Equipment - The Good, the Bad and the Unlovely

Introduction

I've taken three bikepacking trips with the current set-up, having made all sorts of modifications to what was originally my mountain bike, transforming it into my touring bike. I've acquired a variety of bits and pieces of kit to support my trips or to simply make them more enjoyable.

So, what's working well? What has not worked well or just not worked? What am I intending to change?

The Good

We'll start with The Good, the items that I'm pleased or even delighted with.

Ortlieb Panniers and Rack-Pack

It's perhaps no surprise that I'm pleased with my Ortlieb panniers. They're incredibly popular and I don't believe I've ever read a bad word about them. They're tough, easy to quickly mount and unmount and they're most definitely waterproof.

The Rack-Pack is probably less well known though. This is a relatively large bag, made from the same tough PVC material as the panniers and in the same roll-top dry bag design. It sits across a pair of panniers and clips onto them and is perfect for carrying longer items like a tent. Mine carries my tent, ground sheet, Thermarest sleeping mat, Alpkit sleeping bag, inflatable pillow, peg mallet and more. In short it carries my camping equipment and various other small bits and pieces I choose to throw in there. I don't know what I'd do without it to be honest.

Two Ortlieb panniers and across the top, the Rack-Pack

The panniers clip onto a Tortec Epic Alloy Rear rack which I'm very happy with too. It's absolutely solid.

Since my first couple of trips I've made one improvement to my luggage system. As mentioned, the Rack-Pack clips to the panniers under it. You can tighten by pulling on straps. But I felt there was scope for either end to move forwards or backwards and so had thrown a bungee cord around the bag, clipping it to my bike's frame to help stabilise the bag. But I had still found that one side or the other sometimes moved forwards, probably pulled by the bungee cord. So to balance the forwards pull of the bungee cord, I added some Sea to Summit Accessory Straps to anchor the bag in the other direction. There's nothing special about these straps and you could probably improvise something just as good for less money, but they do the job. I used the straps for the first time on my last trip and the Rack-Pack did not move.

Rack-Pack anchored with bungee and two accessory straps

MSR Hubba Hubba NX Tent

I love this tent. It's a two-person tent and therefore arguably bigger than I need for my solo bikepacking trips. But I wanted a tent that had room for my luggage and which I could stretch out in and be comfortable. The Hubba Hubba is perfect in this respect and only weighs 1.6Kg. It's also really easy to put up and can free-stand without being pegged out if you want.   

The MSR Hubba Hubba tent

Alpkit Pipedream 200 Sleeping Bag

The Alpkit Pipedream 200 is a down sleeping bag for summer. When packed in its integral bag, it's really small (15cm x 12cm), weighs little (575g) and I can throw it into the Rack-Pack and it take up almost no space. When I first used the Alpkit, I wasn't happy with it. I had a cold first night, not exactly something to generate rave reviews of a sleeping bag. The product description states that the bag will be comfortable to sleep in as long as the temperature is 7˚C or more but I'm not convinced it performs as specified. It's probably more like 9˚C.

But I've used it twice since that initial experience, the first time on a very windy autumn night and the second during a couple of cool summer nights. On the first of these occasions I used a silk liner and slept in a thermal vest and tights and was very warm all night. The extra nightwear and the silk liner add hardly any weight to my load and take up little room so they're worth packing just in case. On the two summer nights, during the season for which the bag is designed I didn't have to wear any additional thermal clothing and was very comfortable. So as long as you use it in the season it's intended for and stay a degree or two above the stated minimum, it works very well and the low weight and highly compact packing make it ideal for summer bikepacking.

Nuke Proof Sam Hill Enduro Pedals

Of all the changes I've made to the bike itself, this is my favourite. These are amazing pedals and provide a comfortably large surface area to place your feet on with incredible grip, thanks to the 10 pins on each side.

The Sam Hill Enduro Pedals are great!

Latrigg Bum Bag from Tuffbag

I was originally using a small Lowe Alpine bum bag for easy access to a few essential items or items I wanted to make sure were with me at all times, including when I stepped off the bike for a while such as to go into a shop. But the original bag was a little too small and I had concerns it might not be completely waterproof (it was pretty old). 

