- Location
- London
The vango doesn't seem to have a preheat tube though. Does yours? Do you find this a problem?
New To Cycle Camping / Touring / Journeying - What do I need?
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For gas stoves without a preheat tube just take the canister into your sleeping bag with you for a few minutes before firing up for the morning brew on frosty mornings and it will be fine.
For sleeping I have found the Nemo Astro airbed to be very good - very compact and light, as well as comfortable, and the Vango Venom range of down sleeping bags are also a very good balance between warmth, bulk/weight, and cost.
For sleeping I have found the Nemo Astro airbed to be very good - very compact and light, as well as comfortable, and the Vango Venom range of down sleeping bags are also a very good balance between warmth, bulk/weight, and cost.
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
...is that a meths bottle in your sleeping bag or are you just pleased to see me?
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
I think a short practice run is a good thing. My first cycle-camping for some 30 years was to a camp organised by some YACF'ers. I took too much kit for a long weekend which included Trangia and Meths for example when all I take now is the pocket-stove and Esbits - enough to make a cuppa, heat water for Pasta, heat a whole can of beans etc as a bain-marie. Low weight and space. I took too many clothes too and now have figured what I need for riding and causal with a lot of cross-over clothing - I take virtually no cycle-specific clothing unless like Merino tops it can be used for both casual/cycling. I use walking shoes instead of spd's and flip-flops. Broad brimmed sun-hat.
Having other friendly campers around just gave me enough confidence to have a go and make mistakes!! The Brompton will fit in the Banshee with me and all my kit :-)
This is my Cooking kit now:
Big space and weight saving and can be used with Esbit, Meths and Wood. small and light enough to take on a day-ride too for a quick brew :-)
Vaseline helps when using wood on the pocket-stove to get everything lit and of course doubles as bike grease, lip balm, chafing-cream etc, so multipupose!
Actually, for me, planning what to take and trying ideas out is a big part of the fun of cycle-camping. I'm nowhere near light-weight yet, but with each trip I'm getting better at knowing what works and what doesn't and what are luxuries and what are essentials. One of my next purchases is the little alpkit folding table...a nice little luxury. One of my essentials is a small foam kneeling mat to help get out of the tent on dewy mornings and provide a dry patch to sit on.
It's a fun learning curve after 8 man family tents and siege camping! Tarps are my new thing having used this a few times last year:
Having other friendly campers around just gave me enough confidence to have a go and make mistakes!! The Brompton will fit in the Banshee with me and all my kit :-)
This is my Cooking kit now:
Big space and weight saving and can be used with Esbit, Meths and Wood. small and light enough to take on a day-ride too for a quick brew :-)
Vaseline helps when using wood on the pocket-stove to get everything lit and of course doubles as bike grease, lip balm, chafing-cream etc, so multipupose!
Actually, for me, planning what to take and trying ideas out is a big part of the fun of cycle-camping. I'm nowhere near light-weight yet, but with each trip I'm getting better at knowing what works and what doesn't and what are luxuries and what are essentials. One of my next purchases is the little alpkit folding table...a nice little luxury. One of my essentials is a small foam kneeling mat to help get out of the tent on dewy mornings and provide a dry patch to sit on.
It's a fun learning curve after 8 man family tents and siege camping! Tarps are my new thing having used this a few times last year:
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raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Yep, the Epigas has a preheat tube, I didn't realise they'd left it off on the Vango. I know the Coleman version didn't have it but thought the Vango did mind you I always went for the Propane/Butane 'mix' cylinders. I'll just have to hope mine soldiers on for a while longer.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
doughnut
Veteran
Does anyone have any comments about OPs security question? I'm planning on a Coast and Castles tour in the summer with my wife. We'll be staying in B+B each night, but planning on stopping at every castle we can to look around so need to lock things up for a few hours every so often.
skudupnorth
Cycling Skoda lover
- Location
- Astley,Manchester
Guilty as charged,just a pity I have not managed to get time off with good behaviour for another trip !
As most new tourers will proberly understand,i took too much stuff.........I could not even lift the bike ! I carried food,water ect which I could easily get along the way along with a camping gas stove AND spare canister. I also failed to eat and drink enough and on day four I was feeling it.
Next time I will definatley plan the loading and eat better..........if I am allowed out again unsupervised
jay clock
Massive member
- Location
- Hampshire UK
No, I was thinking of the product in this video, don't be put off by the long winded commentary, the product is good and when deflated is about the size of a pint beer glass .
