What I Wear and Why?

I think one of the reasons many Germans look at me strange is because I dress funny .... To them ... Not to me. 
What I Wear while I'm Discovering, Cycle Touring or Hiking depends on a lot of things - Where I Am, What I'm Doing, How Long I'll Be Gone, How Remote the Area is, Where the Closest Walmart is - LOL!

Seriously though, I don't just dress randomly.  As anyone who knows me knows, I don't too hardly anything randomly but that's another story for another day. 
When I am on an adventure, I dress for Function, Convenience, Comfort and Security. 
I wear a shirt and shorts / pants with lots of pockets - typically at least a double front pocketed shirt and cargo type shorts / pants with the extra pockets on the legs. 
Here's a few pics to illustrate what I wear and what I carry with me on a typical day of my cycle tour in Germany. 

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In this pic you see my shirt  - this is a very specific shirt I wear for very specific reasons - it is a Columbia Bonehead short sleeve - there's a long sleeve version also that I wear in colder weather. 
The reason I wear this shirt is as follows:
1. It's cotton so it breathes easily and dries fast after it gets wet. 
2. It has a mesh net back internal insert with a back flap for better ventilation. This is critical for me because I sweat a lot and need something that has a continuous vent out. 
3. This shirt has 4 front pockets all secured with good Velcro NOT buttons. There's 1 big pocket over 1 little pocket on each side. The top pockets are pleated so you can carry a lot of stuff in them and they are deep pockets. This is the most critical and important feature for me. 
Here's why - I've never had anything fall out of these pockets as long as the Velcro flap was closed. 
I've fallen down steep slopes, had multiple bike wrecks on road and trail and forded and swam rivers and NEVER LOST ANYTHING out of the pocket of a Columbia Bonehead shirt. 
4.  Finally, they're just plain well made and durable - the buttons don't come off, the Velcro stays, the stitching doesn't come undone, they just last. 

The Mountain Bike style cycling shorts are made by HOSS technical gear. They're a little bit heavy and bulky but make up for it in protection in the right areas and lots of pockets with Velcro so good it sometimes pisses me off trying to get into them. They have an adjustable waistband and are built for stout. 
Now for what I carry in each and why.

Starting with my shirt:

What you don't see in the pic is my iPhone 4s. Looking at the pic it goes in the right front big pocket and I plug in my headphones and twist tie the cord to shorten it and stick the excess inside my shirt. 
Here's why it's important I have my iPhone in my top left pocket (top left from my perspective).... And let me preface this by saying first "Kids - Don't try this at home. I am a skilled professional at this.". 
Second, what you may not realize is that 80% of the pics taken on this trip were taken while I was riding my bike. STOP! Don't tell me how stupid and dangerous it is to do that - just listen and understand that if I stopped everytime I took a picture I would still be in Cologne. 
Now listen - I only do this when the path is relatively flat and stable and I am going at a slow or moderate speed and no person or animal is in my immediate vicinity. 
So here's what I do - with my iPhone in my top left pocket, I take the iPhone out of the pocket, sweep the camera icon on the lock screen with my left index finger, rotate the phone so that my left thumb is on the Up Volume button, which is the camera shutter button, point at the scene or object of interest and take the pics with my left thumb. I can pretty much do this in one motion without taking my eyes off the bike path. 
I do it left handed so I can control the bike with my right hand which controls the rear brake - the best one to use in all cases. 
Pretty cool huh?
I keep a pen in my top right pocket and typically a small piece of paper or business card to capture important notes - I have a pocket memo book for longer notes. 
My compass goes in the small pocket on my left. I pull it out frequently when I am in a city walking or when I have diverted away from the river. You'd be surprise how many times this little $7 compass has saved me. 
Now for my shorts:
Wallet in my back pocket. 
Keys (note they have colored tape on them - more on this in another post) and Coins go in the left front pocket. 
Chapstick and misc in the right front. 
Memo book and other important papers in a Ziploc Bag in the front left cargo pocket. 
iGo external battery and charger for my iPhone and the charging cable and a European electrical converter in a Ziploc bag in the left cargo pocket. 
I will move this bag of items to the tube bag of my bike while I'm cycling and take it with me while I'm walking. My Verizon iPhone 4s is my lifeline in Europe so I have to keep it charged and it's eating batteries since I had the sim card activated and I'be been here in Europe so the extra battery, cable and converter are must haves. I've already used them in the field several times. 
So that's about it for this segment of What to Wear when you're adventuring abroad - if you're me anyway. It's not for everybody but hopefully you've picked up a few things of interest you can use on your next trip. 
The most important part of doing anything worth doing is 
THOUGHTFUL PREPARATION!
Think about Your Trip and What You're Planning to Do and Know Yourself and Prepare accordingly. 

Gotta get ready and get on the Rhein south to Heidelberg. I'll send you a route in a bit - toodaloo!