Thinking ahead to the day when I might be able to take a longer trip, maybe to Europe for example, and the need to keep documents like my passport safe and dry, I decided to replace the old bumbag with a Latrigg Bum Bag instead. This is an excellent piece of kit. I initially felt it was larger than I would have ideally liked and had concerns it might be uncomfortable. But both concerns were misplaced because it's so comfortable, you completely forget that it's there and the extra capacity means I can now get rid of the useless non-waterproof waterproof frame bag that I hate. I have 100% confidence that the dry bag style design of the Tuffbag is completely waterproof and in fact in its one outing so far, it survived torrential rain without letting in so much as a drop. This was an excellent purchase.

Aikove 30000mAh Power Bank

Purists would argue that electronic gadgets are not essential. And they'd be right. But many of them are really, really useful, convenient or enjoyable to have with you on a long trip. I have various that use rechargeable batteries.

• Smartphone
• GPS sports watch
• Kindle
• Front bike light
• Rear bike light
• Laptop (actually a Chromebook)

Of the devices on this list, all can be charged over USB except for the Chromebook. The battery in the Kindle lasts for weeks usually but the bike lights last for about 6 hours during normal continuous use and the GPS watch needs charging pretty much every day. 

Given an expectation that on long, multi-day trips I might have access to electricity no more than say once a week, I bought myself an Aikove 30000mAh power bank which also has solar panels which allow it to be recharged (very slowly) using sunlight. I've used it about 4 times now and all I can say is that it works. I'm not sure how many times I  can recharge my phone from it yet but estimate that at least 5 full recharges are probably possible, which is really good.

Anyway, the Aikove power bank makes the Good List.

Entertainment and Information

Rest and relaxation is an essential ingredient in bikepacking! After a hard day of cycling or six days in a row without rest, lying down and chilling out with some music, a good book or a movie is something I can't do without. Yes, this means more things to carry and more weight but on balance I feel my choices have been worth it. 

Information too is also an essential ingredient. Planning, research and yet more planning are daily activities.

So what do I carry?

1. Acer Chromebook   

My Chromebook is relatively light and the battery lasts around 8 hours, depending on what I'm doing. Arguably I could use my smartphone for everything and leave the computer at home but some things are still hard to do on a smartphone and a larger screen with real keyboard and mouse are what you need. At least that's my view. I use the Chromebook mostly for web access including my use of Google apps, for researching accommodation and planning routes using Plotaroute and I use it for watching movies that I copy in advance onto an SD card. I hang it from the roof of the tent as well so I can lie back, relax and watch with the screen at exactly the right height. It's awesome.

2. Smartphone

This probably should have been first on the list because it's the go to device for almost everything. I use it for in-ride navigation using the Organic Maps app, research, messaging, listening to music and taking photos and video. Right now I'm using a Oneplus 8 Pro which has an excellent battery life, only needing to be charged once every couple of days.

3. Kindle Paperwhite

My Kindle is loaded up with books of many sorts. Funnily enough, it doesn't seem to get any heavier with more books loaded either!

4. 1MORE Quad Driver In-Ear Earphones

I listen to music when relaxing but never when cycling. It's a great way to unwind or to block out unwanted noise. My phone carries an enormous amount of music and I use a pair of wired 1MORE Quad Driver In-Ear Earphones. I selected these earphones after extensive research and I'm really pleased with my choice. The quality is excellent. But why wired? Isn't wireless better? Well, in some ways it is, yes. But wireless devices need charging and there are only so many devices I can keep charged, so wired was the way I went.

5. Sea to Summit Aeros Premium Pillow

A pillow? Really? Yes! You need as good a night's sleep as you can get and sleeping in a tent is not renowned for providing the best sleep experience! I've tried improvising pillows by filling the bag my sleeping mat goes in with clothes or using one of my panniers but I'm never comfortable so I researched inflatable pillows and settled upon the Sea to Summit Aeros Premium. It's excellent. I've used it once so far but it made an enormous difference to my comfort. And it packs down very small too. Result.

