Camping Gear itself and how you pack the bike.

..This is basically a similar thread to the " small bike camping" thread over on ADV. Saw many threads in this section about racks and cases and what not, not too many about the gear used to camp with itself. Figured I'd start one.

Besides a Wolfman Enduro tank bag which will go on the camping trips with me, I also have the Alfa-Beta bag, and one their discontinued Dry Duffle bags..PVC and water proof. For saddle bags, I have a set of Dirtbagz, that I plan on using the Wolfman racks...since I like them better.

Never mind the DRZ...but this is how bike will be packed up for camping/riding tours. Followed up by new WRR with wolfman racks.





I am just pulling some pics over from ADV..so some of you may have seen it already. I know Jager did.

Gear:
Buying new gear all kicked off with wife buying me Jetboil for Christmas.

alite chair $60.00 Moarch Butterfly
Kelty sleeping bag $109.00 Lightyear 40 F down
sleeping pad $32.00 Pacific Outdoors
cacoon liner $40.00
cacoon pillow $25.00
jetboil $99.00 gift
convertible pants $23.00 White Sierra
collapsible bowl $14.00 Sea to summit X bowl
Wolfman alfa-beta bag $40.00

total $442.00

Probably about as much as I am going to invest in gear for this season. Maybe a new tent and or hammock set up for next season.

I actually did buy something else. I just got one of the Hennessy Expedition A-Sym hammock tents. I am going to carry that and the tent, sinc ethey are both light and small, but use the hammock when ever I can. I got a good deal on it, so that adds about $125 to the above list.

Here is how most of it will pack. New hammock will fit in rear alfa beta bag with chair, tripod, etc.


1. Kelty Light Year 40 °F down sleeping bag
2. Cacoon inflatable pillow
3. Cacoon Coolmax sleeping bag liner
4. Pacific Outdoor inflatable sleeping pad
5. Walmart camp stool( may be replaced at some point by Alite chair)HAS BEEN REPLACED!

Tent is not pictured, but is in one of the Dirtbagz. The first three items above will all be in their compression sacks and then in a dry bag, inside the saddle bag. The sleeping pad and stool will be in the Wolfman waterproof duffle bag. Also not pictured is the Jetboil backcountry stove set up the wife got me...that will also reside in the Wolfman bag. The one saddle bag as well as the duffle still has plenty of room for items, like clothes and food.

If I run out of room in those, I still have the space in my Wolfman Enduro tank bag, and my Hydrapak Laguna bag. I am pretty happy with what I have so far, and not put out too much money** for it.







OK, I think that is all I got for now.

I'm geared a lot like you are with some little differences.

Instead of the jetboil, I carry a Coleman peak I inside a camping pressure cooker. I also carry a frying pan without an handle.

As a pillow i stuff my sleeping bag's sack with dry clothes.

I also use tank panniers. It serves double purpose. First it gives more room and second it protects the legs from the wind and splashing water.

I have some of those Stearns ATV tank panniers too, but have yet to use them. Not sure when I will....it would have to be a really trip to need that much extra storage room.

23 days on the road with this setup. Wolfman enduro saddle bags, duffel, and tank bag with a large event compression sack for clothes and a cheap walmart tent. Ill go into more detail tomorrow once im home and on a computer not my phone.

For long runs I adapt the equipment to the enironment in which I'll be.

As an example when I go in Labrador, I carry a tent, a tarp and a mosquito net covering enough so I can eat under it without being bugged. When in area and circumstances I know it'll be dry I might carry only a bivy or a tarp.

But there is one thing I always carry and it's my cooking kit. I like cooking while camping. Nothing like cooking and eating a good meal while on the shore of a nice lake or a flowing river.

Skierd: Home?? I thought you were on road for good now?

Dan: I can't wait til I can actually take a trip and leave the tristate area. LOL

Doug, I'll be in your area with the family in july.

We're going to Belleplain for a week with children.

Dancamp wrote:

Doug, I'll be in your area with the family in july.

We're going to Belleplain for a week with children.

OK, awesome. Remind when the time comes, and if I can, I'll come down to camp for a night. I do not really ride down that far south normally..or at all at this point, but if you have the bike, we can do some exploring.

DougZ wrote:

Skierd: Home?? I thought you were on road for good now?

Dan: I can't wait til I can actually take a trip and leave the tristate area. LOL

The Plan changed, in practice and to an extent in theory. Or philosophy. Or osmething. I'm starting to work on the ride report portion now actually, tune back in.

I'll have a gear breakdown tomorrow, I really don't feel like unloading the saddle bags right now lol.

Ok...

In the Wolfman Enduro tail duffel


Left to right, patch kit for the air mattress, motorcycle stand, msr inflation kit, bicycle tire air pump, space blanket, coleman flashlight, shampoo, body wash, gold bond powder, toothbrush and toothpaste, tool roll made out of an old pair of jeans, baggie full of my camera chargers and connect cables, Exped Synmat 7 UL air pad, Cocoon silk bag liner and pillow, glasses case with contact case and solution and glasses, Mountain Hardwear Micro Mesh bivy in a mesh stuff sack, Kelty 20* down sleeping bag in the blue compression stuff sack, and a note pad.

