Even as someone who spends a lot of time biking with their partner, it was still a little bit surprising to me when Jody wanted to bike from her hometown of Toronto to Montreal to watch this year’s edition of the UCI World Championships. Neither of us has done a long, multi-day bike trip, and this one was certainly a daunting challenge. The route, which primarily followed the great lakes waterfront trail, called for roughly 360 miles of riding. As relatively fit cyclists who regularly do one or two half-centuries per weekend, with 80-90 mile rides not being uncommon for us, we naively said “that’s got to be four days at most!” Even accounting for the anticipated fatigue, the ride didn’t seem like too much of a challenge: it was less than a century per day on average and not too hilly, plus the prevailing wind was a westerly, right?

The Route Plan

Our initial route called for us to ride 112.9 miles from the outskirts of Toronto to Belleville on day one, followed by 98.3 miles from Belleville to Brockville on the second day. The third day was supposed to be a 65 mile “rest” day from Brockville to Cornwall, including the majority of the scenic views along the St. Lawrence river’s many islands. Finally, we would push the 78 remaining miles to Atwater Market in Montreal. This seemed like a solid plan to us, but as we will cover later, there were some detours.

The Bike Setup

We had planned on inline bike bags to cut down on drag, so I would be fitting my Litespeed Flint with a frame bag, top tube bag, handlebar bag, and tailbag. Meanwhile, Jody would fit her Canyon Endurace with a tailbag, top tube bag, and handlebar bag, while carrying our water bottles. This seemed like an ideal setup to take advantage of my larger frame triangle and split the load between the two of us.

However, we soon realized that as busy grad students tied to their research, we would have to at least bring one laptop and one tablet with us to get work done. Unfortunately, Jody’s 16 inch MacBook couldn’t fit in any of our bags, so while staying in Toronto with just a few days left until departure, it was back to the drawing board. We considered many options, but the only way we could cram in Jody’s laptop without risk of something breaking was to spring for a rack and panniers. We chose an Axiom rear rack to allow us to shift the bags further back and out of the way of my heels when pedaling. This meant we decided against running the handlebar bag on my bike, which as a user of narrow bars as well as a long and low stem, I greatly appreciated.

My Litespeed Flint, loaded with a frame bag, top tube bag, and the rear rack and panniers that replaced the handlebar bag
My Litespeed Flint, loaded with a frame bag, top tube bag, and the rear rack and panniers that replaced the handlebar bag
Jody’s Canyon Endurace, loaded with a tail bag, top tube bag, handlebar bag, and both of our water bottles
Jody’s Canyon Endurace, loaded with a tail bag, top tube bag, handlebar bag, and both of our water bottles

The general packing strategy was as follows: we would each carry the bulk of our clothes; me in my frame bag and Jody in her tail bag. Jody’s handlebar bag was reserved for larger quick access items like passports, chargers, and lights. Bulkier clothes, like jackets, lived in the panniers with the larger electronics and tools. Top tube bags were reserved for snacks. Small tools and spare tubes were stowed in a canister located in a bottle cage beneath my downtube. We had brought one spare latex tube, two multitools (one a more traditional Swiss-army-style contraption and one with a ratchet integrated into a pair of tire levers), a tubeless tire plug tool, and a spare SRAM battery for my drivetrain. Yes, we certainly overpacked, but you live and you learn.