The Just Not Good Enough

Schwalbe G-One Allround RaceGuard Folding Road Tyres

I'm surprised to find myself including these tyres in the not good enough category and yet here they are. I'd researched and read reviews and they seemed to tick all the boxes. Most of all, I wanted a fast rolling MTB tyre that would work well on the road and handle dry trails and which were reasonably puncture resistant. And they certainly generated a lot less friction than the original Specialized MTB tyres that the bike came with.

But consider these facts; I've ridden well over 11,000 miles on my road bike and in all that time and all those miles I've only had about 4 punctures. A pretty good record. And yet I've been on only three bikepacking trips on the tourer which is equipped with these tyres and I got a puncture on two them, the first in the front tyre and the second in the rear. Not a good record. Maybe I was just unlucky. And we must not forget that the tourer is carrying a lot of weight, weight that bears down on sharp objects with far more force than the lighter road bike will generate. But still. Fair or not, I've lost confidence in these tyres and intend to find something better.

The "Waterproof" frame bag

I've already moaned about this piece of junk. For some reason I persevered with it. But the last trip marked the end of the road as it once again proved itself to be worse than useless in the wet. I need to see my phone at least occasionally for navigation and this thing lets in water and the supposedly transparent sleeve the phone sits in.... stops being transparent. Absolute rubbish.

Spa Cycles Aire Titanium Leather Saddle

A comfy saddle is so important! Once again, I'd researched. Read reviews. Weighed up the pros and cons and.... decided a leather saddle was the way to go. A Brooks saddle looked very appealing and they have a great reputation but they seemed so heavy I decided to avoid a sprung saddle and instead went with the Aire Titanium from Spa Cycles. 

I've sat on the thing over a good few hundreds of miles now. I've lovingly massaged leather care products into it. And it's broken in. I remember the ride where I definitely noticed that it had changed shape, fitting perfectly to my posterior. But you know what? It's still not exactly comfortable. It's OK, by no means bad. But I was expecting to be impressed and to be telling all my friends how amazingly comfortable the saddle was on long rides. But.... it's been a bit of a damp squib. Ah well. 

Ch ch ch ch ... Changes!

So, there are winners and there are losers. What changes, if any am I making?

New Tyres and Armour Inserts

I've ordered new tyres. I went with Continental Ride Tour tyres which I'm hoping will fare better than the Schwalbe tyres. And to make my tyres as resistant to punctures as possible, I'm also going to try Tannus Armour inserts. These are a radical step for me but I've read good things about them. I've also read they're difficult to fit. I'll let you know how I get on with them.

I almost decided to try the Tannus Airless tyres which are most definitely puncture proof. But regardless of what Tannus claim, I still had concerns about grip and.... they're not exactly cheap. Maybe I'l revisit this decision one day but for now I'm pinning my hope on the Continentals and the Tannus Armour.

Smartphone handlebar mounted drybag

My frame bag sucks and the surprisingly comfortable Tuffbag bum bag has given me more carrying capacity. So the frame bag is being ditched and for my phone to be visible and usable for navigation, I've bought a handlebar mounted drybag style holder. I've not tested it out yet but will report back when I've had it out in the rain.

Bikepacking - Fox Wood in the South Downs National Park

 Introduction

 It's 2021. It's another year of Covid and Britain is still operating within a framework of some restrictions. But the vaccination programme is well advanced and summer, or the British version of that season is upon us. So it's time to load up the touring bike and get out there.

This weekend (July 2nd - 4th) I did something I've not often done this year. I left the house. A combination of lockdown restrictions, personal circumstances and personal choices had meant that I had even been doing the greater majority of my cycling indoors this year, using the turbo trainer I'm now very glad I own. But whilst the turbo trainer has kept me reasonably fit, it's no substitute for riding in the countryside. So I did some online research and managed to find a campsite that wasn't fully booked (Brits are mostly taking their holidays in Britain this year), booked a couple of nights and on Friday 2nd July, set off on my trusty touring bike, heading south for the South Downs National Park and Fox Wood, which is about 3 miles from the coast.

Friday 2nd July 2021

I set off at 7:30, aiming to be in the town of Arundel which is about 4 miles from my final destination by 12pm so I could have lunch and buy some provisions before arriving at Fox Wood by 1pm.

