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Gear and luggage review

Jon Hume
41 min readSep 4, 2018

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LEJOG Bumpy Edition, part 1

Sennen Cove the night before the off

Intro

From the 17th to the 27th of July this year I cycled from Lands End in Cornwall to Standedge, near Marsden on the northern edge of the Peak District national park. It is the first part of a planned attempt to ride 1,800 or so miles, from Lands End to John O’Groats with a twist [1]. The twist being that the trip’s fairly indirect and aims to use large amounts of off-road trails.

This post is about the gear that I took and the luggage that I used to carry it. What worked for me, what didn’t and what got left behind.

There are previous posts on the why and the very wet muddy training ride that I did here, as well as one on how the bike, an Ibis Hakka MX, got on this ride here.

I’ll do a subsequent post on the route, sustenance, recovery etc. shortly.

Table of Contents

Hike-a-bike in the Quantocks — steep and with baby heads

Terrain

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve encountered everything from smooth tarmac to loose gravel, to mud, to cobblestones, to grass, to mossy moors, gnarly bedrock based ascents and butt clenching descents.

Frequently, this has been accompanied by a large side helping of stinging, sharp and spiny vegetation. The biggest pain of which has been Brambles — literally.

Weather

Misty rain on the morning of the first day, a thunderous downpour and strong winds in the middle of last day.

For the rest of the trip during the day it was dry, usually mid to low twenties (Centigrade) when it was cloudy in the morning, and high twenties, low thirties very hot for UK when the sun came out.

At night, temperatures would be teens to mid-twenties.

Winds, except for the last day, were usually light and generally from the South, or South West (as is usual in the UK).

Jessica takes a rest against a bridge

What I took for the Bike

My bike is a tweaked 2018 Ibis Hakka MX Rival build called Jessica. Full details on Jessica are over here.

For the bike, I packed items with the goals of being able to:

  1. Fix 99.9% of the trailside problems such that I could at least limp onto the next stop without imperilling either the Jessica, others or myself in doing so.
  2. Perform the necessary routine daily and weekly maintenance tasks to keep Jessica happy and reliable.

Rolling gear spares

  • 2x Inner tubes

I’ve previously only taken one inner tube. But, having picked up punctures in both tyres that I almost failed to seal during the “The Distance” event, it made me realise that a) Needing to tube both was far more likely than I had previously appreciated, and b), if you couldn’t, you could be right up the creek. Lesson learnt!

Didn’t take: I didn’t bother with a spare tyre:

  1. As yet, I have never yet been unable to patch up a tyre well enough to at least get me home.
  2. I’m not in a race, I’m in the UK and generally the more pleasant parts of it. So in a worst case scenario, some form of civilisation is always going to be walkable, then waiting a day or so, to get a new tyre delivered shouldn’t be the end of the world.

So far, I’ve been lucky and not needed any of this kit.

Brake spares

  • 2 x SRAM organic brake pads

I used both set of pads after the first three days to cure a problem that I was having with brake squeal. Squealing brakes and tracks with horses on them do not mix well.

Drive chain spares

  • Replacement gear hanger
  • Spare gear cable
  • 5 cm piece of extra chain

Cover the eventuality of twisting a section of chain.

  • 2 x Quick links

Fix snapped chain or patch in new section

  • 50 ml Muc Off Dry Chain Lube

I lubed the chained liberally at the end of each day (one of the advantages of dry lube is that excess flakes off). The lube worked well in the dry conditions, but I’d used all of it by the end of two weeks.

Tweak:

  • Carry the same quantity again but expect to have to restock once in either Kielder, Hawick or Glasgow.
  • Freehub tool; I didn’t take a freehub tool because a) I couldn’t find a lightweight solution, and b) The one time I’ve seen a freehub fail it was because, according to the unlucky owner, the hub was a bit shit and it had a known design flaw. I may look at this again though, especially if I can come up with a sub 100g solution.

Other than the chain lube, I didn’t end up using any of the rest of this kit (thankfully).

Miscellaneous

I wanted a lock to:

  1. Provide reasonable deterrence against opportunistic bike thieves while unattended and unattended for up to an hour in safe locations.
  2. Prevent casual ride or carry offs, kids messing about with the bike while picking up supplies, camping etc.
  3. Give me a bit of extra assurance if I had to leave the bike locked up in a pub garden, cellar or shed overnight.
  4. Not weigh as much as a boat anchor to achieve it (most U-locks are over 1 kg)

After a fair amount of research, my choices came down to this lock and the Hiplock Z combo that I normally use for coffee stops and comfort breaks during local day rides. The Hiplock’s massively lighter (70g), but I went with the Fischer despite this as:

  • It is long enough (1.2m) to lock to immovable objects.
  • The chunkier size and alarm provides a bit of extra visual and audible deterrence (it’s not ear-bleedingly loud and can be muffled by wrapping a hand around it)
  • If I can hear it, then it can alert me to problems that it hasn’t deterred.

Given the lack of reviews, I was a bit apprehensive about the reliability of the electronics and possible false alarms. However, in practice while some care is needed to avoid false alarms when operating the lock, it has come through both this trip and the previous mudtastic Ridgeway adventure working reliably.

Tempting as the Hiplock’s reduced weight is, I’m probably going to stick with the Fischer lock. Having that little bit of extra security seems worth the additional weight.

Brilliant; aside for the lights that they were originally intended for, I’ve previously used these to secure bar and stem bags to the fork tops. This time I found myself needing to use them to hold my Blackburn cages securely to the forks. Very handy things, I just wish I could find a more economical way of purchasing them (or something similar).

  • A handful of assorted cable ties
  • Several 6" velcro strip fasteners
  • Several metres of electrical insulation tape wrapped around the pump

I used some of the electrical tape when I ended up having to re-wrap the handlebars because the bar tape started to move around in the first week.

  • Several feet of duct tape, again wrapped around the pump.

The duct tape came in handy to add a bit of extra paint protection to the frame where I noticed the luggage was rubbing. If it had rained, I probably would have used the remainder to patch the ripped holes in the fork dry bags.

Fettling the bike with the aid of an isotonic pint — Vittoria toolcase, Fix-it sticks, pump, lock etc evident on the table. Note Brightside Topside light being used as a running light mounted on outside of handlebar

Toolkit

Good quality, lightweight and with a chain joining hitch. No need for the Allen key as already present on Fix-it stick.

