Archetype
The Saddle Nomad
Two wheels, one bag, no walls.
You want the road in your face and the freedom of a machine you can turn around on a footpath. Everything you own for the trip fits in forty litres and you like it that way.
You travel light because you have no choice, and you have discovered that this is the point rather than the price. Your risk is fatigue, weather and the temptation to buy a bike too heavy to pick up on the day it matters.
Strengths
- Ruthless about what actually earns its weight
- Meets more people than any other type, because a bike invites conversation
- Flexible: can turn around, ride a footpath, take a ferry on a whim
Watch for
- A bike you cannot lift alone, loaded, on a slope
- Riding tired, which is where most incidents come from
- Weather, which has no walls to hide behind
Kit
- Soft panniers packed low and forward
- Tube repair kit and the practice to use it
- A tent that pitches in the wind in three minutes
- Vehicle
- A middleweight single or twin with soft luggage, good tyres, a comfortable seat and nothing bolted on that you have not missed.
- First trip
- Two weeks of mixed tarmac and gravel within a day of home, camping, to find out what you actually use.