In the Enduro saddle bags (originals, not E-10)


The hot side bag held my spare front and rear tubes, 2 msr fuel bottles, 1 bottle of HEET for stove fuel (not pictured), and my small cache of spare parts (front sprocket, levers, shifter, spark plug, drain plug with washer, JB kwik and regular weld, blue loctite).

Cold side bag held my cook kit (REI pot with lid, handle, cut down fork, sierra cup, alcohol stove, heat shield, lighter), roll of duct tape, small first aid kit, tent stakes and mallet, some spare cord, hand warmers, TP, and not pictures my small 7x9 camo tarp and sunscreen. I would usually also stash my balaclava in there if the weather was nice.

In the eVent compression sack was all my clothes, including at most 3 sets of socks, underwear, and base layer t's, a set of thermals, a sweat shirt, a flannel shirt, bathing suit, and my heated jacket, gloves, and socks. I would be wearing a fourth set of under clothes, giving me 4-5 days of riding between laundry stops. In the future for longer rides I'd carry more as I'd rather be riding than doing laundry, for a shorter ride I'd bring less. There's a lot of tweaking that would happen based on where and when i am going.

I carried spare shoes (flip flops) under the tail bags. I started off with a pair of boots for off-bike walking too, but lost one of them somewhere in Arkansas. I also strapped my camp chair and walmart 7x7 tent to the top of the tail bags.

In my wolfman enduro tank bag, I kept my Nikon D40 w/ 18-55mm lens with a waterproof roll top stuff sack just in case, a can of wd40, a GoLite wind shirt, aerostich silk scarf, head lamp, a folding knife, a lighter, tire patch kit, tire pressure gauge, a film canister with ear plugs, eye drops, and a few other bits.

Things to change...
If/when the IMS 4.5+gal comes out, assuming I get it, I'll probably do away with carrying spare gas. I'd get a different tent and not bring the bivy. I'd like a better pillow though I finally got used to the cocoon towards the end. I'd like to move my spare tubes to another location, but this was easiest and didn't require buying another bag. I'm contemplating hard luggage for the future, but for up to a month of mostly back roads and unpaved forest roads, this was a great lightweight easy to pack and carry setup.

Good review Skierd. We pack some of the same stuff.

I read the mixed reviews of the Cacoon pillow. Some had issues with it thinking it was too hard...others just only inflated it 75% and said it was fine.

What was up with the tent you had??

No issues beyond being a cheap walmart tent. Its not really meant for constant use, and after a couple weeks the poles are showing some wear (not fitting together as nicely mainly). I also wouldn't trust it in a real rain storm. I'd like to get something similar probably, tons of room in a dome tent, just with clips instead of sleeves for poles and a rain fly I'd trust more, or at least one that covers the door opening.

skierd wrote:

I'd like to get something similar probably, tons of room in a dome tent, just with clips instead of sleeves for poles and a rain fly I'd trust more, or at least one that covers the door opening.

Take a look at the Marmot twilight. Strong, both entries are covered, packs small and completely dry when it rains even with strong winds.

When buying my camping gear, I went back and forth whether I wanted a new tent or not. I already had a Target tent that I payed all of $12 for. It was not a high priced fancy tent, but it did the job. I had already used it about 1/2 dozen times, and a couple of those were in rain storms...everything stayed dry. It was a Neon-ish green color, so I call it the green booger tent. Here is a link to a comparison I did between it and the Eureka I was gonna buy.

http://advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14955707&postcount=205

I do not use it continuously, so hopefully it will be OK for now. When it does die, I'll buy a better tent. Not a big deal right now anyway, since I ponied up and bought a Hennessy Hammock anyway.

I have been in the process of re-gearing up for camping off a moto cycle. I beed adventure riding for about 3 years on my KLR. I call my KLR BOB, which stands for Beast Of Burden. LOL. The KLR is a bigger frame bike than my WRR and there is definitly space to carry more on it. As a consequence I found that some of the gear items that worked well on the KLR are just too bulky to fit on the WRR. and still get everything I on there.

Example. I have a 0 degree fiber fill sleeping bag that works really well. But its pack size is about 12 inches by 14 or 16 inches. Plus I have an REI self inflating camp sleeping pad that packs to about 8 inches by 24 inches. On the KLR there was enough room to strap these between my tail case and myself. Plus they made a nice back rest. This does not work on the WRR. Not enough length of seat + tail rack.

Here are a few items that I am picking up to get packed smaller and lighter:

MSR Pocket Rocket stove. at REI
http://www.rei.com/product/660163/msr-pocket-rocket-backpacking-stove

Cook Set - GSI Pinicle Soloist at REI
http://www.rei.com/product/784114/gsi-outdoors-pinnacle-soloist-cookset#

The GSI cook set is nice and small. The pocket Rocket burner and one fuel canister will pack inside the cook set. So it all packs down to 5.5x5.4 inches. I chose this over the Jet Boil system since it packs smaller.

