What could be more important than somewhere to keep you warm and dry at the end of each day? The tent you take with you is crucial – do you go as light as possible at the expense of durability? Or do you include a porch so you’ve got somewhere to shelter and cook if the weather’s bad? The tent that is mentioned most often in the same breath as ‘the best tent for touring’ is the MSR Hubba (hubba). Adapted for 2014 so it’s lighter (less durable?) and no longer green, time will tell if it remains ‘the one’.

Price: £300, available fro Cascade Designs.

Best Price: £240, available from Cheap Tents.

[part title=” Ortlieb Backroller Classic”]

If you’ve got the Kona Sutra bike, you’ll have front and rear racks to furnish with panniers already good to go. And the go-to touring luggage provider of choice, time and again, is Ortlieb. Making hard-wearing, waterproof, straightforward and simple to take on and off the bike, it’s easy to see why. If you’re going the whole hog, you’ll want two rear panniers, two at the front, and a bar bag – somewhere to keep valuables easily to hand that can be taken with you off the bike, and that has a clear map pocket on the top.

Price: £110 (a pair), available from Ortlieb.

Best Price: £66.40, available from Cycleways.