Ortovox collab. Usually I get my iPhone in the front back. Actually I use it to film, record, call,
send messages, make Visa applications. Remote for bicycle alarm got on Amazon. The best combination 
is have a small and cheap lock and have an alarm. When people are going to touch your bike it’s 
going to blimp beep beep beep. This is so light and you just leave it on the bicycle and when 
people move the bicycle they are going to stop. My knife. This was used three times per day, every day. 
Opinel number 11. And actually when I was in turkey and there were so many dogs straight dogs that 
were always attacking me I was thinking “okay if anything happens I’m going to get knife and…” Flip 
flops. They’re from Decathlon, they’re just 4 euros, you don’t need anything special. Shoes, I got this Hoka. At the 
beginning of the travel I was wearing click shoes but no, I don’t recommend in the end you don’t want 
to go fast you just want to go comfortable. I also had this fork together with another spoon that I 
had, and it came with a can opener. Aggh. Yeah in this case it’s a can’t opener. In front I also had two of 
these bags they are actually super super useful they are open they’re from Decathlon, they’re very 
cheap and here you can always put your hand inside and get whatever: I had candies, I had extra water, 
I had extra food and here I also carried my small speaker. Actually this is my real speaker bought on 
Vinted (online second-hand platform) when you cycle alone is very important to have it because you want to scream out loud your 
songs: in my case my Italian rap; well you can do it wherever I could not do it in Afghanistan because 
it’s not allowed to listen to music there so I had earphones and I was saying yeah these are prayers 
but yeah speaker super super recommended. And there were also things that I brought every 
time with me: sunglasses, the bigger the more they cover the face the better; and my earrings not 
in Afghanistan because I had to take them out . The first secret from being light is to pack high 
quality items so you can bring less. It’s better to spend €100 on one merino wool shirt than to bring 
four cotton shirts for €25 each. It is better to have a solid bike so that you don’t need to 
bring 1,000 repairing tools. These things are all true but you must think about what you need. 
Don’t just watch YouTube and think: I have to buy those expensive Ortlieb bags or the €3000 bike;
maybe the YouTuber is sponsored or maybe he has been cycling for years by now. Second secret: take your 
time to prepare in total it took me two months to buy everything I had to buy my bike secondhand 
giant toughroad for €400. I made it solid myself changing what I wanted to change and at the end 
of the trip I just had one broken tire and one broken rack. This was my first cycling trip ever.
I had to buy everything from zero as a student with low budget, I had some hiking equipment 
I used, my aunt works for a mountaineering company and she helped me with giving me cheap 
items that were broken and fixed my by grandma. My grandma sewed the setup of the bike for me 
and I borrowed the Garment for someone that I knew. I set up the bike including the luggage 
for €1,400. The last secret is being adaptive: you will find everything you need on the road; 
what is important for you is to remember that you do not need everything. The only thing you 
need is the will to cycle then you will cycle. Feel free to ask me any question, see you in 
my next adventure. I wish you winds blowing