I don’t like its screw on valve chuck (it tends to take a valve core out on removal) and it’s a bit heavy. However, the pump itself is good to use and provides enough air that it can usually reseat a UST tubeless tyres at a push, so the extra weight is more than offset by not having to carry CO² cartridges for that function.

Big fan of these. With just the bits I need for the bike it is both lighter, gives better access and is faster to use than conventional multi-tools.

The lightest multi-tool I could find that had a set of pliers, tweezers, nail scissors and the essential bottle opener.

Like these. Their bright colour makes them easy to find when dropped and the length combined with the lip and stepped back at the business end makes obtaining good leverage easier.

  • Generic plastic valve core tool
  • Schraeder to Presta adapter

Enables using garage forecourt airlines for seating recalcitrant tubeless tyres.

  • Handkerchief sized piece of rag

Something always needs a bit of a wipe.

Navigation systems from days gone by

Electricals and Electronics

Navigation, Ride Recording, Camera and Communications

  • Garmin 820 Explorer in bright yellow protective jacket mounted on a Garmin out front mount

What I used it for: I used a Garmin 820 Explorer):

  1. As my primary means of on-bike navigation.
  2. To record my ride details, including heart rate information.
  3. For broadcasting live tracking information via Garmin LiveTrack and the iPhone to friends and family.

For navigation, with a bit of practice, it’s relatively straightforward to download my routes from RideWithGPS onto the device. I’ve written up how to do it here. Once on, following the track is simple in almost all circumstances.

Ditto ride recording; start the ride, stop the ride, automatically uploads wirelessly, job done.

The LiveTrack function, on the other hand, did give me considerable grief.

When LiveTracking worked, it was brilliant. My family and friends could see my (slow) progress and that I was okay. However, too often it would claim to be working but wasn’t; I would get messages telling me it looked like I was still in bed (and I wasn’t (honest!!!)).

On the penultimate riding day, I could not get it to work at all. Eventually, (and out of despair) I found that unpairing the 820 on the phone, reinstalling Garmin Connect from scratch and rebooting both the 820 and phone, eventually seemed to get things working reliably.

Battery life for such a small device, and given all that I was doing with it, was I think impressive. I didn’t use its low-power mode but instead had the screen on with illumination off (for many off-road situations, screen off, low-power algorithms cannot reliably determine when navigation information will be needed ). Set up like this I got six hours plus of continuous use before I had to plug the power bank battery in to complete the ride.

LiveTrack per se had no noticeable impact on mobile data usage that I could detect, but I do think it had a more pronounced effect on iPhone battery life. Not enough to mean the phone needed charging during the ride, but maybe it would be 10% to 20% lower from a full charge than if LiveTrack had not been on all day.

The central (and currently unavoidable) downside with the device is that it uses a capacitive touchscreen. Like all devices with these (iPhone included), it does not reliably detect touch events when it has water on the screen, e.g. when it’s raining. However, on the flip-side, when dry it is easier to use and more intuitive than the button based alternatives.

Physically, the device is small and black, so I like to keep it in a bright yellow jacket. Not because it is not waterproof or robust enough to withstand drops (empirically it has been many times). But, instead, because my previous Edge 800, which was similarly small and black, was last seen bouncing out of a cheap mount, along the road and into an overgrown ditch. Where to my knowledge, it still languishes, because I couldn’t see it to find it.

  • iPhone 7 Plus with Quadlock case and out front handlebar mount

What I used it for: Alongside all of its other wondrous capabilities, I made extensive use of my iPhone Plus for its twin lens camera and its navigation capabilities.

For navigation, I specifically used it:

  • To access the RideWithGPS website for on the road route changes and downloads.

Which, while not ideal, turns out to be just about doable with a plus-sized phone and a stylus.

  • To use the Strava segment explorer to check new route options.
  • Use the Garmin Connect app to download routes over Bluetooth onto the Garmin 820 Explorer and its LiveTrack functionality.
  • For access to Google Maps and its bale out, get me to a destination asap, and I don’t care about riding on sh*tty roads, type routing.
  • To use the Ordnance Survey Explorer 1:25,000 leisure maps in the OS Maps app to resolve cases where the 820’s OpenStreetMap based mapping was insufficient.
  • Backup navigation (RideWithGPS) and ride recording (Strava) device in case the Garmin unit got lost or failed.

Battery usage: I used the iPhone in low power mode during the ride unless it was one of the few occasions where I did not want the screen going to sleep quite so quickly.

From full, when used in this low power mode, the phone battery life was enough to get me through an eight hour plus day and leave me with between 20% to 30% charge remaining. NB: the iPhone 7 Plus has a longer run time than the regular iPhone 7.

Weather proofing: The great thing about iPhones from 7 onwards is that they are waterproof enough not to need a separate cover. However, waterproofing is not the whole story when riding, as when wet:

  1. It (like every other (capacitive) touch-based device) doesn’t respond accurately to touch events.
  2. The fingerprint reader ceases to work reliably.

Tweak: Neither was much of a problem with this ride and its dryness, but the fingerprint reader issue can be incredibly annoying when it is wet. Ideally, I’d like to try an iPhone X if it wasn’t for the current eye-watering price.

For mounting the phone, I have used for several years (and highly recommend) the Quadlock system. It’s expensive for pieces of plastic, but given what it’s carrying:

  1. It is simple to attach and remove the phone with its case from bike mount (important when the phone is also your camera).
  2. Unlike some of the other options I’ve tried, mine has never randomly ejected the phone into the undergrowth at the least opportune moment.

This nifty little device gives far more pointing accuracy in the iPhone interface than is possible with either conventional styli or fingers. I find the extra control very helpful when working with the non-mobile optimised websites, such as the RideWithGPS and its route planning pages.

The Keys To Go is a lightweight (184g) keyboard that works well with the iPhone and enables touch typing. I took it because before I started, I had the idea that I would do a full write up/blog entry at the end of each day (ha ha).

Unsurprisingly, it turned out that after eight-plus hours of riding, then setting up camp, fettling the bike, getting myself and my clothes washed, I didn’t have the time or desire to do much more than eat and put a few photos and a couple of paragraphs up on the Strava.