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ovZQr8XujQ
I didn't mean to suggest you were scared of poor weather, but a good range of clothing enables you to endure poorer weather conditions for longer without discomfort..
+1 for the SYnmat. very comfy and massively better than Thermarest for my old body
andrew_s
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucester
1. Bike.
Your bike looks like a pair or rear panniers, a tent longways on top of the rack, and a handlebar bag for valuables to me. This is a fairly standard arrangement.
A camping tour without panniers generally involves quite a lot of careful accumulation of light and compact gear beforehand, along with short try-out trips. It generally end up either expensive or spartan, and spartan for a longer trip can be pretty miserable if the weather isn't kind.
2. Luggage.
There are welded construction panniers that don't leak, and stitched construction panniers that do leak. If you've got leaky panniers, anything that's damp sensitive (sleeping bag, clothes) should be in something waterproof. Drybags are best, but basic poly bags will do. The other main difference between various panniers is how solidly they attach to the rack. Good panniers will have something that goes underneath the top rail of the rack to stop the pannier jumping off when you hit a pothole, and a bit that goes behind a rack leg to stop the pannier swinging outwards at the bottom. Cheap panniers have plain hooks with elastic that goes though a ring and hooks on the bottom of the rack. This mostly keeps the pannier from swinging out or jumping off, but not always.
3. Accommodation
Cheap tents mostly work fine. Occasionally, you'll get strong wind that will destroy the tent (which is most vulnerable whilst you are putting it up), or at least stop you putting it up. In which case, it's spend the night in the campsite toilet block, spend it hiding behind a wall, or go and look for a nearby hotel. Based on my trips to Scotland, and seeing other people's tents blow down, a cheap tent (by which I mean something as basic as a festival dome) would be inadequate maybe one night in 50 or 60. Decent tents (£150 upwards) do a lot better.
Other than that, it's a matter of size, weight, cost, and preferences. If you get into your sleeping bag and stay fairly still, a small (and light) tent may be OK, but if you fidget and move about, you would probably want a bigger tent. Many people like a nominal 2-person tent for solo use. Also consider entrance location (end on, or side on) with regard to whether you want to cook from your sleeping bag or not, and porch space for keeping mostly packed panniers under shelter without blocking the entrance.
I'd suggest a Wild Country Zepyros
Things like tarps or bivvy bags have their place, but use by a novice isn't it (IMHO). You'd really want to spend quite a number of one-nighters trying things out before you took a longer trip (the point being that on a one-nighter, it's easy to bail out and go home if it goes wrong, even in the middle of the night).
4. Bag
Warmth for warmth, a down bag is lighter and packs smaller than a synthetic bag, often considerably so. They also last considerably longer before losing warmth (like 5x). For general use, I'd recommend a down bag that's rated at about 0°. Get a liner so that you don't have to wash the sleeping bag much, or at all. Silk is smaller. lighter, and more comfortable, and not all that expensive if you go eBay/Vietnamese.
These days, I keep my bag in a Sea to Summit eVent drybag, and will put it straight on the (front) rack if necessary.
Maybe an Alpkit Skyehigh 500?
5. Mat.
You need something.
Closed cell foam is warm, 100% reliable, but doesn't pad the ground much and can be bulky (I'd wrap the tent in it and put it longways on top of the rack)..
Self inflating mats are mostly 1" thick, which is OK for most people, and OK down to about 0°, or a bit colder if you get a heavier version without perforated foam inside.
Insulated air beds are typically 2.5 to 3" thick, warm, comfortable, and expensive.
Uninsulated air beds are similarly comfortable, but not warm enough for use outside summer.
All air mats are open to failures. As well as simple and easily fixable punctures, the structure of the mat may fail. With a self-inflating mat, the cover becomes un-bonded from the foam core, you get a bubble that grows easily, and into which all the air goes, allowing you to drop onto the floor. With an air bed, the baffles that form the tubes fail with similar results. In either case, the mat is fairly useless, and the only option is a warranty claim for a new one, which isn't much use for the current holiday. I use Thermarest, on the basis that that's what I started with after a couple of early cheapo failures (back in about 1985), and haven't personally had any unaccountable failures, and I don't see lots of forum reports of Thermarest failures.
Crackle's Klymit skeletal thing is strictly for people who sleep the whole night flat on their back - i.e. not me.
6. Dinner.
Do you anticipate cooking, or is it likely to be eating out with just hot water for tea/coffee or an emergency dehydrated meal?.
