For bags, I have a 35L backpack for clothes and chargers and items that does not require removal during transit. Even though temperature in Japan at this time of the year plunges below zero, becuase of the constant moving I will be doing, I packed only a fleece with Windstopper (Gore) material, and for waterproofing, a Mont-Bell packable Gore-Tex outer shell.  A Gitzo G1341T tripod with RRS BH25 is attached on the outside for the late evening photo shooting in dim light, and this tripod/ball-head combination is light enough to be brought along for the trip.

On my belt I have a Leatherman tool for emergency, and my Ricoh GR Digital point and shoot on the other side. They do get in the way especially when sitting down, but hey, better than nothing.

Nokia E71 'Blogging Machine' and ThinkTank Speed Demon camera carrier with lens case attached...

I have also a belt pouch, a Think Tank Speed Demon with 2 lens case attachment on the belt. Most of the time it is not around my waist, but I carry it with the shoulder strap. In this combination, I have the following items:
- Garmin eTrex Vista GPS: Black and white, 7 years old, but still kicking. Drains batteries though, so I keep it off except for waypoint entry.
- Nikon D300 with RRS L-bracket attached to it permanently
- Nikkor 12-24mm f4 AFS DX Lens
- Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 AFS Lens
- Nikkor 28-70mm f2.8 AFS Lens
- Nikkor 105mm f4 AI Micro Lens
- Spare batteries for GPS & Cameras
- Cokin P filter holder with 77mm adapter
- Singh-Ray 77mm Gold-n-Blue Polarizer
- Singh-Ray 3-stop Reverse ND Filter
- Singh-Ray 2-stop HS Graduated ND Filter
- B+W Slim Circular Polarizer
- Many CF and SD cards, enough to fill 25Gb of storage

The 4 lenses alone was enough to make the waist pouch at least 5-6 kg. Which is a little too much for a trip like this. The only reason I brought that many with me is that I just exchanged my 80-200mm with the 28-70mm (with a little topping up of course) so I wanted to test it out. The Think Tank pouches were just perfect, when it rained I just take out the rain cover and put it over the pack. Only issue is that on the Speed Demon pack, the rain cover doesn’t cover too well when you are using the shoulder strap and not the belt buckle. It works, with some effort.

Weather looked cloudy today Monday, but the rain looked sporadic from my apartment’s 31st floor window, and could see that in the direction of Pudong, it was starting to clear up at 1pm. At 2pm I was out the door with the bicycle and attached to the handle bar was a Garmin eTrex GPS just in case I get lost in one of the wide avenues in Pudong and my Polar S625X.

The GPS was set on the info screen where I had altimeter, odometer, moving time and all sorts of average speed. I didn’t want to have the map on so that I dont attract too much attention. The Polar S625X was displaying calories burnt and cadence. Usually I have speed on it instead of energy burnt but since I have that on the GPS, there was no need for redundant data.

My typical route consists of riding eastwards towards the Huangpu river, catch a ferry across (1.3RMB one way for bicycle) and then find my way to the main Century boulevard (I think that’s what they call it). There’s a cycle path next to it where you can do a constant 25-30kmph if you’re up to it. I went till a certain distance and had to turn back because of the drizzle (damn weather!).

GPS plots overlay on GoogleEarth Shanghai

And below on the Polar Pro Trainer data plots, you can see that the red lines are the heart rate (top) and the speed (bottom). For the second half of it, the level is a little lower, and that was because the road was starting to get wet and I did not want to get any mud marks on my back, and some parts of the road are tiled up and slippery. Not sure what was on the builder’s mind!!!

Polar Pro Trainer data collected

And finally, an exercise summary for the afternoon. Started at 2:11pm, rode for 3hrs and 3 minutes and burnt 1860kcal. Nice. Had a nice big dinner tonight to make up for the energy burnt.

Polar Pro Trainer exercise summary

Bicycle Configuration:

• Felt F1X Cyclocross fitted with full 2006 Shimano Ultegra set
• American Classic CR420 medium profile wheels
• Michelin Pro Race 2 tires
• Garmin eTrex Vista GPS
• Polar S625X Heart Rate Monitor with speed and cadence sensors