Bike Gear- And the Price of a New Hobby
As mentioned before, we are newbies to his whole “bikepacking” thing. So naturally the amount of gear we already owned was next to nothing. Before getting into bike camping however, we had both been commuting to work when the weather was nice (to help out the planet and save on gym memberships – win win) so we already had a lot of simple bike tools like a pump, and tire levers. We even each had our own set of small panniers. What we didn’t have was anything camping related. So we set ourselves a $1000 budget and got to work trying to figure out what we would want having never done this before. We actually did a pretty good job of sticking to our budget for the big items, although as we started buying some of the littler things we were less diligent about tracking prices and as we’ve ridden more we’ve begun to make additional swaps, we’re sure it will remain a never ending expense.
Camping Gear
We knew the biggest challenge we would face would be space. Unlike most people who have one person’s things stored on one bike, we would be cramming 2 peoples’ things onto one bike – granted its a long bike, but in terms of conventional storage methods it’s basically only one bike. With space in mind, we began thinking about the bulkier items – sleeping bags and tents. As far as choosing our equipment it was a lot of guesswork. Being new to camping, we really had no idea what is useful and what isn’t. So we scoured all sorts of blogs looking for advice, and hoping we wouldn’t end up spending way too much money on gear that is useful yes, but not really necessary. Thus far we don’t have any buyers remorse – so that’s good at least!
Sleep
Based on our findings we decided the sleeping gear would be the most important in making our camping enjoyable. We knew we weren’t going to be doing any extreme weather trips, so that narrowed down the weather rating choices; we decided a sleeping bag rated for 30 degrees would work for us – if it was colder than that, we wouldn’t be riding, or we’d stay in a hotel or something anyway. We found the Mountain Hardware Lamina Spark on an REI outlet sale and they just seemed perfect. We were able to get a women’s and a men’s in the right heights, and we can even zip them together which was a huge plus! Next up sleeping pads. You more knowledge people probably know there are 3 main types of sleeping pads: self inflating, air, and foam. Based on our fear of running out of space, we decided we would need air pads. We spent an entire afternoon laying on every single air pad at our local REI. I think we talked to about 4 different employees asking their opinions. I already hate mattress shopping, while this wasn’t quite that bad…it was pretty darn close. I almost had one picked out, but then one employee mentioned it’s main con is the noise – and since Andrew already has trouble sleeping I didn’t want to do that to him. We eventually settled on the Big Agnes Q-Core SLX for both of us. We decided we could save 40 bucks each by just buying the small pad (both of us are around 5′-9″ which falls under the recommended long size, but based on a tip from a coworker – you don’t really need the pad to be longer that your calves). The small size actually works out pretty nice, because if we sleep on our stomach, our feet can hang comfortably off the edge! I will say I am pleased with the pads we chose – not sure if they would all be great, but I at least don’t have any regrets with the purchase!
The next big purchase was a tent. Based on our research we decided we would need/want a 3 season, 2+ person, freestanding tent (free standing so we can pitch it anywhere). We would want 2 doors (with 2 vestibules in the rain fly), and the ability to just put up the rain fly by itself. Some unnecessary pluses we looked for was a gear loft, and built in tent lights. Our plan was to hold out for a good sale, and when we saw the ALPS Mountaineering Zephyr 2 person tent on steep and cheap we decided to buy. I will say, we should have listened to the internet’s advice and bought a 3 person tent. It’s not that our tent is too small per se – it would just be nice if we could fit a little more in there when it’s rainy out, or just have a little more room to sit comfortably. Also we learned real fast not to store anything heavy in the gear loft (a light fell out and cut Angela’s lip on our first night camping).
After one night attempting to use rolled up jackets as pillows we immediately decided inflatable pillows were also must. We bought a couple from Trekology on Amazon. Nothing special, but much better than jackets.
Eat
Next up was the kitchen. The first piece that we settled on was our stove, we settled on the MSR Whisperlite International which has a pretty hefty “new” price tag so we waited and waited and grabbed one used on Craigslist for a good deal. This is a liquid fuel stove which means it has a reusable fuel bottle, a manual pump pressurizer, and a relatively bulky stove. This was a tough choice since our small packing volume meant we should look at the butane style stoves which use a canister of compressed gas. They are lighter and smaller and easier to use, but we weren’t willing to compromise our eco-cred and go for disposable canisters.