If the latter, a small billy (I use an MSR Ti kettle, 850 ml, as an indication) and a small and cheap canister top gas stove is all you need, along with a bit of stout foil (pie dish grade) for a wind screen.
Cutlery-wise, I like the Light My Fire Ti spork rather than the pronged spoon versions. For cutting, I use a swiss army knife.
If you want to cook proper meals, you've a choice of a Trangia meths stove (27, probably), or a billy set, concertina wind shield and a gas stove (I'd recommend a remote canister stove like the Alpkit Koro). Trangias are comparatively bulky, and a bit heavy, but there's nothing to go wrong, they are windproof, and they don't knock over so you can stir without needing the other hand to stop the pan getting knocked over. On the other hand, temperature control is somewhat fiddly.
It's worth while making up suitably sized pot cosies, which can save quite a lot of fuel (eg boil the water, add pasta/rice, bring back to the boil, then put the pan in the cosy until it's cooked, rather than a 10-20 minute simmer). The material is Thermawrap, available from the likes of B&Q in big rolls, much cheaper per quantity, but more expensive if you only want a bit.
I like the Orikaso fold-up plates and bowls. They take up no room in the bag.
7. Bike security
I just take a modest self-coiling cable & padlock, and put the cable round a convenient tree, fence post etc. The places I go touring aren't a hotbed of crime.
Maybe it would be different if I had more in the way of cultural interests and wanted to include things like Paris museums in my tours, but I don't.
My camping bike
Your bike looks like a pair or rear panniers, a tent longways on top of the rack, and a handlebar bag for valuables to me. This is a fairly standard arrangement.
A camping tour without panniers generally involves quite a lot of careful accumulation of light and compact gear beforehand, along with short try-out trips. It generally end up either expensive or spartan, and spartan for a longer trip can be pretty miserable if the weather isn't kind.
2. Luggage.
There are welded construction panniers that don't leak, and stitched construction panniers that do leak. If you've got leaky panniers, anything that's damp sensitive (sleeping bag, clothes) should be in something waterproof. Drybags are best, but basic poly bags will do. The other main difference between various panniers is how solidly they attach to the rack. Good panniers will have something that goes underneath the top rail of the rack to stop the pannier jumping off when you hit a pothole, and a bit that goes behind a rack leg to stop the pannier swinging outwards at the bottom. Cheap panniers have plain hooks with elastic that goes though a ring and hooks on the bottom of the rack. This mostly keeps the pannier from swinging out or jumping off, but not always.
3. Accommodation
Cheap tents mostly work fine. Occasionally, you'll get strong wind that will destroy the tent (which is most vulnerable whilst you are putting it up), or at least stop you putting it up. In which case, it's spend the night in the campsite toilet block, spend it hiding behind a wall, or go and look for a nearby hotel. Based on my trips to Scotland, and seeing other people's tents blow down, a cheap tent (by which I mean something as basic as a festival dome) would be inadequate maybe one night in 50 or 60. Decent tents (£150 upwards) do a lot better.
Other than that, it's a matter of size, weight, cost, and preferences. If you get into your sleeping bag and stay fairly still, a small (and light) tent may be OK, but if you fidget and move about, you would probably want a bigger tent. Many people like a nominal 2-person tent for solo use. Also consider entrance location (end on, or side on) with regard to whether you want to cook from your sleeping bag or not, and porch space for keeping mostly packed panniers under shelter without blocking the entrance.
I'd suggest a Wild Country Zepyros
Things like tarps or bivvy bags have their place, but use by a novice isn't it (IMHO). You'd really want to spend quite a number of one-nighters trying things out before you took a longer trip (the point being that on a one-nighter, it's easy to bail out and go home if it goes wrong, even in the middle of the night).
4. Bag
Warmth for warmth, a down bag is lighter and packs smaller than a synthetic bag, often considerably so. They also last considerably longer before losing warmth (like 5x). For general use, I'd recommend a down bag that's rated at about 0°. Get a liner so that you don't have to wash the sleeping bag much, or at all. Silk is smaller. lighter, and more comfortable, and not all that expensive if you go eBay/Vietnamese.
These days, I keep my bag in a Sea to Summit eVent drybag, and will put it straight on the (front) rack if necessary.
Maybe an Alpkit Skyehigh 500?
5. Mat.
You need something.
Closed cell foam is warm, 100% reliable, but doesn't pad the ground much and can be bulky (I'd wrap the tent in it and put it longways on top of the rack)..
