[Closed] Sick as a dog so, show me you Bivi / Bikepacking / Adventure racing gear.....

I picked up a couple of Tesco bags for me and GF for a tour in Spain, hoping that I can either double them up or use one with a synthetic bag over it for solo trips in colder weather.

Spending too much on kit at the mo so figured a bit of experimenting with a cheap bag and existing stuff rather than buying an expensive bag would be worth it.

The down bags from tesco look OK. Our local hypermarket is selling all the camping stuff on the cheap. They also had a few garmin forerunners in the sale for sub £100

www.bikeandbivi.co.uk

Here are some pics from our SUW trip from Portpatrick to St John's town of Dalry.

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

some great pics I like the aged ones 😀

Rudedog, that's not far from me, never cycled any of the SUW to the west of the A76 though, what's the surface like?. Always fancied exploring that section, never managed though.

The route is all fairly rideable but theres a few sections that you may want to miss out if your cycling with overnight gear. Bikehike is down at the moment but when its back I'll put up a summary with screenshots of the maps showing each bit with what's rideable and what to avoid.

I couldn't be bothered with the maps but hopefully the descriptions will be helpful to anyone who fancies this part of the route.

Portpatrick to Stranraer

Theres some steps up from portpatrick to the cliff top - they aren't too steep so you could push the bike up with out too much trouble. After that the route follows the cliffs and drops down in to a couple of bays where you'll need to carry you're bike - its a lovely stretch of the route in terms of scenery but hard going where you need to carry the bike. If you've got a lot of gear and can't shoulder your bike, you should miss this bit out and go the road way out of Portpatrick, taking a left just outside the village and you'll pick up the SUW at the turning for Killantringan lighthouse. After that its all rideable (mostly farm road) to Stranraer with a nice but fairly short section of singletrack roughly halfway.

Stranraer to New Luce
Practically all rideable - Just outside Castle Kennedy village and Gardens, you pick up the road to New Luce here, as you start the climb, there's a short section of SUW which goes off to the right, its very steep and not much fun as it takes you through a muddy cattle field so I'd advise you miss it out (if traveling with gear) as it joins back to the road a little bit further up. At the top of the hill, the route heads off toward Glenwhan moor where there's a nice section of singletrack nearly all the way the luce valley, then a fairly steep drop down to the railway line - after that, you need to push for a bit until you clear the trees and can cycle over the river and push for another little bit up a very short but steep hill back to the road. You can take a short detour into the Village of New Luce here, theres a (very) small shop and a pub with a beer garden next to the river which made a nice stop for us.

New Luce to Bargrennan

Theres a fairly steep climb out of New Luce on farm track, the route takes you past some ancient caves/burial Cairns and then links on to road for a short bit before going totally off road through fields/bogs just north of Balmurrie farm. This section was a PITA - theres no trail at this point, but there are wooden waymarkers (sometimes hard to spot) every few hundred meters to keep you on course. You'll need to push your bike as its almost totaly unrideable for just over a mile and goes through a peatbog which you'll get wet feet from without appropriate footwear. After you come through the fields the trail is visible again and cuts through a wooded section for a few miles - its hard going again here as the trail is boggy and muddy but soon improves to half decent singletrack as you get closer to Laganngarn where the Beehive bothy is situated. Its a nice wooded bothy but no fireplace. The single track continues on passed some interesting standing stones and picks up forest fire road soon after. Your not on the fire road for long before the SUW goes off up a fairly steep hill but we skipped this and stuck to the fire road which just goes round the hill. From here on its plain sailing all the way to Bargrennan mosty farm/back roads - theres a couple of short sections of which take you off the road as you get closer to Bargrennan but they aren't great for riding and easy to skip. Theres a pub at Bargrennan which does decent food, and a campsite with shop. Theres loads of good spots in the woods here though if you are camping - we found a cracking spot on the shore of Loch Trool, not far from the old Caldons campsite which is now abandoned.