Within 10 minutes I hit my first problem! The first hill is only about a quarter of a mile from my house. It's short but fairly steep and nicknamed by a friend "heart attack hill". I went to drop into the low gears, shifting to the smaller of the front chain rings and..... <click>.... nothing. My bike refused to change down into the lower set of gears. So I had to push hard up the hill in the lowest of the higher set. Great start!

I pulled over at the top onto the grass and quickly deduced it was nothing serious. The limiting screws  on the front derailleur needed adjusting, no more than that. Strange though because I'd had the bike mounted on my maintenance stand last week, washed, lubed and checked everything including gear changes and it was fine! Gremlins in my garage? Probably.

The easiest to access tool I had with me was my new Swiss Army Knife. A few tweaks of the appropriate screw and some testing and I was back in action, with fully functioning gears.

It was very damp and misty at this hour and I wondered what the weather was going to be like. It's summer but this is Britain so there's no telling what you'll experience!

A misty start to the day

My route south was designed to avoid the busy A27 as much as possible and so was not the most direct. Instead I stuck to country lanes, passing through small villages every now and again.

A picturesque church on the imaginatively named Church Lane in Newdigate 

It's important to drink plenty and to eat all the right things on a long ride with a heavy bike and load. Taking this seriously, as I always do, I tried a new in-ride food with great success it has to be said!

Reese Peanut Butter Cups - All the pro cyclists will be eating them now

To aid navigation, I use the excellent offline mapping and navigation smartphone app, Organic Maps. You never need to worry about having no signal. As long as you've downloaded the required maps for wherever you're intending to go in advance, it works completely offline. I'm a bit obsessed with saving the battery on my phone though.... it's an essential tool after all. So, in the app, I select "Allow Screen to Sleep" in the battery settings so that the screen is only on for short periods, no more than 30 seconds the way I have my phone configured. See my post on the topic of Navigation for more details. But even that's not enough. The day before, I summarise my planned route in a set of succinct, hand-written instructions and I consult this information periodically as I ride, only looking at the app if I need to check I'm still on route or to clarify an ambiguous situation. It's low tech but it works and I arrived at my destination 6 hours later with a battery at 90%.

Low-tech but effective navigation

One of the best things about any of the bikepacking trips I've done so far is just enjoying the scenery. It's not like riding my road bike where I'm concerned with average speed and personal records and all the rest of the Strava data points! You can't go fast because the bike's just too heavy, so you relax into it, drift along at whatever speed feels comfortable and.... enjoy. And the countryside on this ride south was at times delightful.

An English country lane

Just entered the South Downs National Park - Hills ahead!

The River Arun near Amberley

Selfie!

The town of Arundel is only about four miles from Fox Wood. It's noted for it's castle. Yes, it has a castle!

Arundel Castle

The main attraction for me though was the Co-op grocery store! I bought lunch (a sandwich, some chocolate and a drink) and some provisions for the remainder of the day and tomorrow's breakfast and sat by the bank of the Arun for a rest and to eat.

Rested and refuelled, I continued on my journey. The last part of the ride unfortunately involved the A27, which simply could not be avoided. It's a dual-carriageway with a maximum speed of 70mph and quite a lot of traffic. Shudder. Luckily the first mile had a cycle path that was physically separated from the road and most of the remainder had a hard shoulder I could use. Still, not exactly pleasant it has to be said. But.... I made it to Fox Wood Camping in one piece.

The camp site is basically an area of private, deciduous woodland, with a toilet block and not much else (which is good). It was very well organised, with Covid safety measures well implemented. I was met by a very nice lady who explained the Covid rules to me and then explained that they'd taken note of my request for a "quiet spot" when I booked and had reserved a pitch for me in the remotest corner of the site. Excellent. 

So, I headed over to the far corner of the site and set up camp.

The excellent MSR tent being put up

Tent ready!

Clothes airing on improvised washing line

Home for the next two nights

And that was day 1. I settled in, relaxing to the sound of birds singing in the trees (and unfortunately the background hum of the A27), read my book, listened to music and ate my body weight in biscuits. Those calories I burned weren't going to replace themselves by magic, were they?

And talking of calories, for dinner I had raspberry jam and red salmon sandwiches. When I messaged my wife and told her she said "That sounds revolting"! But it wasn't. It was delicious and if you Google you'll find lots of recipes that involve salmon and raspberry. Give it a try!

