View Full Version : Bicycle Ultalite Camping
Bicycle Ultalite Camping
I would like to get some feedback from people who do camping with their bikes. My partner and I have been biking through Europe for 2 years now and have started to develop a philosophy on this. Biking in Europe requires some thoughts on weight and wind resistance. (try biking into a head wind on the North Sea Coast!)
We use no panniers at all, carry only minimal equipment and fast drying clothing to 'wash and wear'. Cooking is kept to a minimum using fire tablets in a tuna can and a 'Boy Scout' aluminum cook set. Sleeping bags are Yeti 'Pound' (560 grams), Vaude air mattress and nylon bags to hold it all with bungee cords. Can you lift your bike when it is fully loaded if you had to haul it on a train? What do you use? What do you like? What would you improve? What are you best and worst stories in camping/biking?
Your answers would help me a great deal in improving my own experiences.
I read somewhere, perhaps on another "Bike Touring Web-site", that this particular camper would lubricate his gears and chain every evening, while camping on the road with Vegetable Oil, so that the rats would come and lick all the parts perfectly clean. He claimed it worked like a charm, always had a clean drive chain every morning............I have not told that story to my wife for fear that she might refuse to bicycle camp with me anymore. I don't really like the idea of rats running around my tent at night either, to tell you the truth.
It does make a good "camp-fire story", eh?............byfred
Originally posted by byfred
I read somewhere, perhaps on another "Bike Touring Web-site", that this particular camper would lubricate his gears and chain every evening, while camping on the road with Vegetable Oil, so that the rats would come and lick all the parts perfectly clean. He claimed it worked like a charm, always had a clean drive chain every morning............I have not told that story to my wife for fear that she might refuse to bicycle camp with me anymore. I don't really like the idea of rats running around my tent at night either, to tell you the truth.
It does make a good "camp-fire story", eh?............byfred
RATS!
Guess you would have to park the bike a reasonable distance from your tent, then? I am not sure I would like to bring out the critters in the night, just to keep my chain clean.
Good "Camp" Story!
Thanks!
Originally posted by HeidelbergBarbi
I would like to get some feedback from people who do camping with their bikes. My partner and I have been biking through Europe for 2 years now and have started to develop a philosophy on this. Biking in Europe requires some thoughts on weight and wind resistance. (try biking into a head wind on the North Sea Coast!)
We use no panniers at all, carry only minimal equipment and fast drying clothing to 'wash and wear'. Cooking is kept to a minimum using fire tablets in a tuna can and a 'Boy Scout' aluminum cook set. Sleeping bags are Yeti 'Pound' (560 grams), Vaude air mattress and nylon bags to hold it all with bungee cords. Can you lift your bike when it is fully loaded if you had to haul it on a train? What do you use? What do you like? What would you improve? What are you best and worst stories in camping/biking?
Your answers would help me a great deal in improving my own experiences.
These are the things I like and use:
- Therm-a-Rest Prolite pad & webbing used by climbers instead of Air Mattress and Bungee cords...
Bungee cord stretch and let the load shift.
- If you can afford it, titanium cook wear is even lighter than aluminum.
- Topeak's Mc Giver tool is great for bicycle and camping needs.
- Lexan spoon & fork will cover your other eating and food preparation.
-Zip-ties, and zip-lock plastic bags help for many purposes.
- New technology LED light(s)... and maybe even one that has a headband can help for seeing around after dark.
- A foot or so of duct tape wrapped around a pencil comes in handy for temporary patches on clothing, sleeping bag, cut tire, etc.
- A spare piece of chain and a few spare SuperLinks can come in handy, if nothing else than a make-shift securing device.
- Some nylon line to tie your food away from animals (I don't know about rats, but it works for bears and racoons.)
- Moistened towlets in foil packets or in a zip-lock baggy for all kinds of clean-up requirements, and even some first aid.
- Stein Mini Cassette Lock tool, spare spoke(s), spare nipple (the chain tool that comes in Mc Giver should be checked to see if it works with your chain,,,.. . and if it doesn't make sure you have one that does)
- laminated copy of your medical insurance card and driver's license
- spare Presta to Schrader adapter
- waterproof matches
- Prepaid phone card to tell friends and family where you are, etc.