Bargrennan to Dalry

They changed the trail out of Bargrennan to Loch Trool a few years back which you might need to bear in mind if your using an old map. We missed this bit out as we'd been in the pub for a couple and were camping at Loch Trool so just headed up the fire road - it looked like half decent forest single track from what we saw though. The forest road way takes you passed the 7 Stanes trail centre cafe which serves sandwiches and has an outside tap for refilling water. Once you get to Loch Trool, if you have a lot of gear, I'd advise sticking to the forest road north of the loch which leads to the car park at the base of Bruces monument . We didn't do this and followed the SUW round the south side of the Loch and it was really tough going for the lads laden with gear. Lots of really steep sections, steps etc but probably mostly rideable and good fun without the gear - some good gnarly/technical descents. You also pass the battleground where Robet the Bruce defeated an English force ten times his size which was quite interesting to read about. Once you clear Loch Trool, theres a steep climb on forest road with some great views of the Galloway hills at the top. The forest road continues on for a good while passed Loch Dee and the Whitelaggan bothy and on to Clatteringshaws Loch. Just north of the Loch, the SUW leaves the fire road and goes over a few hills, we missed this section as we were running short on time and just stuck to the forest road and then back road over a hill and down to the Ken valley and St Johns Town of Dalry for a couple more pints and pub tea before being collected.

Anyone have any real life experience's with the Rab storm bivi
are they roomy, water proof, pack small enough and light

Roomy. Yes, but I'm only small (5'8"). Plenty longer than that, and I can fit all my kit in there with me.
Waterproof. Fortunately not had to find out.
Pack small. Yep. You could (at a stretch) fit one in your middle jersey pocket.

Rab Storm - yup.

It's a great bag, good size, good weight and very popular. There are no features to speak of it's just a waterproof bag cover with a draw hood.

When absolutely soaked through I did end up with a lot of condensation once, but they all do that under certain conditions once wetted out. It's roomy enough to allow a winter bag to loft, but you wouldn't fit any kit in there too.

Packsize, I would guess you could squeeze it into a 500ml bottle at a push.

Crackin' summary rudedog. Anyone done any of the SUW east of St. John's this year?

Pictures of this weekends bivvy.

Friday night out on the Pennine Way from Widdop reservoir for a couple of miles.
[img] [/img]

Windy but sunny evening
[img] [/img]

Mate knocked us up a couple of tarps
[img] [/img]

Nice view from bed
[img] [/img]

Tarps set up to shelter us from the wind (along with the rocks behind), and any potential rain.

Woke up the following morning getting a wet face. Wind had changed direction 90deg meaning rain straight in to the tarp so it wasn't protecting at all

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Slackman that looks great, what saddlebag are you running?

Your camp and view looked amazing!

Saddlebag was just an Alpkit dry bag with a load of webbing tie straps round it to hold it on, nowt special.

View was nice in the sun, not so good in the rain and wind!

I thought so! I ordered a 13L one yesterday (as my 8l was too small for sleeping bag) which will come tomorrow, as well as a few other bits, and bungee is my plan too.

thanks for the info

just bought a Hunka XL inreadiness for the Winter Bivvy Season 😀

I really need some advice as I haven't actually bivvied yet properly, got basically all the kit now (had to get a bigger dry bag as my bag is 1000 weight), but around me there is nowhere 'remote' or so I think.

Im fairly near Brighton so not sure what to do. I know a few spots which might be OK but my biggest concern is waking up in the morning to find the bike gone!!!! Not sure what to do.

faaz - I've thought about bike security when bivvying too. Here's a thread I posted on [url= http://www.bikeandbivi.co.uk/php/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=265 ]Bike and Bivi[/url] about it.
Here's [url= http://www.bikeandbivi.co.uk/php/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11 ]another thread[/url] with tarp pitching options, scroll down a bit for the ones incorporating a bike.

You could get some cheap motor bike disc brake alarms, work on vibrations so would sound off if someone moved your bike.

great guys, thanks for the info.

