Must Have Bikepacking Kit | Tips and Tricks | Cycling Weekly

[Applause] today i'm going to show you some of my favorite go-to camping equipment that i personally have come to rely on when it comes to bike packing these are the bits of kit that i've used countless times i've formed the basis of my camping and cooking kit whilst i'm not saying that these are the specific brands and models for you to go for these are what after many years of experimentation and budget considerations as well this is what works for me i just want you to use this as a bit of a guide as to what you need to be thinking about when it comes to your camping kit for bike packing now the actual kit that i choose to take on a bike packing trip does tend to change depending on several different factors firstly where it is i'm actually riding secondly the weather conditions and third basically how stealthy do i want to be so sometimes you want to be hidden away and make sure that you're out of sight and other times if you're on a bit more of a long distance or more conventional trip where you're using campsites then one of the big things to consider then is comfort levels so if i want a good night's sleep i change what i pick now your camping kit tends to be the most bulky things that you will carry apart from your spare clothes and i tend to put most of my camping kit in my handlebar bag because it's relatively lightweight but it takes up quite a bit of space so this is the perfect spot for it for most trips i can pretty much carry every part of my camping kit in here plus more depending on what i want to carry so obviously if we talk about the first thing the most important thing for your camping kit is a shelter now there's several different things you can carry to provide shelter obviously there's a tent you can have a bivvy bag a tarp or tarpaulin and also a hammock setup as well now of those four things i tend to only really choose three of those and that's a tent a bivvy or a tarp i don't tend to go for a hammock that often because well you kind of need trees or something to actually hang it to a lot of the places i go don't tend to have those sort of things so it's best not to have to rely on external factors so in my pack here here i've got my top bivvy bag now i've also got a tent with me as well i've got this on the back at the moment i don't tend to carry it on there but obviously a tent does take up a bit more space now most of the time you won't carry a tent a top and a bivvy bag because you know that's probably a bit overkill so you might carry a combination of either a bivvy bag and a tarp a bivvy on its own or a tent on its own so for my choice of tent i've used a lot of different sets and this is now my complete and utter go-to this is my big agnes fly creek high volume ultra light one so it's a one man tent but it's got a bit more space than just like a tiny little coffin and the best thing about it is it's incredibly light the whole tent weighs just over 900 grams so that's insanely light it's obviously very very lightweight material so sometimes i do carry a little uh footprint as well which goes underneath it so if i'm going to be going somewhere it's a bit rocky then i don't really want to damage it but you know if you damage your tent you can get it fixed as well but this has standard poles and everything so it's got everything you require you can even pitch it without the fly as well so without the waterproof fly sheets if it's a very nice dry day and it's obviously even lighter so that's my tent in terms of my baby bag well i choose one of the classics which is the app kit hunker now this has been going for a long time and it's a really really great little bit of kit there are more breathable versions of a big bag there are lighter versions but in terms of value the hunker has got it nailed this is actually the xl version so it's the longer and wider version and i like it because it means i can move around quite a bit and also put my sleeping mat inside it as well it's nice and dark green so you're kind of really unobtrusive as well if you are camping out so that's a bonus as well so even in the xl version even the biggest version this is actually still pretty light it's just over 400 grams so that's really good and again it comes in a really really cool bag it looks like it's a stuff sack but it's actually not it's just a mesh pack or mesh section at the bottom of the bag so it just stuffs itself into that so the great thing manager you can pack away super quickly for my tarp well i actually use rab's silt tarp one so this is a single person top so it's not a huge tarp but it does the job again just like the hunker it just gets it done it's not the most breathable because it's silicone coated so what that does mean is it means it's fully fully waterproof so i do have to be aware of that and not pitch it too low so you know sometimes if you've got it really low you do get quite a bit of condensation build up inside it doesn't have eyelets as such on this one as like some do in terms of like tying it to things but it's got little loops which make it so easy to actually do things with i tend to carry like a few little carabiners and obviously the other thing that you need to carry with this is a couple of pegs and some like paracord or rope and i do have that i tend to carry that in my frame pack all nice and neat i've got four pegs and plenty of like guy rope like paracord and with this then i can either tie it up or you can do several different configurations with your top and if i want to i can just cut these down to length as well depending on what i actually need so once you've got your shelter sorted then the next thing you need to think about is your sleeping arrangements so for this you're going to need to get something nice and cozy and warm in the shape of a sleeping bag and then hopefully something comfortable to sleep on now i've got a few different versions that i tend to use for this in terms of like my sleeper mats and my sleeping bags but my go-to if i won a really really good night's sleep is another big agnes product now this isn't the smallest or lightest of sleeping mats this is the cucor slx it's incredibly thick and it's also insulated it's got some uh insulation inside so silver insulation which means it stays really