The keyboard went unused. I carried it for three days to Exford in Somerset before arranging for the extra bulk to be posted home.

This combination works well with the iPhone for shooting zoomed, selfie and timer based photos, and as a stand for typing and watching videos on the phone.

Unfortunately, I can’t have had it strapped down quite as thoroughly as I thought, and I lost it on day one in Cornwall. Rest of trip without it, replacement in place for next leg of the journey.

Lights

It was summer time, so it was easily light enough to ride without lights until after 20:00 and I had no plans to ride any distance in the dark. So for riding and camping illumination, I took:

  • Cateye 250 Lumen Nanoshot front light

I would not want to rely on these to ride any distance out of town, or for off-road usage. However, they are good enough for around town, short trips to the pub elsewhere and it is lightweight.

Good run time in flashing mode and bright enough to give a cyclist a fighting chance of surviving if forced to use a dual carriageway A road at night.

I use this in flashing mode mounted on the RHS handlebar as daylight running lights and backup night-time illumination. It is lightweight (70g) and in flashing mode it has an excellent 18 hour run time. Having it out wide reminds car drivers of my width and (I hope) encourages them to pass a little more considerately.

Camp illumination and as backup front and rear bike lights.

Aside from using the Topside light and the Viper, things went according to plan, and I only used the lights couple of time to cycle back from the pub.

Power

  • 2x 10,000 mAh Powerbanks

Given how dependent I am on electronics for navigation I took along two power banks, just in case of malfunction. One’s an Anker PowerCore device, the other a RAVPower unit. Of the two, I prefer the RAVPower unit as it has two USB ports, is both relatively light and waterproof. Annoyingly, it is also no longer available

It’s about twice the weight of a standard Apple UK charger (88g vs 42g) but can charge two devices quickly. Being able to charge two devices is vital to avoid charging dilemmas brought about by power banks blocking outputs for hours while they are topped up.

Tweak: For the next stage, I’ll probably forego the convenience of only having to find a single socket and will instead take two smaller chargers to reduce the impact of equipment failure or loss.

  • 1m micro-usb cable and micro-usb to lightning cable adapter to connect from the Topeak Fuel bag to Garmin 820 or iPhone when on the move

Tweak; Right angled micro usb connector.

It’s worth noting the charging port for the Garmin 820 (and, I would imagine, many other navigation devices) is on its bottom. I found that with a straight style charging cable in place, my bar bag interfered with the connection until the mount was non-ideally angled upwards to increase clearance. A better (and since adopted) solution is to use a cable that has a right-angled head.

  • USB to multi-head power charging adapter cable for overnight charging
  • Shaver to UK 3 pin adapters

Many places, e.g. campsites, garages etc., provide access to shaver sockets in their washrooms where it is possible to grab a quick top up charge while performing ablutions or reading the web.

Thoughts on power capacity: Of the electrical and electronic devices I had with me, those I used every day and thus needed daily charging were the:

  1. iPhone 7 Plus which has a 2,900 mAh battery.
  2. Garmin 820 with a 600 mAh battery.
  3. Topside light which has maybe a 1,000 mAh battery (conservative estimate based purely on its size).

With this setup, based on pessimistic assumptions of 70% charging efficiency and all batteries being empty before charging, then I should theoretically be able to charge my essentials (20,000 x 0.7)/(2,900 + 600 + 1,000), or at least three times before exhausting the power banks.

Before the trip, given the importance of keeping the phone and 820 charged; I’d considered dynamos, augmenting with a solar charger (strap it on the tail bag during the day) or additional batteries. It turned out though, that I was never off-grid long enough to see if my setup would give the theoretical three night’s worth of charging. However, it easily kept my electricals charged for a couple of days with plenty left in the power banks. Given I am not planning to be off-grid for more than two consecutive nights, I think this setup seems more than adequate for the rest of the trip.

Wobbly tent, last night at Standedge, left hand side and head end of tent

Shelter and sleep system

For sleeping arrangements, the aim has been to:

  1. Work in stops with friends and family where I could.
  2. Stop at campsites, hotels and inns that looked nice and were convenient to the route, i.e. not too far off and a reasonable amount of riding.
  3. Carry some form of emergency, just in case, shelter

For the camping shelter side of this scheme I took a:

  1. MSR 2017 FreeLite 1 person tent for normal situations
  2. Terra Nova Moonlight sleeping bag to cover emergencies.

While for a sleep system I used a Thermo-rest xtra light air mat and their pillowcase with a Sea to Summit Traveller Tri sleeping bag/quilt.

  • MSR FreeLite 1 person tent

I initially decided on the MSR FreeLite 1 because of its value, lightness (~1.4 kg with bag and footprint), its reasonable size vestibule area, ease of pitching and its space, particularly the ability for me to sit upright in it.

It is an asymmetric tent design with a higher head and lower foot end and a definite right way to sleep. On the right-hand side of the tent, there is an entry vestibule.

Pros:

  • Lightweight ~ 1.4 kg with footprint
  • Good/reasonable value.
  • Size.
  • With the footprint, can be pitched outer first.
  • With the footprint and no, or low, wind conditions can be used freestanding (it’s flimsy and it doesn’t obtain it’s correct shape at the foot end, but at a push it’s usuable)

Cons:

  • The collapsed sections of the poles are too long to fit in either the handlebar or frame bags.

FWIW, I’m riding a large frame 58" frame and the Blackburn frame bag is a good fit; I would imagine that most people will struggle to get them in a frame bag).

  • At 185 cm (6'1") sleeping in the tent the wrong way around was inconvenient and uncomfortable.

Access and closure were cumbersome, I couldn’t sit up from a sleeping position without having to shuffle forward, and my face tended to end up coming into contact with the inner tent during the night.

The entrance is on the psychologically “wrong” side of the tent for side-sleeping on the recommended left-hand side.

I know it’s silly to worry about in a tent, but my inner caveman felt uncomfortable at not facing potential Sabre Tooth Tigers etc. unzipping the tent and coming through the entrance (yes, very very silly).

  • It seems to be inherently vulnerable to collapse in gusty, changeable wind conditions.

The design functions like that of a single long, head to foot-end, hooped ridge pole, with each side then hanging from a short cross piece suspended near the hoop’s middle (adds usable width at head height).

