Camping equipment

[Bricycle]

Has anyone any suggestions for a lightweight sleeping mat for cycle touring? Also which is best, lightweight tent or bivi bag?
Brian

[gar]

You just have to have light weight for both and if you are camping out of summer the shiny cooking foil is very useful for keeping warm, underneath the sleeping mat.

I got a single bivvy bag about £180 but it really is too small to move around in wet weather, when you just have to lie there and think! Get a double and then you don't have to worry about your gear being robbed outside while you are half a centimetre away, and it keeps totally dry.

The sleeping mat is a bout 800g and is a very easy blow indeed, and rolls down into nothing
in the morning. The air is in there to keep you off the ground and hard rocks.

The double bivvy bag weighs and costs some more but I think it would be a wise sarifice... and anyway in fine weather you might want to take somebody with you for a night or two.

Hope that is a starter for talks

G

[mel]

1)Saunders Jetpacker Plus. 1.8 kg
2)Thermarest Lite ¾ length self inflating airmat. 0.6 kg
3)Snugpak Kestral Sleeping bag. 0.75 kg (2 Season)

Use Horticultural fleece to uprate the sleeping bag if required.

[gav]

Another piece of weather protection equipment to consider is a bothy bag. I realise that you wouldn’t normally sleep in a bothy bag but they are great for sheltering from the wind and rain.

www.terra-nova.co.uk/terra/bothy.shtml

The above link gives an example. They are of course intended for 2 or more people and there can be a bit of a kerfuffle when using a larger bag with a big group.

[Stuart]

Lightweight tent is better as you can sit up inside protected from rain and insects.

[gar]

Mel's list includes the double bivvy bag at 1.8kg I s'pose.

I found that the 4 seasons sleeping bag was essential for any time before June.

It should be stressed that you do not need a waterproof sleping bag as well as a bivvy bag.
Waterproof is merely nearer to you than the bivvy which provides a larger pocket of air between you and the elements.
The extra weight makes it undesirable for me.

If you have got a waterproof sleeping bag you do not need bivvy bag.

[Bricycle]

Thanks everyone I'm sure I'll find these answers a great help.
Brian

[Andy Tallis]

Just to say I laso used a jetpacker (though the standard size as it was only me) for a 3 month tour to North Cape and back last spring. A poles are definitely a good idea. It was the perfaect size for me and luggage (front & rear panniers and barbag) and a very light (1.5kg) and usefully small (slips into front pannier vertically) package.
I could just about sit up (am 6') in it at the apex. It's not sapcious though.

For sleeping on I had a very thin foam mat with a foil covering. Not much padding but flexible enough to fold the edges in so it would fit in a pannier. Thermarests allow you to do that though and they're probably a lot better.

[bikepacker]

Bricycle
Like most things in life when taking advice look what others do, not what they say.
On CTC camping tours and at any camping event the most common tent is the Hilleberg. Why? Because it is far and away the best. Most cycle campers use a Thermarest mattress. Again it is the best.
Also they use a down sleeping bag. You know the answer to why.

Myself I spend 70+ nights a year in a tent. So do many other CTC members who are also Fell Club members. Go along to one of their meets and ask questions. www.fellclub.org.uk

If you want to ask me anything off forum, you can email me on bikepacker@by-bike.co.uk

[gar]

I spend 70+ nights a year in a tent.

Somebody knows what he is talking about; generally the only exaggeration is about distances round here!!

[Tim]

mel, you are dead right, that's what i use and it works. new idea about garden fleece, though. must try that

[mel]

I like the Saunders Jetpacker+, it's a conventional ridge design, it's light, never let me down, I can pitch it in the dark, I'm 6'4"/15 stone and I have plenty of room to move around and sit up, Best of all it's made in the UK!!!.

[PW]

Phoenix Phlighter, Buffalo pertex/fibre pile bag & Thermarest. A good tent is well worth its cost & weight if you're out for more than a couple of nights.
Fell Club's up the road in Coal Aston? I'm in N Chesterfield.

[bikepacker]

gar, I have spent over 70 nights a year camping for the last 3 years. In fact if I attend the either of the FC December meets it will be 78 this year.
I thought the only bragging on this forum was about computer skills (or lack of). Some seem to act in the manner of 5 year old child, (please Miss look what I've done)when the find out what a button on a keyboard can do.

mel. Sorry to dissapoint you but the Jetpacker has not been made in the UK for sometime. Neither has most of the Saunders range.

PW. Kerks is still the official camp site and is holding a December meet, details on the website, although some changes are a foot with regard to Club Officers.

There is also a December Lake District meet.

[mel]

bikepacker,

I've just e-mailed Robet Saunders to ask him if what you say is correct, I now await his reply.