I nearly mentioned paper maps Wayne but some including myself still like a paper map to give an overview of the area before you go for the detail on your device.
No longer need to work at discovering local weather forecast.
No longer need to struggle to make trans-Atlantic phone call.
No longer necessary to change money at every European border.
While paper maps remain useful, no longer need to exert effort to locate and purchase Michelin maps (and then lug around a growing stack of them).
In some ways, bicycle touring in the early 1980s was more like traveling by horseback in the 1800s.
Paperback books, both as reference guides and for leisure reading. A significant part of our kit on our first European tours was paperback novels. We’d typically take six or seven novels chosen as ones we would both read. Toward the end of a tour we would sometimes run out and start keeping an eye out for bookstores with a section of titles in English.
I was a very late adopter of spandex/lycra shorts and modern materials for shirts and jackets. Moving to those drastically cut down on both quantity and bulk of clothes I bring - shower washing and towel-roll drying of clothing.
Probably a guy-only and credit card touring-only thing, but even the dumpiest motels have soaps/shampoos, so I don't bring those anymore.
Going to a Wahoo Elemnt GPS bike computer vs. running app on phone eliminated need to carry backup power pack but adding a taillight with a different USB connector type meant adding more USB adapters.
Not just travelers checks, but cash - carry very little and on many tours don't even touch it.
I no longer need a whole pail of tube patches or a spare tire. With Marathon + tires I just don't get flats anymore, though I still bring one spare tube and the tiniest of patch kits.
I'll agree on not needing a raft of paper products anymore.
I used to carry a small am/fm/sw radio but now use the device for music and news (and camera and phone and book and map and journal and movie player).
Possibly unwise, I no longer carry a heavy u-lock, instead a light cable and padlock to thwart quick-grabs.
No longer do I bring umpteen pieces of clothing. Now only slightly more than what is on my back and then wash things pretty well daily.
Probably the most obscure (and obsolete) item that will be mentioned in this thread:
I've always carried a laptop on tours, and was a relatively late smartphone adopter, so for a while I carried a tiny Wi-Fi Detector. This little thing would light up when you were in the presence of a Wi-Fi connection, so you'd know it was worth getting out the laptop and trying to connect to the internet.
I washed it in the pocket of my touring shorts one day, and that was the end of it.
No more rolls of film to be kept reasonably cool, hand-scanned at the airport security gate, and sent off for processing when we get home. [This is from pre-bike-touring travel days for us, but each of us would have 70 rolls that stayed in our backpacks for several months.] Internet cafes! No more dropping the equivalent of a night's accommodation at noisy Skype-yapping cafes to keep our friends and families apprised of our location/condition/deep thoughts. No more dense print guidebooks now that we can upload them to our devices.
Interesting comments so far. I agree with most, but offer some differing opinions;
1.) cash is still needed in parts of the American west and rural mid-west. On the Transam I found myself in a few cash-only diners in small towns in Kansas and elsewhere. And I was quite surprised in White Bird, Idaho that almost the entire town operated on a cash-only basis - even the White Bird motel where I stayed required cash! That was in 2015, but even last year on the Northern Tier I found cash was occasionally required - for instance, you have to put cash in the envelope to pay for your campground spot at some parks. Although you can use a credit card for small purchases at convenience stores, many of them add on a fee if you do so, so having cash saves you a bit of expense.
2.) you don't need soap or shampoo at most hotels, but if you find yourself in small-town America in the midst of nowhere, you may find that there aren't many amenities. And of course, even if you plan to stay inside as much as possible, on a long tour you will probably need to camp occasionally and will need soap for the shower (if there is a campground shower). So it's a good idea to take at least a small soap with you (I can use the soap bar for "shampoo" in a pinch, but maybe that's just me).
3.) I agree that a spare tire isn't necessary, but you should of course have at least 1 spare tube. I have had far fewer flats after I started using "real" touring tires, but even tires with a flat-protection layer can be punctured by nails or those aggravating "goat-head" thorns out west. When I rode the Western Express in 2017, one of my touring partners picked up a nail that punctured his Schwalbe Marathon tire, and I experienced a puncture from a goat-head in Oregon on the Transam (I was using Panaracer Tourgard Plus tires, which have a flat-protection layer similar to the Schwalbe Marathon). And it isn't that unusual to have more than 1 flat in a day - this can occur because whatever caused the 1st flat wasn't removed from the tire, or perhaps there was more than 1 offending thing (such as multiple goat-heads and you didn't get them all removed) - so you "fix" the flat and then 10 miles later you have another flat. So if you are riding solo on a tour, there is room to debate whether you may want to bring along more than 1 spare tube. I only take 1 spare tube and a patch kit with me, BUT I carefully examine my tires at least twice weekly (more often if you ride across any suspicious areas) and remove any little bits of gravel or other stuff. On the Northern Tier last year I found small bits of glass and the occasional small wire (from blown-out steel-belted semi truck tires) during my regular exams. Using this approach, I went coast-to-coast with no flats last year.
4.) City libraries can still be handy for wifi access. On the Northern Tier last year, I needed to use libraries at least twice that I can recall to update my journal. The first time was in Monroeville, IN - we stayed at the city park community building, no wifi, so fortunately there was the library. The second time was in Oxford Junction, Iowa, where we were elated to get to stay inside the community center instead of having to camp in an undesireable environment - the nearby public library was tiny but it had wifi. So on a shorter tour you may be able to arrange for motel stays and always have wifi, but on a coast-to-coast or any long tour there may be times you need the local public library wifi.
Sort of an off-shoot from the "cash isn't needed anymore" thought; coins for pay-phones are no longer needed. Once upon a time, I carried dimes (and then later on I carried quarters) with me when traveling in order to use a pay phone to make calls. Wow, I do think you have to be a bit older to relate to that one.
Peace to all,
Buddy
From Mark Bingham's 2007 journal:
Paying accommodation with travellers' cheques/checks
Someone offered him a phone book to look up accommodation
Visits to the public library in each town to update your journal and check emails.
Has anyone got any other items to mention?
2 years ago