The primary problem with this design is that the structural rigidity of the tent is wholly dependent upon achieving the balanced downward restraint of a cross piece, and the long flexible ridge hoop from which it is hanging, such that there is near zero movements in all of it.

Compounding this already unstable arrangement is a blunt left-hand side that both makes balancing the restraint more difficult and catches the wind like a sail. Putting this together with the structural rigidity, and we have a tent that I have so far been unable to achieve a pitch that does not flap badly/collapse in anything other than a light breeze or ideal tent/wind orientation.

  • It’s virtually impossible to simultaneously achieve a correct wind alignment and level lateral with raised head end arrangement on a sloping pitch.
  • You cannot ever pitch with your vestibule, cooking area sheltered downwind.

Tweaks: While all of the above is true, it is not so awful that I am actively seeking to replace the tent (and I may well be missing something because others with more experience do not seem to have problems with the design)(either that or other tents are the same or worse). However, if I did replace it, then I would be more likely to consider an inherently more stable, laterally hooped design such as the Terra Nova Laser Competition 1 tent or similar.

I got this to cover the contingencies where I’m sleeping outside and can’t, or do not want to, pitch the tent. The bag weighs in at a 237g, I’ve not used it in anger yet, and I know it’s a bit of a squeeze to get in, but given its weight and the speed with which the weather can change in the hills, I will be continuing to carry it.

  • Thermarest xtra light air mat

The mat is excellent and works well. Only tweak I’m making is the addition of the (Thermarest NeoAir Pump Sack — not having to spend five minutes blowing up the mattress seems like a worthy enhancement and pump sack also double duties as a decent sized dry sack — win!

Some folks advocate using a dry bag; however, this weighs in at a feathery 30g, and for someone who prefers a minimal pillow, the size works, and the sleeping surface on it is far more comfortable.

Given I was travelling in a hot English summer, I found this with its 14 ⁰C comfort rating worked pretty well.

When the evenings were in the mid to high twenties, being able to open it out kept things comfortable. While if it wasn’t quite warm enough, sticking a base layer on, or wearing the down jacket sorted things out.

Tweak: For part two of the trip in Scotland in September (probably), I will be taking a warmer bag.

Unfortunately I couldn’t always manage to start the day with one these bad boys

Sustenance

Goals:

  1. Utilise local resources, e.g. pubs, restaurants, cafes, shops.
  2. Enough water for half a days riding in a hot English summer.
  3. Lots of snacks for a day’s worth of riding.
  4. An emergency water solution.
  5. One emergency main meal.
  6. Tea and coffee, so that I could always have a hit of caffeine in the morning or evening.
  7. Minimise weight.

Hydration

On the bike, I relied on plain old Adam’s Ale. For this I took a:

  • 1.5L 10+ year old Camelbak reservoir, then new 1.5L Camelbak Crux of same capacity about halfway through.

I started out with an old Camelbak that I’d had for many years. It was difficult to open and close but I thought it was watertight. It was replaced with a new Crux from Leisure Lakes in Cheltenham after showing no signs of leakage when it was left inverted in a sink overnight as a test, but then managing to leak all over a bed whilst I packed in the morning.

I had the reservoir mounted inside my frame bag with the pipe coming out of the side zip. Set up like this it was long enough to enable sipping without having to contort my body reach it. When not in use I tucked it around the Garmin mount.

Pros versus bottles:

  • More efficient use of space.
  • Weighs less.
  • Freed up cage mounts
  • Encourages more effective little and often drinking.

Cons:

  • Less convenient to fill and clean — particularly if asking strangers to do it for you at a cafes, pubs etc.
  • The pipe and mouthpiece need to be secured so that they don’t drop down and get stuck between the fork and the front wheel (empirically, this makes things taste more than a bit yucky).
  • It’s not as obvious how much water is remaining.

Tweak: I far prefer this arrangement to bottles and will be using it again for the second part of this trip. I will, however, be increasing the carrying capacity to give myself a little more emergency leeway.

Even with an extremely hot summer, enough natural water supplies

This system filters out bacteria and parasites. I carried it as a contingency to enable me to safely use untreated water from supplies where human viral contamination is unlikely. I used mine when I was running low on water in the Peak District as a straw to drink from a stream. It was some of the sweetest water I have ever tasted, and, more importantly, there were zero ill effects afterwards.

Pros:

  • In the UK pretty much any moving water course, particularly away from settlements, as well as animal water troughs are potentially usable water sources.
  • Lightweight ~ 60 g
  • Works

Cons:

  • The supplied 16oz (450 ml) pouch does not stay open when immersed to enable filling to anything like its nominal capacity. This makes the pouch a poor solution for use with low, or no pressure, natural water supplies.

Tweaks:

As the Sawyer filter is effectively only useful in straw mode at the moment, for the next stage of the journey, I’m either going to take an MSR Trailshot or obtain (and test) a larger pouch.

Carrying water forms a significant part of the load on the bike. Having a system such as this that enables the amount to be reduced while maintaining safety margins and is a great help. I now regard this as an essential piece of kit.

I had these for use with emergency water supplies where there was a risk of human viral contamination. Supplies such as canals, lakes where people might have been swimming and water courses downstream from human settlement.

If at this point you’re wondering; there’s no need to worry about animal viruses, as they tend to be highly species specific.

Tweaks: I never needed to use these. I’m not sure I can imagine a case where it’d ever be necessary for the UK. So I will the save the 40 g in the next stage of the journey.

Thoughts on water carrying capacity and planning

With water; it is always a balance between taking enough, fitting it on the bike, weight and the availability of local resources. The plan was to use local commercial resources for primary resupply and refreshment.

From experience:

  • I know I like to take a stop every couple of hours or so (earlier feels like I’ve not really got going).
  • In the dry, I usually average about 15km/h for this type of off-road riding. (if the weather’s been poor and the route is muddy, then, if I’m lucky, 10km/h).
  • A 1.5 L pack is enough to cover my needs for somewhere between two and four hours (temperature and humidity dependent).
  • Away from larger conurbations, what opportunities to resupply are thin on the ground, frequently off-route and do not always have convenient opening times.

Collectively, in the midst of the hottest English summer on record this meant I was looking to resupply every two hours or so.