Funny you should say that Ruscle, I saw one on a bike just the other day and thought why not! Again may be heavy though.

Like the idea of a rape alarm and fishing line, lightweight, cheap and easy. But the bike integration into a tarp has to be the best thing really. May have a play with just a tent outer and see if I can rig something up!

thanks again!

Fasten the bike to your leg with some strong fishing line! I normally take a small light cable lock and lock all out bikes together. Your not likely to bump into anyone on the moors with some bolt cutters! Maybe at worst some little chav might be too far from home in the middle of the night. But that's about as likely to happen in all honesty as an alien coming on the moors and abducting you!

Here's a snap or two from last week's full moon bivi above the Tarentaise Valley in Les Alpes...

[center][img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[/center]

[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/8308384@N06/sets/72157627581510157/ ]Flickr Slugwash - Full Moon Alpine Bivi[/url]

Bit of a write up here....

[url= http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=238 ]Crafty French Alps Bivi[/url]

How did you find having the stuff sac slung on top of the bars? It seems like a pretty logical solution.

www.bikeandbivi.co.uk

good question, I've only tried it underneath as everyone else does, I will try mine tomorrow with the harness and see if it secures ok 😀

How did you find having the stuff sac slung on top of the bars?

It was generally fine, and a lot more secure held in place by three short bungees on top of the bars as opposed to the usual below the bars with a homemade harness.

However, the ride involved a couple of saddle dropping, technical descents and the on-top-of-the-bars positioning seriously obscured my line of vision. Not usually a problem on most of the, generally more gentle, bivi rides I've done.

Tried it out last weekend and it works well.

www.bikeandbivi.co.uk

Anyone looking for some bikepacking bags? [url= http://www.bikeandbivi.co.uk/php/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=301 ]Look here[/url], s/h on Bike and Bivi.
Would have had them myself but already got some on order/different sizes.
The makers website is [url= http://www.bikepack.pl/en/shop/ ]here[/url] (Bikepack.pl).

Has this thread died?
I've just got my bikepacking bike finished, shame about the time of year but I'm still itching to get out!

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

My tent and all sleeping gear is in the bar bag. The seat bag is for food/cooking stuff. Anything that I need to hand will be in the side pockets of the pack on my back. Still need come decent bottles and cages for my water but that's about it.
Bags are from [url= http://www.bikepack.pl/en/ ]Bikepack™[/url]. The bar bag is a large, the seat bag is a medium.
I'll post more info on gear and weights when everything is packed for a trip away somewhere. 🙂
There is a little more info [url= http://www.bikeandbivi.co.uk/php/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=311 ]here[/url] (Bike and Bivi).

multidayer adventures, what do people do for lights. From my research seems people use lights that you can use re-usables like AA, what are the recommendations?

Lights to ride or camp?

Camp- Petzl E-lite which uses coin cells so I pack a few spares.

Riding- Exposure Diablo, 10hr on low or 3hrs mid, piggyback battery gives 4x that run time for when trips are likely to require lots of night riding which isn't [i]that[/i] often.

Riding more than camping (for the lights), say a week long bivy.

http://allthegear-noidea.blogspot.com/2012/01/of-mice-and-men-bit-of-tolkien-five.html

that's mad! No wonder this thread died for a few months, bivvying is just not plausible (for the sane) in the winter!!!

Very nice write up. A number of hardcore bivi-ers are still at it.

http://www.bikeandbivi.co.uk

well, ive spent all night looking through this link. cant wait to get out this year 🙂

Well it's over a year old now 😀

So who on here is doing the Mach 'n' back next week and hoping for decent weather?!
Spending today getting my kit together, but until the forecast is clearer it's tricky knowing what cold weather gear to take.

