Touring Kit Advice

[FatFergie]

Loads of great ideas here isn't there Smallfordsuk? And loads of different ideas.
Confused yet?

Which is why I'd suggest spending just a little to begin with. You might buy the very best kit and find it just doesn't suit you. Some people love the meths type stoves and some hate them etc etc....

You could also try borrowing some stuff and seeing if you like it or you'd like to improve on it or go in another direction.

What do I use ( and I don't use it as much as I'd like )? I have a 3 man tunnel (for two) which has a huge porch for all our often wet stuff but it is a pain to pitch in windy weather and it's quite bulky.

I alternate between a camping Gaz bluet (obsolete now), a trangia set and a lidl trangia style kit which is just as good. I have a collection of pans from all over the place, all cheap and cheerful with tupperware to eat out of and store stuff. I use a cheap hollowfill sleeping bag ( I think LIDL are selling them right now) and a fleece liner for when it's cold (with the bag)or hot (on its own). I also bought a campbed just recently and love it. Never tried the thermarest but previously used the closed cell mats cut in half to reduce bulk. We have a Surplus store nearby which does a good few low cost items.

[severs]

How about severs demonstrates how to put up his tent at the National?

OK... when and where is the national? Someone PM me?

[Lord Vader]

OK... when and where is the national? Someone PM me?

Have a look here
Plume of Feathers, Dartmoor 11-14 September 2008

[Extremist]

How about severs demonstrates how to put up his tent at the National? Or if he's not coming, maybe someone else can set things up and demonstrate?

And what about holding a tent-pitching competition? The winner will be the quickest to take down, pack and then re-erect their tent!

Or how about doing a quick demo in front of a video camera and putting it on YouTube?

[Zenarchy]

Just got an email from amazon about a camping sale they have on at the moment and thought of this thread:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.h...cId=1000166703

I'm not sure how the stuff on sale measures up, or if they're already available for the same price or cheaper elsewhere (so it might be worth doing a search at google for anything you might be interested in to check), but there appear to be fairly big discounts.

Might be worth a look anyway.

[FatFergie]

Aldi in Ireland at the moment are doing a bit of stuff.

[DRLANER]

Try Argos they're fantastic, I bought a 2 man tent that came with 2 mummie sleeping bags and two roll mats for £30 its not a fancy big label name or anything but I have used it many times and it has proven itself very well!

There is enough room inside for two people to be comfortable, so if your solo then there's loadsa room!

Sometimes cheap stuff is worth a look!

As for your other items, I would get a Trangia cooking stove (these things are excellent) a couple of mess tins from an army surpless store and you can get neat folding cuttlery from these places aswell! A good kinfe (Sharp), A good LED light + anything else you feel you would need, but I don't think that there is anything else you would!

Cheers,

Adam.

[miss P]

I have always camped - I do mean always, family holidays every year then with mates as I grew up. I stayed in my first hotel / B&B on my africa trip.

I built up my kit slowly. Starting with the bottom of the range stuff and replacing 1 piece each year.

Tent - Go for at least a 3 man. Preferably with a large porch area.
Always have an inner tent if your camping in the UK.
The extra skin and extra room will be invaluable if it rains. You need to be able to keep your wet panniers & riding kit away from your bed.
I have always left the poles & inner tent inside mine - because I am lazy not clever! Started off with a dome tent for £5 from a boot sale - re-waterproofed every year and got 8 years out of it! We've got a Khyam McKinley now. It's enormous. I call it the holiday home.

Sleeping Mat - I started with 2 roll mats, then moved on to an airbed, now I use a self inflating mat.

Sleeping bag - I started with an army surplus green mummy bag - heavy, large, filled with feathers but warm & cheap. I now use a lightweight 3 season bag with a silk liner.

Rubble sacks - these heavy duty bin bags are so useful. They will keep everything dry but wont rip or snag like bin bags. A recent addition to my kit has been a lightweight drybag but I still take the rubble sacks.

Torch - I take 2, a mini mag light and a wind up one which will charge my phone if desperate.

Cooking equipment - For years I relied on cafes & campsites for food & drink. Just kept a bottle of water in the tent. as I got older & skinter (how does that happen?) I needed more tea to function than I was prepared to pay for so I bought a cooker.

I started off with a Camping Gaz Twister. This tiny burner fitted inside 2 small pans and cost less than £15 for the set. For 3 years this did cups of tea, instant mash & beans, porridge, cous cous etc. for me & my other half. I have just upgraded to a coleman petrol stove & stainless steel cook set.

Plates & mugs came from woolworths. I use standard cutlery and a small nylon chopping board - knifes (a table knife & small sharp knife), fork, spoon, tin opener. I also take a plastic 2 pint jug - which I pack everything else into. I find this useful for re-hydrating cous-cous & instant mash. I also take a handful of large freezer bags, useful for keeping food, toilet roll etc dry.

Clothes - I take a full spare set of clothes with me which I religiously keep dry. Waking up to the dawn chorus is a beautiful thing, still being awake, damp & shivering at the dawn chorus is never to be repeated.

