What luxury item can you not be without?
 

We are all aware of the space and weight restrictions we have when bike traveling but what is that one item you just CAN NOT do without?

For me it is a fine bone china coffee mug. I just absolutely HAVE to have a fine bone china mug to drink my barely adequate coffee out of in the mornings.

When I am at work I attend a lot of meetings and training sessions and I am renown for brining my own coffee mug and plunger and coffee! :eek3:

What is it for you that you just must have and be damned the space and weight consequences?

I don't really have a can't do without luxury item but my travelling companion on our recent USA trip never travels without a proper frying pan for making breakfast.

I'm not really a fried breakfast sort of camper but it came in very useful as a work surface when I broke my glasses -

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...psublqyi3m.jpg

My waterproof heated jacket.

A good knife.

Four things I always carry with me during my bike adventure - Food, Water, First Aid Kit, and a Knife for self defense (just in case...) :scooter:

Head phones and some device to drive them.

When you are stuck in a train compartment or ferry cabin with Rajasthan’s least discrete kebab cook, an Italian couple intent of acting out the karma sutra and the Hyperactive Societies annual trip to the chocolate refinery and fizzy drink factory, plugging in and tuning out just works. There are also the nights when you are not camping in hole in the ground out of choice and the shipping forecast and desert island discs or the test match are relaxing compared to howling blizzards or mortar fire in the distance. I am not a fan of the Smashy and Nicey stations that fill the worlds airwaves, but these days there is the internet or at least a bit of local noise.

I regret I cannot count food as a luxury although I'm sure many in the world do.

Andy

Toilet roll, as you can't get that smell off your finger it doesn't mater how many times you wash it.....

I guess a decent camera could be considered "luxury" item? Although many use Phone cameras these days. :thumb down: I hate crap cameras, having "grown up" on Nikon film cameras in the 70's.

Don't consider Ear buds luxury items as most 12 year olds in 3rd world countries have phones and ear buds. But I like tunes traveling. Ear plugs also a MUST for riding and sleeping and tuning out. Restful.

How about a spare tire? To me, that is a "luxury" but also a necessity!

I don't really have any other "luxury" items. I don't cook and don't worry much about Coffee or Tea. When it comes your way ... it's nice, but would never carry that crap through remote Desert or mountains. Nor will I carry cans of Sardines, Herring or Sausages! :rofl: Eat local, learn something!

Luxury items would be a neat stack of $100 bills (well hidden), credit card and several ATM cards. I can buy LUXURY along the way ... no need to carry it on board.

I can relate to that very well! I remember this one time ........ :nuke::nuke::nuke:

Nail varnish and makeup, nail varnish can be used to mark bolts. It hides dirty fingernails. I also carry a small roll on perfume.

and a little hot water bottle. I have a dicky back, so it soothes it after a long riding day, and i'm nearly always cold.

You need more vodka in your diet :)

Clean skids and socks. When I was in the mob (pulls up sandbag)no matter how wet, cold or shite things got, if you changed these the world was suddenly a better place.
Move forward thirty five years and it's now ear plugs as all my mates snore for England :helpsmilie: never mind the eu.
Now if touratech could produce something small,and rechargeable that changes the smell in a small formula one room after said mates have been on the lash then I would buy it doh

They'd price it so high it would be cheaper to get another room :rofl:

I came across this by accident,,,,,About 18 years ago when I use to cycle camp across Europe with the ex and my son on the tandem, I carried a 20ltr water bag so we didn't have to keep fetching water from the tap,,,,,we were wild camping in Holland we went out cycling for the day my son left the water bag out in the sun, when we got back the water was very hot so we hung it on a tree we had a shower with it, how refreshing was that.
Now I Carrie one on the motorbike when we tour and it will defiantly be on my bike across Russia and USA.
Leave it in the sun about two or more hours you have a shower, better than a cold wash in a river, rolls upto nothing

http://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/400959368459