First up is lighting - yes there are a million choices in lighting from very cheap light sets to very expensive ones. The lighting that I will mention here is not the lights you keep on your bike but a light that you can use at the campsite for setting up a tent or cooking in the dark. If you are interested in bicycle lighting check our review page for info about the American brand light & Motion , its well worth the money. But for around the campsite I use a basic Black Diamond headlamp - its not their most expensive model in fact its near the bottom of their range but the 35 lumen Gizmo head lamp is very small and the dim mode is perfect for setting up a tent and on full power you can easily cook in the dark. If you do not already have a small headlamp this is something you should keep in your bag at all times.
Once I started bikepacking and reading online posts about what kind of gear to carry on overnight trips I soon found out that everybody had a different idea. There is no correct list of kit for bikepacking as that really depends on the places you go, how much you want to spend on purchasing items and the style of riding you do. It has taken me the best part of a year and a half to come up with a complete list of kit that works well for me, at first some of the items I purchased were not suitable and I had to replace them , either they did not work well or were just too bulky to carry etc. In this post I will outline my favorite 3 items that I always carry and why I never leave home without them. First up is lighting - yes there are a million choices in lighting from very cheap light sets to very expensive ones. The lighting that I will mention here is not the lights you keep on your bike but a light that you can use at the campsite for setting up a tent or cooking in the dark. If you are interested in bicycle lighting check our review page for info about the American brand light & Motion , its well worth the money. But for around the campsite I use a basic Black Diamond headlamp - its not their most expensive model in fact its near the bottom of their range but the 35 lumen Gizmo head lamp is very small and the dim mode is perfect for setting up a tent and on full power you can easily cook in the dark. If you do not already have a small headlamp this is something you should keep in your bag at all times. Down Jackets - great for keeping you warm in the evening or on an early morning ride, like lighting the selection is endless and usually quite expensive. The great thing about a down jacket is that it packs down really small which is perfect for stashing in your saddle bag, then on arriving at camp you can put it on and stay warm. On my last trip when the weather turned bad I was able to sleep in it , so I was certainly glad to have it. In the places that bikepackers travel the weather can change rapidly so you really need to keep warm . My jacket was in fact very cheap only about US $ 50 from the Japanese brand Uniqlo , I had my doubts that a jacket this cheap would work well but its great value for money and now accompanies me on all my adventures. Merino wool - yes that fantastic product that mostly comes from my home country of New Zealand. Wool was once super itchy and most people who were active in sports did not wear it, but all that has changed over the last few year with many companies now offering super fine merino wool sports wear. Why is it better than lycra you ask ?, for one thing wool is a natural breathable material that does not retain that lovely sweaty smell and you can wear it in warm weather and it works great in cold weather keeping you nice and warm. I have just come back from a 2 day bikepacking trip were there was a sudden change in the weather and because I had on my merino wool top I was able to stay nice and warm and dry. I managed to find a fantastic long sleeve merino cycle top online from the UK brand On One that are currently selling there old stock cheap. While it is not made by any major brand it works well and like the above jacket is great value for money. So there you have it - the 3 items that I always take with me bikepacking. This post just goes to prove that you do not have to spend a fortune on such items and there are cheaper options like the above 3 items that work equally as well as the more expensive brands.
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In our day to day lives it has become very easy to sit at home and study new routes on Google maps and plan our next bikepacking adventure, but not all adventures go according to plan . The following is what happened on my recent well planned 2 day bikepacking trip. I had a course that I wanted to do, some of it I had ridden before but I really wanted to explore the newly discovered Shibata Nunbu road that Brian had done recently ridden. He did warn me that it was a mission and rather steep. Which is no problem as over the years we have often tackled some pretty challenging routes and always managed to finish them somehow. I left home in plenty of time to get to my favorite campsite at Takadani Shinden park were I was going to camp overnight. The Shibata Nunbu road was amazing, but certainly not a short cut over the mountain down to Akadani, but the downhill was fantastic with amazing views of the Kaji river in the valley below. This road is currently closed to cars with a locked gate at each end - no problem for a bicycle though. I reached the camp site at the early hour of 2,30pm and had visions of relaxing by my tent with a cold beer & a book after taking a hot shower. But upon entering the campsite main office my dreams of relaxing by my tent with a cold beer were not to be , the reason Wild Pigs !, yes that's right the entire campsite was off limits to tents because of the nightly wanderings of the wild pig community as they come down from the tops in search of food. If I only I had a rifle I would have stayed and scored myself some wild pork . My only other option was a 5000 yen per night log cabin and being of Scottish decent I chose the best plan / cheapest which was the nearest campsite located in the mountains of Mikawa a good 2 hours away but mostly downhill. To make the day even more interesting it started raining and by the time I stopped off in the village of Mikawa to buy supplies I had put on all my wet weather gear and then turned on my lights for the final push up to the campsite before the closed the office at 5pm. I was exhausted by time I arrived at 4.30pm in the hard rain but they took pity on a wet cyclist and let me stay for free and I found a great dry spot under their main log house building to pitch my tent and cook dinner. After a hot shower I felt pretty good and glad to be under cover as that night it rain really hard with a strong wind. I awoke the next morning to a brilliant sunny day and clear sky and after breakfast & hot coffee I was soon all packed up for the final day of the ride. The last day included a tough climb/ walk over route 17 towards the city of Murumatsu and from there I made my way across the plains back towards Niigata City. The hardest part of the entire trip was the wide open plain & battling a strong head wind all the way back into the city. But after back at Cafe Velo at 12.30pm to a fantastic lunch and some Scottish craft beer was a great reward - So as you can see my well planned trip did not go quite as planned but it certainly was an Adventure By Bike
The Rouge Roubaix is a 100-plus mile mostly-gravel grinder inspired, as its name suggests, by the great Paris-Roubaix road race. The similarities between the two events are few, for Paris- Roubaix is mostly flat and the route paved (even if it is with cobblestones in sections), whereas the Rouge Roubaix has more in common with the typical gravel grinder, as the video shows. I imagine the lycra-clad roadies (was one myself until I "saw the light", as Don puts it) in the video would have gladly exchanged their flat- and mechanical-prone machines for a sturdier Mtn. or cross-bike, at least on some of the rougher segments. And of interest to me is seeing countryside I used to cycle in Louisiana. What wouldn't I give for a sandwich at the Magnolia Cafe in St. Francisville, the start and finish of the event? Last year I carried with me on bike packing trips my 20 year old Fairydown Alpine 2 man tent, while this tent is by no means worn out , it is heavy and I do not require such a large space for one person. So last year I discovered a nice lightweight backpacking tent that looked to be perfect for bike packing. The entire tent with poles is only 1.1kg and if you are only looking for a sleeping shelter that is waterproof this tent should be on your list. If you want to sit up and read you should look for something else as the head room is not so large as its really only designed for sleeping in, but you can easily fit a bag and a pair of shoes under the tent fly next to the door . It sets up very easily with 3 hoops and the fly connects with some adjustable clips. I am going to purchase an additional set of 4 light weight tent pegs which will keep the fly tighter in case of heavy rain. Today was the first time I set it up and was glad to be able to check it out before a 2 day bike packing trip next week. Later on once I have spent the night in it I will write a full review on it, but in the meantime here is some photos of it . Check out the promotional video for the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, the world's longest mountain bike race. If you're planning to ride the divide, not much prep time remains; the Grand Depart is June 13. |
AuthorHi Everybody Archives
June 2016
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