The latest in our occasional Gearblog series, what did racing through a quagmire on a mountain bike teach us about kit and what on earth happened to that cat's eyes?
I spent the weekend hammering a mountain bike around a mildy hilly
course somewhere in the midlands at an event called Sleepless in the
Saddle. It's a 24-hour team relay race for most people and pleasingly
sort of epic - you can't beat draggging yourself out of a warm
sleeping bag at three in the morning to thrash yourself senseless for
an hour...
|
|
|
Omigoddd, I thought it
was a real animal...
|
It was all going swimmingly well until around midnight when it
started raining and never quite stopped. The immediate result was
that the course turned into a quagmire; the next consequence was that the
rider I was waiting for took around 50 minutes longer than expected to arrive, dum de dum,
leaving me standing in the rain waiting...
So what's that got to do with gear? Simple, fortunately I was
wearing a Rab
Primaloft Belay jacket over my eVENT Superfly. It just
underlined how well the belay jacket concept works and how effective
Primaloft is in wet conditions. Despite relentless rain, I was still
reasonably warm after 45 minutes just standing around and despite the
insulation being, well, damp really. It simply works.
Revelation two was out on the course when, dressed in shorts, a
baselayer and an eVENT
jacket and Desperate for a pee, I pulled over and stopped,
standing in front of my bike, lit up by the lights on my bars. I
looked over my shoulder to check no one remotely female was coming
and realised that clouds of steam were rising from my shoulders, yep,
straight through a waterproof jacket.
I have to say I was impressed and it also emphasised just how fast
you warm up when you're working hard. The only other waterproof I've
seen do the same thing was Paramo on a sub-zero night in the
Peak...
The other big credit goes to a Wild
Country Venturi 4 tent that you'll see a full review of in
the next few weeks. It's a flipping great big, four-person tunnel
tent with a humungous porch area that's ideal for mild campers who
still want a properly made tent using top quality materials and
components.
If you're the sort of person who camps out of the back of the car
using a super-lightweight kit, do yourself a favour and
embrace mild camping. Not only is it a lot more comfortable, it's
cheaper too...
Phew, I'm off to dry some more muddy kit...
A very tired editor...