Self inflating mats are mostly 1" thick, which is OK for most people, and OK down to about 0°, or a bit colder if you get a heavier version without perforated foam inside.
Insulated air beds are typically 2.5 to 3" thick, warm, comfortable, and expensive.
Uninsulated air beds are similarly comfortable, but not warm enough for use outside summer.
All air mats are open to failures. As well as simple and easily fixable punctures, the structure of the mat may fail. With a self-inflating mat, the cover becomes un-bonded from the foam core, you get a bubble that grows easily, and into which all the air goes, allowing you to drop onto the floor. With an air bed, the baffles that form the tubes fail with similar results. In either case, the mat is fairly useless, and the only option is a warranty claim for a new one, which isn't much use for the current holiday. I use Thermarest, on the basis that that's what I started with after a couple of early cheapo failures (back in about 1985), and haven't personally had any unaccountable failures, and I don't see lots of forum reports of Thermarest failures.
Crackle's Klymit skeletal thing is strictly for people who sleep the whole night flat on their back - i.e. not me.
6. Dinner.
Do you anticipate cooking, or is it likely to be eating out with just hot water for tea/coffee or an emergency dehydrated meal?.
If the latter, a small billy (I use an MSR Ti kettle, 850 ml, as an indication) and a small and cheap canister top gas stove is all you need, along with a bit of stout foil (pie dish grade) for a wind screen.
Cutlery-wise, I like the Light My Fire Ti spork rather than the pronged spoon versions. For cutting, I use a swiss army knife.
If you want to cook proper meals, you've a choice of a Trangia meths stove (27, probably), or a billy set, concertina wind shield and a gas stove (I'd recommend a remote canister stove like the Alpkit Koro). Trangias are comparatively bulky, and a bit heavy, but there's nothing to go wrong, they are windproof, and they don't knock over so you can stir without needing the other hand to stop the pan getting knocked over. On the other hand, temperature control is somewhat fiddly.
It's worth while making up suitably sized pot cosies, which can save quite a lot of fuel (eg boil the water, add pasta/rice, bring back to the boil, then put the pan in the cosy until it's cooked, rather than a 10-20 minute simmer). The material is Thermawrap, available from the likes of B&Q in big rolls, much cheaper per quantity, but more expensive if you only want a bit.
I like the Orikaso fold-up plates and bowls. They take up no room in the bag.
7. Bike security
I just take a modest self-coiling cable & padlock, and put the cable round a convenient tree, fence post etc. The places I go touring aren't a hotbed of crime.
Maybe it would be different if I had more in the way of cultural interests and wanted to include things like Paris museums in my tours, but I don't.
My camping bike
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Old style thermarests went on forever - however we switched to new Thermarest Evolites last season, and two out of two failed (delaminated) within the first three weeks of our tour. We had to send them home to get them replaced under warranty, and buy replacements on tour (we were away for three months). On researching I found loads of reports of the same failures.
robing
Über Member
I pretty much agree with Andrew S post above. A down bag is your best bet if you want something light, warm and packs down really well. I have a Thermarest Evolite large self-inflating mat. No problems so far but the post above has got me worried! I also carry a thin foam mat - strapped on to the back rack on top of the tent. Weighs virtually nothing, you can put it under your sleeping mat to protect it from sharp stones etc and it's also something useful to sit/lie on outside your tent. My current set up is 4 panniers - a pair of Altura Dryline 16lx2 at the back (don't let the name fool you, you still need to line them with rubble sacks to ensure contents stay dry)), a pair of Ortlieb City Rollers at the front and tent and roll mat on the back rack. Plus Topeak Compact Handlebar Bag.
I have a Vango Blade 100, only 3yo but no longer made I think. Weighs only 1.5kg, spacious, has a porch area. Only downside is quite upright so can be a little vulnerable in very high winds.
I have a Vango Blade 100, only 3yo but no longer made I think. Weighs only 1.5kg, spacious, has a porch area. Only downside is quite upright so can be a little vulnerable in very high winds.
- Location
- London
Surprised at that. I was wondering whether to go for some drylines in the future but that has rather put me off.
Ive used drylines for the past 20years - never been wet inside despite deluges (and the occasional ford) in pretty much every country in western Europe
Edit - I do use rubble sacks as well - but that is so i can bring the inside bags into the tent inner when it has been raining all day
Edit - I do use rubble sacks as well - but that is so i can bring the inside bags into the tent inner when it has been raining all day