In the evening, I watched The Godfather on my Chromebook and in a stroke of genius, made the viewing experience much more comfortable, lying prone in my tent by suspending the Chromebook from a handy loop. Brilliant!

Just like business class travel!

So that was Friday.

Strava stats for Friday 2nd July

Saturday 3rd July 2021

Saturday was always intended to be a day of rest and recovery. Lots of lying down. Lots of eating. Lots of relaxing. But I did leave the tent, honestly! I had a wander in the woods looking for the birds I could hear. Not easy as the trees were tall and most of the birds seemed to be hanging out high up above the ground. But I saw lots of little wrens, quite a few blackbirds and woodpigeons. 

Relaxing outside the tent

And I also got on my bike and cycled a couple of miles to the village of Angmering for fish and chips for lunch and to buy provisions for the evening and tomorrow's breakfast.

Yum

Most of the afternoon was spent barely moving, relaxing and occasionally having a sneaky nap in my tent! Lovely :-)

A room with a view

But the highlight of the day, much as the fish and chips were good was watching England beat Ukraine 4 goals to nil in the Euro 2020 football (soccer for my American friends) championship! With my phone suspended from the ceiling of my tent, earphones plugged in, a good enough 4G signal and the BBC iPlayer app, I was able to watch the whole game in comfort! I only hope my cheering didn't bother the one neighbouring tent, about 30 metres away!

And that was Saturday. Here are the cycling stats:

Sunday 4th July

On Sunday I was up with the lark. Well, maybe not the lark (although it might have been) but certainly with the wrens and blackbirds. I woke at 4:30 to quite a dawn chorus of bird song. I felt rested and decided to get cracking, packed everything away and made an early start on my journey home. I had a breakfast of raspberry jam sandwiches and an apple and then set off.

As I left Fox Wood it was drizzling. I had my waterproof jacket on, fully expecting heavier rain and it wasn't cold so no complaints here. My first task was to get to onto the south side of the A27 so I could head west back to Arundel and nicer roads. This unfortunately required a roundabout route, south into the village of Angmering and then looping back north up to the A27. I joined the A27 and was relieved to find that this section had a cycle lane. There were already lots of lorries and cars and it was now absolutely pouring down.

And then it happened. Only three miles into my ride, I was hit by a rear wheel puncture. By the A27. In the pouring rain. Curses. Punctures happen but the circumstances and the fact it was a rear wheel puncture made this particularly tiresome. But there's nothing to be done but deal with the problem. I tried pumping up the tyre but this was no slow puncture. So that meant taking the Ortlieb Rackpack off the back of my bike, removing the rear wheel and inner tube and setting to work. I looked to the cause of the puncture but couldn't see anything obvious. I then noticed when looked like a small bump of something stuck to the inside of the tyre. I scratched at it with my nail, expecting it to be a patch of grease or dirt that would come off. But no. I looked at that point on the outside of the tyre. Nothing. I squeezed the tyre in and there it was! A small fragment of glass had buried itself in the tyre and not quite gone all the way through but had created enough of an abrasive point on the inside to puncture the inner tube. It's very lucky I persevered because if I hadn't found it, that piece of glass would have punctured my replacement inner tube. And I only had one with me that day!

Luckily the tool kit I carry includes a pair of pliers and this allowed me to extract the piece of glass. I replaced the inner tube, got the wheel back on (with difficulty!), pumped up the tyre (about two hundred strokes needed!) and was on my way again, hoping and praying I wouldn't get another puncture (mental note to take two spare tubes next trip).

The weather improved as I hit the highest point of the South Downs but the sky was still dark and threatening in the distance.

High on the South Downs with a lot more potential rain in the clouds!

I took a different route home, one I've cycled on my road bike many, many times. It includes the Surrey Hills and in particular, Leith Hill (the highest point in Surrey) and Box Hill, famous amongst local cyclists and made more famous by being part of the 2021 Olympics road race route. And there's lots of lovely countryside on the route too.

A very nice Surrey country home

The Surrey countryside

I don't think the phone works any more!

And that was that. I arrived home safely after a very enjoyable couple of days. Here are the stats for the ride home: