Keen bike tourists Ingrid and Yves recently sent us some photos of the homemade clothesline they use while bike touring.

Yves is very handy, and carved the wooden spindle himself (130mm long, 85mm wide and weighing just 26g). The 14m long polymide string comes from a sailing shop, and is 2mm thick. We’ll let Ingrid tell the rest of the story.

“The clothes line is very important to us,” she says. “We air our worn clothes every evening. When we wash them, they need to dry as quickly as possible. A line helps. Yves created something to wrap the line. It is wooden and very lightweight.”

“He attaches the loose end to a tree or something similar. For that he uses a bowline knot.”

“Now it is important to tighten the rope as much as possible.”

“With these loops and windings the line is very tight and can support many clothes.”

Thanks Ingrid & Yves, for sharing your bike touring tip, and the wonderful photos.