Before most days of the ride I worked this out as follows:

  1. Every 30km (~2hrs) or so, along the route, use Google maps to search for locations (and opening times) to top up the water reservoir, snacks, and maybe also have a drink and something to eat.
  2. Try to pick one that minimized route disruption and, if the terrain between it and the previous stop looked particularly:
  • Vertiginous, or hard work in other ways; try really hard to avoid going over distance and prefer earlier stops.
  • Benign; allow the search distance to go out to around 40km between stops if it is convenient.

The scheme largely worked and I got away with the couple of ad. hoc. days. I only really had a problem with water supply when:

  1. On the hottest day of the ride in the Cotswold’s I skipped a refill point because I could not find anything convenient to the route. I would have been okay, but then the pub I planning to stop at was shut. Ultimately, I was thirsty for less than an hour as there was another pub that was open not that far away.
  2. I was in the Peak District, and there was a pleasant stream to hand, and I felt it was prudent to augment my supply as I was down to maybe the last 200 ml.

Tweak:

  • RideWithGPS provides a time estimate in its Basic subscription for the entire route which is based on a rider’s history and, with caveats, is in my experience accurate enough to be a reasonable guide in the dry. Unfortunately it doesn’t give the estimates for arbitrary points on the route. However, it turns out to be easy enough to break the route at the point of interest, check and undo as maybe a more accurate workaround to my approximation technique.
  • It wouldn’t have fitted with the Outpost frame bag, but ideally, I would have liked to have carried a bit more water, probably a 2l pack. With the new custom frame bag, it shouldn’t be a problem, as the bag will hold up to a 3l hydration pack.

Cooking and eating

I’ve been impressed with this. Even without a wind guard, it chucks out enough heat to boil water for a brew in a few minutes.

The 750 ml pot nicely fitted the gas canister, stove and lighter with a J cloth wrapped around them to stop them rattling.

Food and drink

For food and drink on the bike, I started with:

They’re a bit expensive, but worth it when camping (or in random hotel rooms) because you can make a decent cup of coffee without the weight and faff of drip filters, AeroPresses, cafetieres etc. Love them.

  • Tea bags.

Sometimes a brew is the only thing that will do, but for me does need milk.

  • Emergency main meal

200 mg of dried pasta and a vegetable stock cube (oh yes, in an emergency I’d be living the good life).

On top of this I’d daily add:

  • Haribou Jelly babies

Not sure what they put in them, but for me, the Haribou ones rule.

  • 5 or so, Cereal bars, nothing with a fake yoghurt, chocolate whatever coating, usually something from the Eat Natural range

Eco warrior rant: I try actively to avoid anything with Palm Oil in it. After manufacturers were grudgingly forced to remove Hydrogenated Vegetable fats because it was killing people. They turned to Palm Oil as a direct replacement.

It’s an unnecessary ingredient added for the producer’s, not the consumer’s, convenience, it’s unlikely to be good for you and its production destroys tropical rain forests (if you want to make yourself cry, go watch this).

The Eat Natural range is widely available in the UK, tastes pretty good, and most of their range is free of the Palm Oil crap, where it isn’t, they seem to be trying to do the right thing (tm). Do your bit.

Setting off from Cheltenham — don’t ask me what I’m doing with my pinky, I blame the palsy

Clothing

With my clothing I was aiming to have:

  1. Two days worth of riding gear.
  2. Everything easy washing and drying.
  3. Avoid having to put on dirty or damp clothing in the morning.
  4. Convenient and warm/cool enough for camping.
  5. One outfit that, at a squint, was smart enough for a pub or restaurant off-campsite without feeling too much out of place.
  6. Minimal weight (have you felt how heavy jeans are?)

Off-bike clothing

Nice and light (315g), easy to wash and dry, can be used as shorts but also smart enough to not feel entirely out of place when worn off campsite.

  • Ancient, Quicksilver long sleeve “surfers” shirt.

I have had this for over twenty years and still wear it fairly regularly. It is lightweight (tbh a bit threadbare in places), dries quickly and, amazingly after all of this time and wear, still looks good enough to wear out. (I think anyway :-/ ).

  • Ronhill Cargo running shorts with inner briefs

Camping nightwear.

  • Nike sports tee shirt

Camping nightwear.

I’m into my barefoot/minimal shoe running so I have a pair of these for that that I thought I’d take with me.

Pros:

  • The sandals are light (170g).
  • No problem with strapping to the outside of my luggage.
  • Great for pootling around campsites, e.g. trips to the showers, toilets etc. in the summer.

Cons:

  • Not smart enough to wear out to anything but a very low-key eatery.
  • Naturally, on the chilly side when it’s cold and damp.

Tweaks: For the next stage of the trip I’ve got a pair of Vivobarefoot Moccasins that weigh about the same, are a bit smarter and a lot more weatherproof.

  • 2x Runners underpants.

Pros: Very lightweight.

Cons: Uncomfortable for all day use.

Tweaks: Seeking out something a bit more comfortable, as taking the odd day off the bike is more pleasant in decent undies.

I took this as my primary off-bike insulation layer.

Pros:

  • Down jacket; amazingly warm for its weight (217g) and packs down to a tiny size.
  • Layers well, either worn under it or wearing it inside a sleeping bag.
  • Ethical down and reasonable price from GO Outdoors.

Cons:

  • Has to be kept dry, thermal performance is compromised by wetting.
  • Takes longer to dry than a synthetic jacket.

Tweaks: I’ll be taking this on my next trip, but I may add a lightweight fleece to be on the safe side as well.

These were bought for me as a Christmas present several years ago. I don’t do base layers when it’s hot. However, when it’s cold I pretty much live in these on the bike (and occasionally off as well). I’ll buy replacements when the time comes as they’re absolutely fantastic.

I took them along on this trip in case it got cold, they’re very light, dry quickly and, from experience, they also make reasonable travel towels.

I wore for warmth on the first day. Then, after I binned the annoying travel towel, I used them exclusively for that purpose solely instead.

I’ll be retaking these. Heck, may well add an extra one just in case I also want to use as a base layer :-)

On-bike

Well ventilated and extremely comfy fit for me.

  • Sportful Hot Pack 5 Vest/gilet white.

An incredibly light and compact way to add a bit of extra warmth when riding.

  • Gore Bike Wear Element GT Waterproof jacket

Works well; mine has been customised with the hood removed.