I will be there next weekend. Did a bivvy ride early December in Peak so will take much the same kit.

well, ive spent all night looking through this link. cant wait to get out this year

Try these too.

http://bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/phpBB3/index.php?sid=1b732c17e3ea88c0397bf0b164535d90

http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.com/

http://welshridething.blogspot.com/

http://www.bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/

The last Mach N Back forecast I saw was warm and wet. Still pondering on the sleeping kit.

PHD Minim 600, -16'C, 1.1kg, 5L Packsize

or

Minim Ultra +8'c plus Montane Down Jacket, around 700g total, 4L Packsize

Full length Neo-air, in a TN Photon tent

The winds the killer at the moment ... it dropped last night, I was outside at 10.30 in shorts and a thin top and wasn't cold 😀

thanks still s8tannorm. i only had my first wild camp this winter. camped by llyn cai on cadair idris. was amazing, spent most of the night wondering why i hadnt done it before..
this year i will be out as much as possible and will be bikepacking too. cant wait 🙂

[img] [/img]
Pit and clothing on rack, victuals and cooker in frame bag and mat and bivvy bag up front. Will make a better handlebar bag this week.
Get the feeling that weather could be tricky next weekend.

This thread was a great inspiration to me last year, I did a 3 day trip in the summer, you can read about it at http://niksbikingblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/loch-shiel-and-loch-morar-highland.html

[img] [/img]

This thread was a great inspiration to me last year, I did a 3 day trip in the summer

*I can't afford a packraft but figure a dinghy will suffice for now 😀

Nice one still s8tannorm!

Not sure what kind of floats you have in mind, but http://flyweightdesigns do an ultralight packraft. Not certain what a bike would be like on that.

Sevylor do standard cheep dinghys, there was one design (can't remember the model) that people used as a cheap packraft. The main problem with them apparently was the emergency deflate "feature", whereby a tie down would rip off the hull mid float, deflating the raft in seconds.

The good thing with the Alpacka ones is they are fairly bombproof. I have had mine in 4 foot surf, and grade 3 / 4 whitewater, and it has never skipped a beat. They are expensive yes, but if you can reach to it, worth it.

Just uploading a video of my trip...

Wow it's been resurrected 😀

Pease we'll sort a lfew trips out locally, you'll be addicted before you know it 😆

defo valleydaddy. cant wait 😀

Pete/ pease- the bivvi spot close to Sarn Helen is hard to beat. Loads of firewood too.

I spent a frosty night there with Thomas (boy 2) a while back. Two slleping bags for him, plus a goretex bivvi bag. Star filled night. Lovely fry up for breakfast in the morning 🙂

sounds good ambrose 8)

Found this thread just by googling around for frame bags, have been hooked to it for days. Such an amazing source of information ! Is it possible to obtain a print version of all the pages at once ? Thx !!

Is it possible to obtain a print version of all the pages at once ?

I dunno but now this thread's popped up again I think it needs some piccies from the recent Mach 'n Back bikepacking event....

Shinything's bivi bed socks....

[img] [/img]

Bikes at the finish...

[img] [/img]

Filtering water at the overnight camp...

[img] [/img]

Chew....

[img] [/img]

... and two dead mink...

[img] [/img]

Nice pics - did you make some bedsocks from the mink 🙂

I dunno but now this thread's popped up again I think it needs some piccies from the recent Mach 'n Back bikepacking event....

Fair enough for me ! Keep 'em coming ! 😀

Hmmm - How about a Dartmoor event - anyone?

Im up for a Dartmoor event. What were you thinking ontor?

Great to see this thread still alive! I posted some pics of my original frame bags from Revelate on the first page of this thread & thought I should post an updated one with my new Wildcat frame bag (oh, and new bike..long story). I popped over to Wildcat HQ a couple of weeks ago & I have to say, this stuff is (at the very least) right up there with Revelate. In fact I reckon Wildcat's handlebar harness is a better design.

[img] [/img]

[url= https://picasaweb.google.com/markgoldie/WIldcatCustomFrameBag?authuser=0&feat=directlink ]More pics[/url]

Just wondering about a "start wherever you like, meet here for beer, ride off next day to here for more beer then home" type thing

Pedalhead - what are your bottle cages and are they any good? There aren't many options out there for side loaders...

