Weird! I'm sure I only said that once. There must be some sort of echo in here!

Jamie - that's Little Peewiglet. He goes on most trips, travelling in the pocket of my rucksack :) In that piccy he was guarding the pot for me in Scotland while I tidied up the tent :)

Aww he's cool! Might have to find myself a mini peewiglet myself!

After getting all my kit down to lightweight perfection over the past month and spending A LOT of money I also did my cooking kit and after your advice and a few other users on another thread I went for the F1 Lite with the MSR Titan Kettle, and a spork which I have made slightly smaller. All of it fits into the Titan kettle pot thingy including the gas canister, I got the last bit today and am in my front room cooking noodles and stuff testing it all out, I can't believe its so effective yet so light and all fits in the pot its ace!

Also Jon and a few other people have left messages on the cooking pot thread with tips that are useful to save gas buirning time etc!

Ooh, excellent! It's quite thrilling when things work out like that :-)

I'm sure you'll love the little Kettley Thing. Just be careful if you ever boil milk in it (as I sometimes do when car camping) as the milk seems to burn and stick very easily. The best policy is to try to get a pal to use his/her non-stick pot for that instead :)

Loving the kettley thing already, I can't believe just a year ago I was going off into the hills with a Trangia and Fuel! I'll remember the milk issue! Cheers!

Best go bed and try and sleep now, I'm off to Mull on Monday for three days so finding it hard to work and sleep cause I'm excited!

Marv.

I've got one of the Outdoor Design Stoves (the 1/2 price one, mentioned earlier) It is not superlight, but it's dead tough and compact. It also has an easy to use piezo ignition. Recommend it, if you're still looking for a stove.

I've also got the OD compression sacs, as PW says, these are only going to compress things that already have a lot of air in them, so not too useful for food, however they are also waterproof, so they're useful as drybags and for organsing your kit.

I do a fair bit of cycle camping and I'd say that you' ve got to get the weight right down otherwsie progreaa is really hampered and the bike doesn't handle nearly as well as it should. Are you loading the front and rear of the bike? It's well worth sorting out the weight distribution, otherwise it's no fun at all! Lightweight is the way to go, but it does get expensive, as many here can testify :-)

You've got to be reasonable at the end of the day and make sure that you're still comfortable carrying the kit but that also that you're not toting too much. I guess it depends where you're off to and what kind of weather you can anticipate?

Just remember to leave room for soft toy companion, that's not optional!

Jamie - Mull for 3 days? I'm jealous! - what've you got planned? and are you staying in the castle?

Toy?? Little Peewiglet would be horrified to hear you refering to him as a toy!
:-)

Oh dear, sackcloth and ashes for me! chastened, hangs head in shame


I guess I'm just envious of such a fine, pot guarding, friend. :-)

Couldn't afford the castle John, take it you mean the Glengorm Castle, looks great though! Staying in the Tom 'A' Mhuillin B&B just above Tobermory, someone on here suggested it. In summer I'd have camped somewhere remote but as its gonna be dark most of the time I thought we'd stay in Tobermory and travel to the hills on the middle day. Gonna be great though, except a gasket went on my car this week but luckilly its gonna be ready by tomorrow!

I'm gonna do Ben More, but although I am experienced the mate I'm taking may not want to tackle it if the weather is too bad so any suggestions for alternative walks would be good? Bare in mind though I don't climb and it has to be a 6 hour walk as its winter of course.

Hmmm. Yes looks like a great place, I've never been, and now I live south, there's less chance of it happening in the near future :(.


I guess that given it is both west and a small island the weather can be anyone's guess. And as I don't know the area you''ll have to be the trailbreaker there!


A friend of mine lives in Iona - his partner runs the Abbey there, he keeps sending me pictures of the views out of his window. I'm sure it's just to wind me up!