  • Grip Grab Short/ Gore cycling mitts

The Grip Grab pair were an old pair that I already had. By Cheltenham, they were disintegrating, and in an unsuccessful bid to try and put a stop to the Cyclist’s Palsy I’d developed, I replaced them with a new pair of Gore ones. The Grip Grab gloves had fitted me nicely and had worked well, at least in training. The Gore ones I’m not sure about yet.

Agree with the road.cc review, expensive, but so far very comfortable and robust.

I didn’t need these, but thought I’d take the just in case it was wet and I wanted to avoid trench foot. Previously found these work quite well, will definitely take for next stage.

Is white such a good idea for off-road clothing?

I went with these for two reasons. Firstly, I thought they might offer a bit of extra protection from insects and vegetation overgrowth. Secondly, I knew it was going to be sunny, and I didn’t want to carry tons of suntan lotion to stop myself from being burnt to a crisp.

On the trip, they were slightly better than nothing at bramble protection but worked fantastically well at preventing sunburn.

Pros:

  • Brilliant sun protection without making noticeably hotter.
  • Significantly decreased suntan lotion requirements and its weight.
  • Small amount of additional protection from thorns and biting insects.

Cons:

  • They were white, and while it is an effective colour for reflecting the sun, it also makes any dirt and blood that has been picked up along the way very, very, obvious.
  • Difficult to maintain clean appearance with handwashing.
  • The gripper bands on the knee sleeves ended up irritating the skin on my legs so much that it became too painful to carry on using them towards the end of the second week.

Tweaks:

  • Don’t bother with the knee sleeves; because of the position legs usually don’t get burnt.
  • Take arm and leg warmers as well.
  • 2x Craft Active Bike Champ jerseys

Had for years, they wash well, are cool in the summer, comfy and don’t make me look too much like a half squeezed tube of toothpaste.

I wanted a pair of cycling sunglasses to keep the dust and dirt out of my eyes. These seemed no more eccentric than other cycling sunglasses, and as someone who wears a complicated prescription, I thought they might be a useful way to meet the requirements while minimising cost.

On shorter training rides they worked quite well. However, for the trip itself, I found they were inconvenient to stow and more importantly, squeezing the additional weight of the second pair of arms on top of my ears made them sore. They went in the bin at the end of the first day.

Pros:

  • Good optical performance.
  • Economical sunglasses solution for existing spectacle wearers.
  • Stayed in place riding off-road.

Cons: Uncomfortable for all-day wear — extra weight of glasses and second set arms made ears sore.

Light for bike shoes (425g), walkable, comfortable, cool and just about smart enough to get away with off-bike.

Thoughts on clothing — what I got wrong:

I got the following things wrong:

  1. I should have taken more comfortable underwear.
  2. I forgot to take a belt, and although a Surly Junk Strap held the trousers up, its narrowness made it a bit uncomfortable.
  3. I didn’t have a good story for getting clothes clean, see further on.

I’m unsure about:

  • Going with white and light colours for the jerseys and UV sleeves. White really showed the dirt and blood and were impossible to get clean with hand washing.
  • Although it hurts my roadie sensibilities, I’m wondering about mountain bike jerseys (not the baggies though) and whether they might offer a bit more protection against getting ripped to shreds by thorns.
Trying to get stuff dry the night before the ride proper started

More on getting stuff clean.

Starting the day with damp or dirty riding gear is miserable and will eventually lead to saddle sores or worse. So my original goal was to always start the day with one full set of clean and dry riding gear. Trying to achieve this, especially when camping, turned out to be an awkward, time-consuming and annoying parts of the trip.

I thought that I was going to wear one set of riding gear while the other was being washed or dried, and I’d rotate daily. I’d quickly wash it by hand in the evening, and it would be air dried overnight or hang off the back of the bike it was not dry in the morning. Simple right?

The problems with this stupid, or at best naive, plan are:

  1. Even in a dry summer with lightweight sports gear, most items were not dry enough in the morning to pack away or wear.
  2. It invariably took about half an hour of time and additional effort at the end of a long day when what I needed to do was find somewhere to eat before they shut and go to bed.
  3. Hand washing, or at least my hand washing, did a poor job at removing dirt.
  4. If it had rained or was misty, as is more typical of British weather, it would never have worked.
  5. When clothing was put away damp in the morning, by the end of the day it and everything else in that dry bag invariably smelt musty.
  6. Stuff hung off the back of the bike when off-road might dry, but it was unlikely to be clean!
Towards the end of day one, it became evident that hanging clean clothes off the back of a bike that is going off-road is a #stupididea

So what about making use of washing machines and tumble driers?

The issue is that even if I had had washing powder and I was on a campsite where machines were available, it is:

  • More time until laundry is out of the way for the evening — machine cycles are usually much longer than thirty minutes.
  • I didn’t feel like I had enough gear to warrant the cost of using them on a campsite. After all, a pair of bib shorts, jersey, socks and maybe some underpants isn’t going to fill a machine.

How to fix the problem?

I think the options come down to:

  1. Don’t fix. Ride in stinky or damp clothes and accept the risks. For me, this is not an option; if I don’t keep clean, my skin means I end up an itching mess very quickly.
  2. Spend less time under canvas (drying stuff overnight inside was not a problem) — The issue with this option is that finding places to stay that are close to the route is not always viable and becomes increasingly less so the further North we go.
  3. Have to do it less often; carry the extra weight (~400g) of a third set of riding gear to give an extra day’s leeway for clothes washing.

I’ll make a final decision after sanity checking the next stage of the route and having a proper look at the accommodation and sustenance options along its way.

Misc

  • Life Science Insect head net
  • Lens wipes
  • Travel wash
  • Safety pins
  • Quechua Ultra Compact Collapsible 10 Litre Small Hiking Backpack

I can’t remember where I saw the recommendation to take one of these when bike packing. However, wherever it was, it’s an excellent one. It weighs next to nothing, packs down tiny, and it is handy for carrying purchases around off the bike and, avoiding having to rearrange everything, when on it.

Toiletries and personal hygiene

  • 1/2 a tube of toothpaste

I’m looking at dry toothpaste for the next part of the ride as it will weigh less.

