Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Specifically for cycle touring subjects & questions
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simonineaston
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Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by simonineaston »

* Waterproof panniers (after my last non-waterproof pair literally filled up with rain water on my way to Land’s End. How the stuff got in faster than it could run out, I have no idea...
* Plus one for string - very useful stuff!! Theres no end to the things you can do & fix with string.
* compact binoculars - I was surprised how often I use them. Didn’t think I would.
* Oh and a Kindle...
I get around the whole prepping, cooking, washing-up thing by cycle-touring almost exclusively in France (or used to... :shock: ) where good food is all around me. I think my records are: 3 croissants in one morning and 5 tartes aux fruits in one day, although of course as every self-respecting cyclist will know, the intake of food on any one day, is directly proportional to the number of miles covered. Its as simple as that.
I treated myself to a Leatherman Wave a couple of years ago and have never used it, inspite of it having, effectively, a neat little socket set on it... tell a lie! I have used the tiny eyeglass screwdriver a couple of times, but of course I could readily make alternative, much lighter & more compact, arrangements to cover that one. I remain anxious when crossing the UK / French borders with it tho'. Both UK & French customs seem oblivious to my various Opinels. Maybe I just look suitably harmless.
I think the lastest aquisition that's promising to be a Big Hit is a pair of eye-shades with a special construction, so that a plain-vanilla tinted blade sits in front of a pair of light, transparent-plastic-framed prescription varifocals. They felt a bit odd in the local opticians, when I tried them on and even out walking, they feel slightly strange, but for cycling, they're totally brill. I've gone back to having good distance, mid and close-up vision again - Thank God!! Not camping kit, per se, but I don't think I'll be cycle-touring without them now.
And one last embarressment - I sat down one day and made up a super-light first aid kit, with everything in it I could remember having needed in three decades of buggering about outdoors, and then a couple of weeks later, a chum tumbled down a bank, broke his wrist and where was my triangular bandage?? In the first aid kit, on my bench, at my house... that's where! :roll:
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
iandriver
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Joined: 10 Jun 2009, 2:09pm
Location: Cambridge.

Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by iandriver »

simonineaston wrote: a chum tumbled down a bank, broke his wrist and where was my triangular bandage?? In the first aid kit, on my bench, at my house... that's where! :roll:

An inner tube and a couple of cable ties make a fab emergency sling. Can save yourself the weight of a sling!
Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
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Gattonero
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Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Gattonero »

Cowsham wrote:Cable ties -- you can't go wrong bringing a few cable ties and of course a pair of side cutters to cut them again.


I just use my Victorinox knife, can't go wrong with it and it's most unlikely to get you in trouble (one does not make a +100 miles journey on a loaded bicycle just to stab people with a penknife, uh?).
By the way, I always leave a short 6mm ziptie at the bottom of my Carradice bag, in case the ones fixing the Bagman support will fail.
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
iandriver
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Joined: 10 Jun 2009, 2:09pm
Location: Cambridge.

Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by iandriver »

On the subject of zip ties, I now use the reusable ones. Absolutely brilliant. Used them to hold together a bottle cage until I could get to as shop in France and to hold a lamp bracket together for the rest of the tour in Italy.

I use them to hold some extra pipe lagging on the frame and generally securing things like the rear derailleur, which I undo from the bike, during flights and can use the same ones on the way home. They also serve as my emergency ones on the tour.
Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
NickWi
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Joined: 28 Apr 2011, 8:14pm

Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by NickWi »

If like me you tend to end up with bits stuck to your pans, one of these is the business:-
Image
https://gsioutdoors.com/compact-scraper.html

I've never tried any of their other stuff, but the above is really good.
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Morzedec
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Location: Cornwall/Deux-Sevres

Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Morzedec »

profpointy wrote:A piece of 1/4" plywood around A4 size to use as a chopping board. Round the corners off so it doesn't wear through your luggage. Doesn't weigh much and is much better than cutting your fingers or blunting your knife on something unsuitable. Surprisingly using a cardboard sheet (cornflakes box) as a chopping board blunts the knife. I also take a proper kitchen knife despite it being heavier than my Swiss Army knife. My kitchen knife originally had a cardboard and duck tape scabbard, but since got a nice leather one for it. I might skip the knife if weight was an issue and I didn't expect to cook that much, but would always take the board.

board.JPG


Chopping board: use a plastic Frisby, upside down. Doubles as a plate.

Happy days,
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Cowsham
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Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

NickWi wrote:If like me you tend to end up with bits stuck to your pans, one of these is the business:-
Image
https://gsioutdoors.com/compact-scraper.html

I've never tried any of their other stuff, but the above is really good.


Looks handy.
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Gattonero
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Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Gattonero »

I use a wooden spatula: great for making scrambled eggs and clean after. £1 from Wilko, can't go wrong with it! :wink:
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
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Cowsham
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Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

I take my porridge in small freezer bags one for each morning I'm away top of bag tied up in a knot so I just tear it open. Enough main meals for first couple of nights only cos one of the comforts I look forward to when touring is eating out or eating fast food ( healthy fast food) so I don't carry too much cooking gear. Obviously all that's out the window atm.
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KTHSullivan
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Location: Wind Swept Lincolnshire

Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by KTHSullivan »

Tent is useful. :lol:
Just remember, when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed. :lol:
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Cowsham
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Re: Handy stuff to have in your camping kit

Post by Cowsham »

Icelandic medieval sunstone

Explanation
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