Ha Ha yeah I have mates like that! I work all day in Manchester City Centre and often get pics of people on Striding Edge or somewhere while I'm battling my way home in the traffic!

cheers guys and gals, better response than i imagined!
i think the way forward may be to get a whole 2 person set, and take what i need. probably a pan, lid and cup. i like the bending the cuttlery idea!

the solo trip is to NZ and the one with a mate is to iceland.
i'll be loading the bike front and rear, i have 50 litres of space at the rear plus the top of the rack, so hopefully the front will be lightish. any tips on the weight loading issue?!

oh, and the compression bags were meant to be in relation to my clothes, not food! should have said that...

Marv,
I know received wisdom is to spread the weight front and rear but I never have. I've done a few cycle-touring/camping trips in the last few years, using a no-suspension mountain bike, and including:
2 weeks Bilbao-Madrid
Lon Las Cymru off-road version(Wales N to S)
Galway / Connemara

On all of these I've had a pair of 60 litre rear panniers plus a 20 litre daysac lashed on the rack to handle overspill / extra water / immediate food supplies etc. Not entirely sure of the weight on every trip but I'd guess between 20 and 25kg altogether.
At that I've never experienced any handling problems on or off road, and the bike is still wheelable (but not easily carryable!) No doubt with anything else to take I'd have to look at front panniers but as it stands it's been fine.

And I've never bothered with compression bags for backpacking or cycling. My view is that stuff which will compress will compress without compression bags anyway, as long as you pack it sensibly. I do use ordinary stuff bags to organise things though.

One other consideration (apologies if you've sorted it anyway) - how long are your tent poles and what are you doing to carry them? In the past I've lashed them to the crossbar but now they fit into the daysac on the rack. Panniers don't tend to be good shapes for tent poles! And for flying out I've still lashed them to the crossbar because I wasn't sure what security would make of them in hand-luggage.

Anyway have a great trip (great 2 trips) - I'm jealous.

Hi Marv,

have a look at this site:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com
there's loads on general bike setup.

Have you read any of Josie Dew's books?
http://www.josiedew.co.uk/
She's one of those laid back but obviously very determined (and fit) folk. She went to Iceland in one of the books, I might still have it lying around and I could send it on if you like?

If you're going to NZ, you really want to think about the weight issue of the bike and steering of a large load can be tricky. I was in French Alps on an MTB, set up for road touring. I was only there for 2 weeks, so I just went with a rear pannier and bar bag. I always found that front load panniers upset the steeering too much - not something you want on long or sharp descents!...

Happy planning

going way back in this thread.....


I have a Gelert Kettle - cheap and cheerful aluminium thing

Weighs in at about 2 ounces and cost £1.89
It is the ideal size to hold a primus gas canister so it tends to go with me on a lot of occasions...

I have never worked out if water boils faster in it but it feels really civilised when you haven't shaved for a week



Anyone for tiffin?

well, i've just fitted my new pannier rack to the mtb, so i will try it out for pole size. i intend to have the tent on the top of the rear rack, in a dry bag, as it'll take up too much space in the panniers, and will be too long.
as for putting hte poles along the cross bar, good idea! i hadn't really thought about how it'll get there. i'mposting my bike to NZ, as i am staying for a few days in hong kong on the way, and my friends from HK don't recomend carting my bike around there. i'll be taking my panniers to HK, all together in a big bag, used normally to put a rucsac in during flights to stop straps getting caught places. its pretty light, packs up small, but has quite a large capacity. it'll also be easier to carry around than 4 panniers!

i'll also be using a rigid mtb btw.

i have a few of josie dew books, but not one about iceland. those were the first cycle touring books i read, so i suppose i can lay blame on her for my future trips!!! if you could send me the book, it would be fantastic, i'd of course send it back once finished.

still thinking about what to take, would like a pan big enough to store my stove, but its a primus omnifuel, so it would need a reasonable size pan to fit the legs in etc.

I'm about to invest in some lightweight cooking kit - I've now got loads of ideas from reading this thread. Cheers to all.