  • Fold in half travel toothbrush
  • 100ml of shower gel in airline travel container

It is simple to pick up more along the route, although I do plan to look at smaller and lighter options for the next part.

Luckily no need for this, will save a few grams next time by removing duplicate scissors, tweezers and safety pins.

  • Ibuprofen
  • 100ml Piz Buin 1 Day Long Sun 30 SPF sun lotion

Every day before setting off I applied it to my face, neck and ears. I didn’t reapply or use on my arms or legs because I was using the UV sleeves and wearing gloves.

I never got burnt, despite riding the bike for six hours plus and sweating profusely in one of the hottest British summers on record.

When it ran into my eyes with the sweat, it didn’t sting, and I came back with some of the tube left over.

In short, brilliant stuff, highly recommended.

  • 140 ml of Assos Chamois cream

Expensive, but gets good reviews and I’ve always found it works well for me.

I started with a full pot and applied liberally at the start of the day. I never found myself wanting to use more during the day and below decks stayed ship shape.

When I got back, there were maybe 30 to 40 ml left in the tub. I plan to take a similar amount for the next stage as I don’t want to carry extra weight and I think if I am a bit more judicious use that will be enough to pick up supplies in either Kielder, Hawick or Glasgow from an LBS.

  • Lip balm
  • Smidge Midge, mosquito, horse fly etc. deterrent.

Didn’t end up needing it, but by repute this stuff is the best and, having been in Scotland in the midge season before, I will be carrying it for part two of the trip.

  • 100 g of Gold Bond talcum powder

I find this, or something similar, pretty much essential when it’s hot and I’m not on the bike. It’s also nifty for freshening up undies if it’s not been possible to wash them.

Another last-minute addition to the gear list. I thought it would be nice to have a more pleasant towel for camping and I might also be able to use it to help dry clothes quicker by wringing them out in it more thoroughly.

It turned out to be a bit of a failure. It worked okay as a towel but took a long time to dry itself and leached colour when used as a wringer. I binned it after the second day and saved the space and weight.

  • Wet wipes
  • Pack of pocket tissues
Bike on arrival in Penzance

Luggage

  • 2 x XL Surly Junk Straps

One got used for strapping my Gore jacket to the top of the Restrap frame pack. The other did sterling service as a stand-in belt for my trousers.

  • Alkit luggage strap

Used to lash the tent poles and my sandals to the Tivaro handlebar bag.

  • Wiggle, lightweight plastic wallet

I used this to stash credit cards, cash and odd bits of paper.

Regular wallets are bulky, heavy and not waterproof (as I found out on the “dry” run). This present from my riding buddy on the dry run neatly solved all of these problems. I’d recommend a similar wallet for anyone considering comparable adventures.

Where low cages are a pain — Bridleways only have to be wide enough for a mule’s legs

These were a somewhat last minute addition to my rig when I realised I couldn’t fit everything on the bike during a loading test. The cages solved the carrying problem, but I didn’t get around to test riding with them thoroughly.

Initially, I ended up carrying my sleeping bag on one fork and all of my cooking/kitchen gear and food supplies in a dry bag on the other.

It’s not a reflection on the cages or the adapter etc.; they are all very nicely made and probably would have worked fine in less extreme circumstances. But I couldn’t make it work to my complete satisfaction and never really enjoyed using the setup. After I’d jettisoned some of the surplus I was carrying, I managed to get by without any load in the cages for the last day. For the next part of the odyssey, I’m hoping that the larger full custom frame, seat pack and bar bags will remove the need for them.

Pros:

  • SKS adapters and the Blackburn cages were nicely made and very robust.
  • The weight is low on the bike, so handling is a bit better.
  • The luggage provides a modicum of protection for lower legs against thorns.

Cons with using the cages off-road:

  • Difficult/impossible to get a secure fork mounting for off-road use without built-in cage mounts.

The Hakka MX’s ENVE forks do not have cage mounting bosses and like most non-suspension carbon forks are of an awkward to clamp to, oval and tapered downward shape. In an attempt to mitigate this, I used a grippy rubber backed mount anywhere clips from SKS, a brand I have previously had excellent results with. To further reduce the risk of movement, I then set the clips as low as possible on the forks, so that they could not come loose with any subsequent downward slippage (on the tapering forks).

I’m almost sure this would have been enough to secure the cages on-road. But, with the hammering from off-road usage it wasn’t, and they and their mounts moved. Fortunately, I noticed this during day one before catastrophic problems ensued. To address this, I increased the mounting’s security by clamping in place with the spare Cateye flex tight jubilee clips I was carrying. I didn’t have a significant problem with them moving after that, but equally, I was always checking the clips, as any slight worry about luggage rotating into your front wheel makes for a nervous high speed descending experience.

  • Bags got ripped to pieces by thorns, rocks etc.

For cookery and kitchen side I used an OEX dry bag. By the time I stopped using it even the most creative sales person would have struggled to have called it a dry bag if it had rained. While on the other side, the sleeping bag’s dry bag was a bit more robust and protruded a bit less and came through, as far as I can tell, in one piece.

The (of necessity) low, projecting out wider than pedal width mounting location of the luggage made it vulnerable to the British terrain, especially the Brambles.

  • Catching on undergrowth, tops of ruts etc. upsets steering.

When the cage’s luggage catches on the terrain, as it’s prone to do, the force of the catch on that side tends to steer the bike into, or at least in the direction of the obstacle. Not helpful, particularly at speed.

  • Aero goes even further out of the window.

Unlike the other pieces; fork cage luggage predominantly interrupts frontal airflow in areas beyond those that would have previously been interfered with anyway.

I found this made little difference off-road, but on the road when on the flat or descending, particularly with a headwind, the bike required more pedalling effort and was noticeably a few km/h slower (or at least that is the excuse I will be sticking with).

Tweaks: If I were to use them again, then I’d look to find a different “anywhere” mount that could cope better with the rigours of off-road and the shape of the forks.

Tivaro Lodo combination being used stood upright to form a windbreak for the stove

I used the left-hand side Lodo to carry most of my hygiene kit; toothbrush, toothpaste, suntan lotion, ibuprofen, wet wipes, tissues and the Gerber Dime — that sort of thing. The other side was reserved almost exclusively for cereal bars and snacks.