For a 2 week trip I will take:
Riding jacket (with no lining), riding jeans, medium weight fleece with full zip front, lightweight pullover style fleece, 2 long sleeved t shirts, 2 vests, 2 weeks worth of underwear, 4 pairs of coolmax under socks, 6 pairs of ordinary socks, 1 pair of thick wool socks (for sleeping in!), 1 pair of ordinary trousers, bike boots & sandals or trainers, swimsuit. I wash socks occasionally but nothing else unless I'm desperate.

Towel - I have a nobac travel towel. It's enormous but takes up very little space. I would recommend one.

Pillow - I use any dry clothes I'm not sleeping in!

Chairs - I have homemade metal panniers, I sit on them.

Earplugs - I always take them

Try borrowing kit for your first year. Camping isn't for everyone. I love it.
The Cornish are like the Scots, a little tight around the wallet! You get to stay in the most beautiful places for less than the price of an evening meal. Which gives you more money to spend on petrol!

Enjoy!

[Jenna]

pretty well similar advice as Miss P, don't throw loads of cash at fancy gear 'till you know what you want and wot works for you.

had a few tents from Tescos specials up to the last one.. a Jack Wolfskin, changing again this year to a Coleman Phact X3. Don't take the manufactures tent sizes as gospel, as normally wet kit can take up the space of 1 person also modern tents are way lighter than old fashioned ones (eg that extra space will only weigh around 600-800 grams thats less than two average sized tins of baked beans!)

Currently have a Jack Wolfskin 3 season bag with silk liner, started off with a German army issue mummy bag, in fact i still have two in loft gathering dust if anybody wants them!

Stove is a Coleman petrol featherlight, now 10+ years old and still works well ( although i would recommend you remove the primer plunger when stored!!).. promised my self a new set of shinny titanium pans this year but for now (and the last 15 years) good old MOD mess tins work.

I did try a foam mat for a while many years ago and couldn't get on with it so bought a Metzler thermarest, its also 10+ years old now and been round the world on many rallies and still works well.

[brownetara]

What would be really great would be a you tube video of how you do this - it kinda makes sense at the minute but wouldn't mind seeing it in action!

I won't recommend a tent, because all my tents have been bought mainly for lightweight cycle-camping/mountaineering and probably cost too much for a motorcycle-based valley-bottom situation. But here's a tip about pitching your tent:

When you get to the site and it's pi$$ing down, you want a waterproof cover up as fast as possible. So you will be tempted to buy an "outer first" model. You can always shelter under the fly (the "outer") until you can get a grip, no hurry as long as you are dry, etc.

But actually, with many tents, you can rig them to pitch inner & outer simultaneously. You won't see it in the instructions! It works best with geodesic type tents but there's no reason it shouldn't work with a single-hoop (I do it with my macpac tropical) or tunnel models.

First, use the tent for a while to get used to pitching it and taking it down. Maybe practice in the garden or a park? (Cue the funny looks).

Then figure out a way of attaching the outer to the inner. With many tents, the inner or outer or both are retained by putting the ends of the flexi-poles into aluminium "holes" - circular rivets in a piece of nylon tape, hanging off the "hem" of the tent.

Now imagine, if you can, the tent is up. If you could collapse the poles without the pole-ends falling out of the "holes", the tent would be exactly the same as it is when it is up, just a flat rippled mass on the floor.

Now, the next concept. You know how you remove the flexi-poles and then fold them by pulling them apart, lengthways? You can, in many cheaper tents (because the pole fit is not particularly tight), do this with the poles still in the tent. Most tents require you to slide the pole into a narrow nylon guide-way when you erect the tent, or through a series of loops, or something. You can often leave the flexi-poles inside the guides and still collapse them, if you practice. You fold the tent up in an unorthodox way as you go. It takes a bit of practice!
The folded tent will not be as compact as it is when you fold it "properly".

But how to stop the pole ends falling out of the aluminium rivet "holes"? Simply erect the tent and slide a washer onto each of the exposed pole ends, then squeeze on three or four tightly-fitting rubber or silicone rubber o-rings to retain each washer.

Try it! It doesn't cost much.

Now for the best bit: Take the unfolded tent in its "collapsed" state out of its bag and lay in down the correct way up. Grab one end and shake it violenty, like a blanket or a doormat that you are trying to get the fluff and grit off. The poles will slide together on their internal elastics and the tent will erect itself - often with a sudden "woomph" sound which is very pleasing.

Taking the tent down with the poles still in is a bit fiddly, and takes longer than normal. But imagine arriving at the campsite when it's slashing down with rain, grabbing your tent and "woomph!" - it's up! then dive inside.

This works with inner-first or outer-first tents.

It's even better with tents designed to allow you to put up just the inner, just the outer, or both.

And some tents are designed to allow the inner and outer to be velcro'd together and erected as one. They work really well. My macpac is like this and it goes up in about 5 seconds.

When it isn't raining, do it anyway at rallies - it's a fantastic "party piece".