Depending on the type of trip you’ve settled on, you may have a lot of gear on your list to start collecting. If you’ve got some time before take-off, you’ll be able to spend less money and look for deals. As always, when you’re short on time, you may end up spending a bit more to get everything together. But there’s a lot of ways to save money and reduce waste. Check out deals on Craigslist or Ebay and on discount sites, borrow gear from friends of friends, see what you can improvise. You won’t need new shiny things; they get dirty really really quickly.
Look at these two lists for cycling trip ideas:
http://travellingtwo.com/resources/lightweight-bike-touring-packing-list