I prefer not to attach the Lodo’s directly to the handlebar and stem, as is standard usage. Instead, I like to combine the Lodo’s with the Tivaro handlebar bag into a single detachable unit. To create this, on each side of the Tivaro I thread its bar attachment straps through the Lodo’s larger webbing loops.

Getting the Tivaro’s strap through the Lodo’s webbing takes a bit of forcing. But once through, the Tivaro with the two Lodo’s strapped to the back of it is, stable, robust, more convenient to load and unload.

Inside this, I initially squeezed all of the tent components except the poles, as well as the air mattress, pillow, keyboard and down jacket. By the end, after I stopped using the fork cages, it held all of the original contents except the keyboard, plus the addition of the first aid kit and sleeping bag.

Externally I used a separate strap to attach the tent poles and sandals to the front. While at the rear, the handlebar attachment straps performed double duty by also connecting the pair of Alpkit Lodo stem bags so that they and the Tivaro formed a single, detachable and transportable unit (as discussed for the Lodo’s).

Pros:

  • Waterproof.
  • Robust and no signs of wear.

Pros of being able to mount the two Lodo stem bags to the back of the Tivaro:

  • Minimised interference with steering and cables.
  • Made the whole daily carry stuff to and from, mount and unmount on the bike routine a bit more straightforward.
  • Helped the bar and stem bags stand upright when on grass.

Cons; the only negatives with the Tivaro bag are the same as with any handlebar bag on a drop bar bike:

  • Size Limited by the width between the drops.
  • If it’s not packed carefully or overfilled, the roll top ends can end up interfering with gear shifting and possibly the brakes.
  • Can squash gear cables and brake lines.
  • Can interfere with, or prevent, ideal Garmin, phone and light mount placement.

Tweaks:

  • I’ll be looking for some handlebar straps with smaller buckles that are easier to get through the webbing on the back of the Lodo stem bags.
  • I’ve got hold of the 15 L version of the Lod, as I plan to use the extra volume to help avoid having to carry anything on my forks.
  • I sort of wonder if a top loading bag, i.e. something without the roll ends, might make more efficient use of the space between the drops.

Overall, I like this bar/stem bag arrangement a lot, the only way I can think of that it’d be much better is if there was an official manufactured version of it, rather than my bodge/hack.

Another view of full luggage —ad. hoc. hydration stop Kingstone⁩

To try to minimise the impact on the handling of the touring weight I aimed to pack as much of the heavier items centrally in the frame bag.

The large Outpost has a concertina section at the bottom that drops down and does a pretty good at filling the frame and facilitating this. I ended up using it to carry the hydration pack, the pump, all of the spares, lights and, in a dry bag, the off-bike electricals (charger, second power bank, stylus etc.).

Pros:

  • Well made and robust.
  • Simple, well thought out flexible mounting system.
  • For a non-tailored bag, good fit to my frame. *
  • Useful selection of external storage pockets.
  • Flexible internal space that could accommodate the hydration pack.
  • Didn’t bulge unduly and interfere with my legs (what it did do though was to very effectively help me correct previous poor pedalling form)

Cons:

  • Small amount of wasted frame space where it didn’t quite fill the complete area.
  • Interfered with, and necessitated a lower bodge mounting of down tube bottle cage.
  • Not quite long enough to accommodate the tent poles.
  • Unable to hang hydration reservoir and its orientation wasted internal space above it.

Tweaks: I have had a full custom Alpkit Stingray bag made up that utilises all of the available frame space and allows up to a 3L hydration pack to be hung from its top.

I went with the Restrap seat bag because I knew from a failed experiment with an Alpkit Koala 13L that I wanted something that didn’t sway and was simpler to pack. The Restrap design fulfilled those criteria, but I think the design needs further refinement before it is suitable for prolonged use of off-road.

Pros:

  • When saddle rail straps cinched tight the holster design meant minimal, or no tail waggle upsetting the balance of the bike off-road. NB: Cinching was somewhat tricky to achieve because of the rail strap length and width of the supplied dry sack.
  • Good fastening system

Once done up things stayed done up, and straps were kept tidily out of the way. At the other end undoing was easy.

  • Except for cinching the saddle rail straps tight, adding and removing luggage from the holster is convenient and straightforward.

Cons:

  • Cinching the saddle rail straps tight enough to prevent tail wag is difficult — The problem is that the inserted width of the dry bag is barely wide enough (even when carefully stuffed rigid) to provide the saddle rail straps with an adequate volume to cinch tight up against the underside of the saddle. Having to operate the straps at the extreme end of their adjustment range puts an undue strain on the design, which in turn made them difficult to use.
  • Fragile, the stress placed on the stitching by the design’s difficult cinching performance eventually caused it to fail on one of the straps on the last day of the trip (wasn’t a terminal failure, just meant I had to stop and adjust the dry sack every hour or so to prevent it from popping out).
  • Bit on the heavy side (655g vs Fusion XL 565g)

Tweaks: I’ve replaced with a larger and lighter Porcelain Mr Rocket Fusion XL pack. I’m hoping the combination of the micro rail, shaped dry bag, and trucker-hitch seat rail straps will make cinching easier to achieve.

Along with the fork cages, this was a last minute addition to my luggage when I found I could not fit everything on the bike. Unlike the fork cages, this worked well, and I will continue to use it.

I used the tool case to carry the chain lube, the puncture repair kit and bike tools.

Pros:

  • Held everything and the full length opening clamshell design is very convenient to access tools.
  • Softshell case material secure in a bottle cage.
  • Seems to be plenty robust, no problems with zips or similar despite dirt and being pretty full.
  • Easy to pack so that no rattling.

Cons: Had to mount it via an ugly hack. To get it to fit under the frame bag only the lower of the downtube’s two cage mounting points could be utilised. To entirely secure I ended up wrapping electrical insulation tape around the bottom of the cage.

Tweaks: For the next part of the trip, I’m investigation using a Topeak Versamount bottle cage mounts to create a third bottle mount location under the down tube.

That’s all for now folks

Next up will be a detailed review of the route and suggestions about how it could have been improved.

Peak District
Travel
Cycling
Lejog
Britain
Bikepacking

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Jon Hume

Written by Jon Hume

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Bloke, child of the sixties, geek, runner (barefoot), swimmer and cyclist, mostly 1/2 full. Working assumption — Above us only sky.

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