L’hygiène
An ultralight self care kit
This is the third story in a series about bike traveling.
The first part “Le vélo: An ultralight travel bike” is worth a read if you fancy some inspiration for an ultralight bike setup. The second post “Le maillot: An ultralight travel kit” dives into lightweight clothing on and off the bike.
In this third part we will go through my hygiene bag, various care products to stay somewhat clean, as-well as ways to nurture the mind.
L’hygiène
Going on an adventure smelling like lilacs 24/7 is not an option, but it doesn’t mean stinking like a dead decomposing skunk. It also doesn’t mean being careless. An escapade allows to focus a bit on one’s self, and explore some facets of this ball of minerals we are living on.
Exploring the world on a bike creates 3 major physical pain points: the hands, the feet, and the butt. I’ll come to this in a second, but first I want to show you the insides of a ziplock containing the products that kept me clean and healthy during the road-trip.
There are 3 categories of products: Cleanliness, health, wellness.
The wellness part is simple:
Foam earplugs, a tiny microfiber towel, a pack of tissues.
The pack of tissues is quite versatile, and it is easy to refill with napkins or paper towels on the road, you might need it to poop in the woods or clean chain oil off your legs.
The health products are pretty simple as-well: Pain-killers and a few band-aids solve most problems.
To wash myself: a piece of solid soap and solid shampoo from Lush, I use them daily at home already, they smell fantastic and made perfect sense for the road, they last for a long time and can easily be stored in a small film canister.
The other items are: 25ml of toothpaste, a travel toothbrush you can fold up, a tiny 50ml bottle sunscreen for babies, sun protect lip care from Labello, when exposed to the elements all day, skin and lips dry out or worse get burned, and it hurts, a lot.
Riding in the saddle all day multiple days in a row, even with good padded shorts, will lead to some discomfort, there are some soothing solutions though: chamois creams. Yes, you smear it on your butt, the one I use “Chamois Butt’r Eurostyle” also creates a minty cooling effect and apparently has some anti-bacterial properties. I stored some of it in another film canister and sealed the lid with extra electrical tape.
After a long day in the saddle I’d also recommend a cream like Bepanthen to repair the skin during time off and the night, parents use it on their kids, it certainly works on adults as-well.
Note: wearing underwear makes it worse.
The other contact points are the hands, cycling gloves will help, but again treating chafing with a bit of Bepanthen or something like a Neutrogena intense repair cream is necessary, Bepanthen is also useful for other wounds you might want to recover faster, e.g. if you had a light fall.
That’s pretty much it for ultralight body care, you could bring more things along if you want to floss regularly, if you want to use deodorants (there are also solid deodorants), if you want to shave, etc… but I didn’t feel like this was necessary, there are plenty of barbers, masseurs, etc. on the road that offer these and many other services.
Le mental
Riding a bike all day is a pretty meditative activity. On the bike you are mostly by yourself, and it offers more opportunities than just the joy of riding a bike. I find it rewarding to contemplate the surroundings, smell the odours of nature (hmmm pine), listen to the wind blowing through branches, and whistling birds. Trying to find things out of the ordinary, either by remembering, photographing or writing them down, nature and humanity offer an endless amount of snapshots (oh look a herd of deer).
It is also a moment where you can easily use meditation technics to empty your mind, or the opposite cogitate about a subject of your choice that needs progress.
Keep your mind happy or empty but don’t let it bring you down.
When your body communicates with pain there is usually a reason though, if your knees hurt your saddle might be too low or too high, if your feet hurt check your cleats or loosen your shoes. If you start cramping make sure you keep hydrating enough, take a break, if you are bonking make sure you are eating enough carbs every 30 minutes or so.
If strong pain suddenly appears from a limb, you might want to stop and check it out, if it is seems serious, stay positive, the adventure isn’t over.
On some of my trips I bring a friend: Turtle, he’s a designer toy invented by David Horvath and part of the Bossy Bear universe. He is a great side-kick, we don’t talk much, but he introduces a zest of playfulness.
I try to act detached, but he is better than me in many ways, he is very photogenic and never smells bad, I’m not sure how he is so smooth.
He really has it all.
Being off the bike is also a great time to read, to listen to podcasts or music. These days a single smartphone is all what’s needed to do these things and many more: taking pictures, recordings, watching videos, reading, etc.
Leave paper books behind, don’t bring an additional camera, don’t clutter yourself, enjoy minimalism, and take care of yourself.
Feel free to leave any comments, I’ll do my best to answer your questions.
Want more? I wrote more stories about bike traveling in Voyage Voyage.
Take care of your butt and mind, mucky stinker 🚲