After getting the stove settled we picked out the Sea to Summit Alpha 2.1 cook set. This came with a pot & lid, 2 cups, and 2 slightly off size bowls (the bigger one is for Angela since she works harder on the back of the bike). As is apparently the norm for sets like these, the cups have gradations for measuring… we only noticed this after we were on our first trip. The set has a good size pot with a surprisingly sturdy and comfortable handle and served us pretty well on the trail. The set doesn’t come with any flat-ware which is probably okay since the stuff that comes in other cook sets are universally scorned as floppy, crappy, and bad. We picked up some Light My Fire Fork-Spoons on clearance at Target. These are also typically reviewed poorly and prone to breaking but we couldn’t pass up $3.50 for a pair. They have held up well enough for the first trip and we will just have to see how they handle repeated use.
For prepping food we decided to take a pretty simple approach and picked up a cheap-o cutting board from a grocery store to go with our not cheap Leatherman Wingman multi-tool. The cutting board only has one side that stays flat and stable so that was a fun learning experience, but the Wingman performs admirably. It has a good length knife for chopping up veggies and an easy to use can opener, plus probably the smoothest multi-tool scissors we’ve seen for opening stubborn food packaging. We also bought a set of small food grade containers to hold our oil, spices, and salt. The big winner here was the squirt top oil bottle. It didn’t have any noticeable leaks in the bag unlike the soap bottle we brought.
The last pieces of the camp kitchen were stolen out of our home kitchen. We snagged a bamboo spoon for stirring and serving, a couple dishrags for napkins and washing, a ratty tupperware in case we needed to transport food scraps or leftovers, and an old measuring cup that we cut the handle down from for better packing. As mentioned above, this measuring cup’s sacrifice was in vain since our drinking cups double as measuring cups. Woe is you measuring cup, we honor you in death as in life.
Play - aka Bike
Several months before our first bike packing trip (Katy Trail 2019) we had decided it would be a good idea to do a test packing. And I’m glad we did. Our panniers were way too small. Technically we could fit the bare necessities of what we would need, but it left no flexibility, very little room for food, and a much lighter amount of clothes than we would have liked. All in all we opted to buy some bigger panniers. Lucky for us, we found a store that was going out of business so we were able to get some 35L Ortliebs on sale (and bonus, they matched one of our smaller sets we already owned!).
We also decided some smaller bags would help us keep some of our stuff more organized, and give easier access to import things like tools. Due to the geometry of the tandem, we had a lot of trouble finding a personal bag for the stoker seat, the first several bags we purchased would either hit Angela in the knee as she pedaled, or weren’t accessible unless Andrew got off the bike. Eventually we did find a no-name bag that got the job done, although we are still on the hunt for an additional bag that would be easier access while riding. Our friend at TOTM fitted out our stoker bag with a blue-tooth speaker and battery pack so that’s pretty sweet!
One of our favorite pieces of gear is our hydration bladder. We actually stumbled across it at a church garage sale! It’s a 5L bag with a nozzle at the end, so we just keep it a the back of the bike, and can easily refill our water bottles throughout the day or for cooking at the campsite. It definitely takes a lot of pressure off knowing that we don’t have to hunt for water as often as if we only had the two water bottles each. Our best guess is that it is an older model of the Source DuraBag 5L.
Relax
Our first bike trip didn’t quite give us enough leisure time, so maybe we’ll find that we want more, but for the Katy all we really had for entertainment was our phones, kindles, and a deck of cards, which was plenty. For battery we had an external battery pack and a solar panel. Our TOTM blue tooth speaker has extra battery capacity, and it can also be used to charge devices. Since we stayed at a hotel halfway through our Katy ride we didn’t even come close to having an issue in regards to battery life.
One item we’re undecided on as to whether we should bring again is our hammock. We thought it would be nice to have that additional seat, but we didn’t even think about pulling it out on our Katy ride since both camp sites had picnic tables so maybe we’ll go without it on the next couple just to see if its missed – because it is kinda bulky.
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