- Rema patch kit and a fresh tube of glue. (those alchohol wipes can be used to clean a tube, but the little sqares of sandpaper may work better)
When I hit the " Submit Reply" button I am sure I will think of things that are really interesting and not so boring.
Originally posted by daveornee
These are the things I like and use:
-Zip-ties, and zip-lock plastic bags help for many purposes.
- New technology LED light(s)... and maybe even one that has a headband can help for seeing around after dark.
- A foot or so of duct tape wrapped around a pencil comes in handy for temporary patches on clothing, sleeping bag, cut tire, etc.
One of my personal favorites is Ziplock bags. I recently purchased a red and a white LED light that has a rubber band to wrap around handle bars and rear rack. Really bright and can be used in jogging/walking too.
Duck Tape is for everything!
I heard someone tell me they once used grass to fix a flat temporarily. He stuffed it into his tire and it got him to the next repair site without damaging the rim.
I have been carrying a light weight airline blanket (the kind you get on transatlantic flights) for extra warmth.
I really believe in "ultralite". I recently had to carry my bike up and down a long flight of stairs over the Autobahn outside of Amsterdam.
Originally posted by HeidelbergBarbi
<SNIP>
I have been carrying a light weight airline blanket (the kind you get on transatlantic flights) for extra warmth.
I really believe in "ultralite". I recently had to carry my bike up and down a long flight of stairs over the Autobahn outside of Amsterdam.
I have used a silk sleeping bag liner to add sleeping options.
They work well by themselves for warm weather or in a Hostel.
Traveling "ultralite" gives you many options. I carried and pushed my "loaded" bicycle over pedestrian bridges, long stairs, through train stations, and back country trails for site-seeing, etc. Those carrying situations make me want to figure out how to better manage our loaded touring tandem. So far, my wife carries the bags and I carry the tandem.
Since I travel with camera gear, I always travel heavy. That said, since I don't have to ride to a schedule, I generally get to where I am going and get there about the time I want to. I use both front and back panniers and a camera case set over the front panniers. I carry the front panniers high to form the platform for the cameras. On the back, my sleeping bag (a light down from LL Bean) and my tent (a two man Walrus. I'm a big guy and don't fit comfortably into "one man" tents. I put up with the extra weight. Head over to www.ericruark.com where I have some of my photos up for view. All the "Civil War" locales were taken while on bike trips.
By the way... I've found that clothes rolled and stored in some kind of zip-lock plastic bag keep them dry in the worst weather.
Hey guys, I just finished a cross country tour this summer. www.ecl.udel.edu/~thompson/trip (http://www.ecl.udel.edu/~thompson/trip) if you want to check out my webpage. I really don't have much exept some pictures as I'm busy with work and school now, but I'll have more up eventually. Ok, I really did this all wrong by most standards. I had heavy cheap gear...I think my sleeping bag must weigh about 10 pounds...literally. All in all I think I was carrying around 40-50 pounds of gear, not including the weight of anywhere from 2-6 liters of water that I would have on me. To top it all off, I had absolutely no front panniers or handlebar bag, all of it was on the rear. I had a MSR cookset, but no stove (i used campfires...with varying degrees of sucsess) My partner was just as bad, his bike and gear weighed in at 85 pounds at one point (he was lugging around several heavy books we got for free at a library through colorado). Since this was my first bike trip, I really didn't know any better. However, all that gear isn't all that bad, I would have liked to have smaller lighter gear, but if you don't want to spend the cash or are on a budget, then heavy stuff isn't going to kill you. Camping is much more fun in my opinion, so even given the chance, 75% of the time I would pick a campsite over a motel room. So if your on a budget, or really like camping, don't worry about going ultra light. An yes, I could lift my bike and carry it...I wouldn't want to do it for more than a a 10 or 20 yards, but it was possible.
BTW, if you really are on a budget, we were able to go from Delaware to Santa-Barbara CA and only ended up paying for campsites 3-4 times. To top it off, the times we didn't pay were 90% legal, and the times when we might have been trespassing, we were gone before it was light, and there wasn't anyone around.
vBulletin, Copyright ©2000-2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by
vBSEO 3.3.0