really warm if it's got if it's got really cold at night so it's quite chunky this one weighs over 600 grams so that's my sleeping pad and then i have my sleeping bag now a little tip here as well is they often come with a stuff sack or a compression sack now when you put it in there it tends to go really really hard so you can't squish it into your dry bag so i don't put it in that i just literally stuff it in but i make sure i have my sleeping mat in between my sleeping bag and my shelter just in case the shelter gets wet so this is my down sleeping bag and again sounds boring but it's another big agnes product i just rate this stuff it's just works so so well this is the thunderhead ultralight 30 fahrenheit means that basically it'll go down to below zero and still be comfortable but it's crazy light it's 800 grams or just over 800 grams there's no zip it just clips together but it also forms part of big agnes's sleep system so it's got a sleeve at the back and less insulation at the bottom and you basically put your sleeping mat inside this so it means that when you move around you don't slide off your sleeping mat and you stay super comfy and it stays really light and then the final thing that's kind of related to all this is to make sure that you've got a light source and that obviously this we're talking about a head torch here so that is another little tip is you need to make sure you've got a head torch with you you can use your bike lights but a head torch is just so much more practical because you can keep using both hands even when it's dark i've got one i always carry one this is an alp kit one but i've got several different versions i use you don't have to spend a huge amount of money this was about 25 pounds i think but it's really good and really does the job so the other consideration when it comes to camping out and on a bike packing trip is basically if you're gonna cook or not now if you're gonna cook then you need to obviously carry a stove some fuel and obviously something to cook with you can choose several different options here but often the best thing to go is as light and as small as possible because these can be bulky and heavy objects what we've got here is this doubles up as my cooking pot and i do normally have a mug as well but i've left my mug somewhere and i can't find it and this is the new pot because my old pot was absolutely wrecked so i've had to get a new pot here but it's a titanium pot so it keeps the weight down it doesn't work quite as well as like a steel part or even aluminium but in terms of keeping weight down there's nothing quite like it again this is an alp kit this is the 650 mil one so it really does the job well for a single person it's got a lid as well this one doesn't have any drainer holes so i might just pop a couple of drain holes in that one then inside this is a tip as well is you need to make sure things don't rattle so in here i keep toilet roll because you always need toilet roll got my beer koozie so you know you you want to have a beer every now and again and then i've got the rest of my cook kit so this and some more toilet roll as well so i've got my gas and then this is my stove and again this is probably one of the lightest stoves out there it's just over 20 grams so it's pretty insane titanium it's just really really nice and light so it's as simple as that so this is the alp kit kraku and again the great thing is it doesn't cost the earth this is just over 20 pounds so it's nothing really now obviously if it's going to be windy you're going to need to have a windbreaking thing so again you know i tend to carry other stuff if i'm going to be doing that a lot and then the most important thing then is center lighter with so i always have a lighter now the great thing with the lighter like this is even if you run out of fuel you still got a spark so if you still got a spot you can still light your stove so that is what i tend to carry at all times if i know i need to be out and cooking as in i don't go and stop for fish and chips somewhere so my other two essentials and i don't go anywhere without these first of all obviously if you're gonna be cooking or doing anything you're gonna need a utensil so the good old spork is my choice i do carry a little pen knife as well because just in case and it's a great thing to use um but this does the job really well now this one as you can probably see has seen better days i've had this for actually quite a few years and i tend to melt it quite a bit as well but these are the little light my farmers they're coming like a pack of four for about five quid um and so i've got these around everywhere but this is like my thousand miler version so that definitely is my essential and then finally so i've started to carry almost every single trip now and even like when i go mountain biking if i'm going out into like the into the onto the hills properly is uh this water purify so this is the msr trail shot now it's brilliant absolutely brilliant so what you do with this is you basically put this in your water source then pump it up like so and then it'll prime it and then you can fill your water bottle or fill whatever and you can just drink straight away so you can find any water source as long as it's not too crazily dirty and get yourself fresh water so you don't have to worry about running out of water when you're on your bike ride i hope this little insight into my own personal favorite camping kit gives you some help in terms of getting yourself sorted and choosing your own kit to go bike packing now if you've got any personal recommendations things that you really rate please put it in the comment section below and don't forget to like and subscribe to keep up with our latest releases but until the next one we'll see you soon [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Cycling Weekly

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Keywords: cycling weekly, cycling, cycling weekly magazine, road bike, road cycling, camping, bikepacking, gravel riding, bikepacking must have, essential bikepacking kit, off road cycling, bivvy bag, tent, camping kit, essential camping kit, bike bags, best bikepacking kit, how to bikepack

Id: FdG0MNqHuFY

Length: 12min 59sec (779 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 30 2020