Folding cup - Sea To Summit
http://www.rei.com/product/787278/sea-to-summit-x-mug

Exped SynMat 7 with pump - Air Pad (Medium Size) - at REI on internet store did not stock
http://www.rei.com/product/780367/exped-synmat-7-air-pad-with-pump

It packs down to a pretty small size (6x8.2 inches). Plus it will mate with the new Big Angus down sleeping bag I got a few months ago. The sleeping bag has to have a 22 inch wide sleeping pad.

Here is sleeping bag I got. http://www.rei.com/product/811541/big-agnes-grouse-mountain-15-sleeping-bag. Packs to 8x8 inches. The Big Angus does not have any insulation on the bottom side. The sleeping pad slips in to some pannels on the bottom side of the sleeping bag.

I already have a backpacking tent (2 man) that I have had for several years from backpacking.

I have 2 water proof duffle bags that I strap to the Wolf Man side racks. The tent, sleepin pad, sleeping bag and cook set should all fit in one 30 liter water proof duffle bag. This should allow me to get everting that I want to carry into my two side bags (2x 30 liter water proof duffle bags) and my top case on the tail rack. Everyting except a camp chair. That I will have to strap on somewhere.

Pic of 30 liter duffle bag strapped to Wolfman Side rack. HArd to see tail case since my jacket is laying on it. Tank bag is Wolfman Explorer Lite.

Earlier this year I spent over 4 months travelling from Perth to Brisbane via Broome, Darwin and Cairns (Australia) on the trusty WR. I used the following bags for the trip:

Giant Loop Great Basin bag
Sea to Summit Big River 35L Dry Bag
Wolfman Enduro Tank Bag

To secure the giant loop I replace the pillion pegs with small clamps used to securing water pipe to walls - cost a couple of bucks and I just needed to bore out the holes to match the ones on the WR. This allows me to loop the straps from the giant loop through them plus it saves a fair bit of weight. The sea to summit drybag actually has four loops (2 on each side) that you can also thread the giant loop straps through so it will never slide out even if you don't do the straps up tight.

For the most part my camping gear is not just used on the bike but on yearly hiking trips in NZ as well so I have been accumulating various bits of it for years - way before my bike based camping trips. I used the following camping gear:

Marmot Limelight 2 tent- Roomy for a two person tent. It is freestanding (a must for me) and comes with a footprint. My only gripe is that the poles are 20" long when collapsed.

Thermarest Neoair Trekker - I have the large version but it is still lighter and smaller than my prolite four. It is very comfortable (including if you are a side sleeper like me) and more rugged than the lighter Neoair version.

Exped Air Pillow - Tiny when deflated and rolled up, extremely comfortable. Not the cheapest by any means but I value a good nights sleep after a long ride

Merlin Softie 3 Sleeping Bag - Mine is going on ten years old I think, not sure that I am completely comfortable at 5 degrees Celcius as per the specs but it packs up tiny and does the job.

Primus Litech Trek Kettle/Billy - Easy to clean, has a small saucepan for a lid and even fits a 220g gas cylinder inside it (I line the inside with a tea towel to avoid rubbing off the non-stick coating though).

Kovea X1 Gas Stive - A cheap, small burner with push button ignition

Alite Monarch Butterfly chair - This takes a little bit of getting used to as it only has two legs but it packs up small, is very light and - most importantly - comfy to sit (balance?) in ...

Petzl Zipka - Tiny LED headlamp, mine is a number of years old and not horribly bright but does the job and is really compact

The tent and chair go in the dry bag along with a few tools, my sandals and so on. The sleeping bag goes into one of the panniers in the giant loop, the kettle/pot, stove and my food goes into the pannier pod that giant loops supplies and fits into the other pannier quite neatly. The air mattress easily goes into the centre compartment of the giant loop along with the pillow (leaving space for other items in there as well). The giant loop has space for two 1L bottles each side of the centre compartment and I was able to fit heaps of clothes, my shortwave radio (, a book, a slime compressor and all my electronics (phone and camera accessories, usb power pack and so on) in there as well. Well used items like the Petzl Zipka, sunscreen, bug repellant, chain lube, phone, camera and so on went in the tankbag.


Here is a picture of it on the bike - this was actually the first day of the trip and it goes without saying that the bike will never be this clean again :-)




This all worked well although as usual I took far too much stuff which I slowly shed as my trip progressed. I also found that packing the giant loop took a little bit of getting used to but I slowly found better ways of getting more stuff in it as I went. If I did it all again I would buy the 20L version of the Big River dry bag (although the poles in Limelight 2 are too long for this I would say) as I now really do not need the space of the 35L any more. This would allow me to push the giant loop back a small amount and give me a little more sitting space.

When I get some time I will also post details about how I secured my luggage using some custom made cables too. I thought that if I was going to ride 17000kms and be on the road for 4+ months I probably wanted to leave the bike and take a walk to see some things while I was at it ...