What we need depends where we are, of course. Surviving Indonesia means no more than speaking Bahasa; surviving Nepal means dodging bad drivers; but surviving Tibet  requires serious cold-weather gear. Here's a list:

Tent    Sleeping bags    Clothing    Stove    Medicine.

Our tent is a Macpac Olympus. I have yet to find another tent that can match it, even though it's made by Kiwis (at least it's not made in China like most of the 'American' brands). It can be pitched in high winds, and has multiple configurations which make it versatile and easy to set up. Once up it is bombproof. And warm - temperatures get down to twenty or thirty below. But it is not perfect and we have modified ours. We prefer to sleep in the tent than the hotels the cops have forced us to stay in.

Our sleeping bags are also Macpac, but that's neither here nor there. What counts is the feathers - ours are one model below the heaviest, and we still wear thermal underwear to bed. We also use a silk sheet which adds 5 degrees to the bag warmth.

Our bottom layer is standard bike clothing, that is, a lycra top and lycra-cotton shorts or long trousers. Over that goes nylon waterproof pants (nothing fancy) when it's wet; and on the top, a Windstopper vest, Polartec 100 vest and/or 300 jacket, and Goretex waterproof jacket, depending on the weather. We have ridden in our down jackets a couple of times. A down jacket is essential once the sun disappears.

Our stove is an MSR XGKII, and it runs on gasoline, which is available most everywhere, although sometimes we have to carry a couple of litres, enough to last a week or so. We also carry a spare stove. The stove frequently clogs up, and we find a single strand from an old brake cable makes an ideal pricker.

The most important medicine is antibiotics; one of us spends about half his time in total on antibiotics because of lung infections, aggravated by towns and altitude. We carry several types. Equally important is a powerful analgaesic. We carry several packets of Panadeine Forte which contains codeine, and so it packs a punch. We rarely need it but if we had a serious accident, we would be very grateful that we had it (we carry enough for both of us to be on it contiuously for a couple of weeks.) We also take our own syringes (not for recreational use). We also carry Diamox, since we spend spend several months in Tibet above 14,000 feet.