Specialized Zee cages. I haven't had them long but they seem quite solid & aren't too heavy (42 grams on my scales). I like these side loaders in particular as they have the full circle of plastic around the bottom which many don't seem to have.

Ta, will have a look. A little bit cheaper than the Arundels I was looking at before 😀

crikey yeah just a bit cheaper!

But you know your Pegasus [i]deserves[/i] the Arundels 😈

Frame bag looks good Mark - what kind of capacity does it have? Single compartment as well?

Cheers Adam. Yep it's single compartment. We thought about going with a divider but tbh it's not really necessary. I can get my 750ml cooking pot in there near the seatpost end of the bag & still close the zip, which is a bit of a result. Should definitely be enough space for the odds & sods it'll be carrying. It's also got an external zipped pocket on the left side for documents etc.

I've been getting bivy-curious again lately & just today received what I think is finally going to be my ultralight bivy of choice, an MLD Soul. 330 grams, fully waterproof & breathable, with integrated bug net. Also got a small "dog" tarp for when it's due to be really filthy.

I think we need to get together for some overnighters before WRT 🙂

But you know your Pegasus deserves the Arundels

heh well I'm a bit suspicious of carbon cages for a bike I lug about the place a lot. I managed to put my elbow through a carbon cage on my road bike after a slip when walking with it 😥

I managed to put my elbow through a carbon cage on my road bike

I think compartmentalising frame bags just limits your versatility; I don't have any issues with my full size frame bag being one big space. That reminds me, must get my sewing machine up and running.

I think we need to get together for some overnighters before WRT

Hmmm - How about a Dartmoor event - anyone?

I was thinking of sorting out a low-key, checkpoint based bivi ride in that neck of the woods in late April/early May.

Maybe with riders having the chance to start in differing locations but ending up in the same location (pub) before the heading off for the overnight camp.

Anyone interested? What do ya think ?

crispedwheel - Member
I think we need to get together for some overnighters before WRT

Yep, agree with that! I've got a few new bits and pieces to try out as well.

+ 2

You're going through bivvy bags faster than I go through pies on a non-iDave day Mark.

Potentially very interested in that Slugwash

Oh go on then

yup Dartmoor could be fun if I can get the time away. Haven't ridden down there for ages but lots of good stuff as I recall.

You're going through bivvy bags faster than I go through pies on a non-iDave day Mark.

😆 I think I'm there now with the bivy bag, although not totally happy with my sleeping mat. I think I need to switch off the internet...

What mat are you on now? I was out with my POE Peak Elite AC just before Christmas: very comfortable and warm but it kept deflating on me...

I've got a Peak Elite AC 2/3 and a regular Neoair. I find the latter more comfortable but would like a short one 🙄

Bummer about your leaky mat. Can you send it back?

Probably not: I bought it when my back was screwed (ahem) so there was about six months between purchase and first use. Going on the Thermarests I've had they're normally fixable.

I've got a Peak Elite AC 2/3

I feel the need to be 'opportunistic' again...

Let's talk... 😆

Probably not: I bought it when my back was screwed (ahem) so there was about six months between purchase and first use. Going on the Thermarests I've had they're normally fixable.

I think I read that the original batch of full length Peak Elites had issues with leaking air from the welded seams. If it's a known issue it might be worth going back to them & see what they say?

Ha! Crispedwheel is up to his old tricks...

Interesting about the seams. I guess it could be that though would need to do the bath check to work out properly. Would last June count as the first batch though? I thought it had been out for a while by then.

Meant to say as well: I'm expecting my new frame to arrive at some point this week. Once it's here and I've had chance to see if your bag fits I should be able to either get it back to you / opportunistically take it off your hands.

Super! Could be a happy ending for all 🙂

For sure! Just seen that thread about the POE mats: bloody hell...