Having done enough bikepacking and ITTs I've got most of my kit sorted so in the end there wasn't much difference to something like the HT550. I took a few extra spares as I wasn't sure of finding anything en-route.
I've linked to some of the items I took, the harnesses and bags should be searchable with how I've listed them. Clothing and the like is pretty generic but when looking at cycling shorts and shoes, what fits one person another will completely dislike.
I used my Cotic Solaris (Mk1) with Travers Prong carbon fibre forks. I fitted a set of Velo Orange Crazy Bars to give me more hand positions. I had an SP dynamo built into a front wheel, Stans Blunt 35mm rim, and mounted a Vittoria Mexcal 2.6" tyre to it. The rear wheel is a Hope Pro 4 XC hoop with Bontrager XR2 2.2" tyre. I used my usual 1x10 drivetrain, 30T up front, 11-40T cassette.
So from front to back:
Wildcat Lion harness
Wildcat double ended wet/dry dry bag. I find this very useful to separate the wet and dry parts of my bivy system. It's all standard off-the-shelf stuff and apart from the mat being full rather than torso length is the same as I took on last year's HT550.
- Trekkertent cuben fibre tarp
- Borah Gear Ultralight bivy bag
- Cumulus 150 quilt
- Klymit X-frame sleeping mat
My SPOT tracker was fixed to the top of the Lion harness.
Mounted on the handlebars were a Garmin Oregon GPS unit and an Exposure Joystick light. The latter was mainly used around camp as I did very little night time riding.
Strapped underneath the stem was an Igaro D1 converter unit to sit between the dynamo hub (AC) and the batteries (DC). I'll deal with how I went about powering stuff in another post.
Revelate Mountain Feed Bag (x2)
The Revelate bags are a bit bigger than most other stem cell type bags plus the external elasticated pockets are usable even when the bag is full. They also can be open and closed one handed so usable on the move.
Trail food went into one bag. This also had midge repellent in one of the pockets.
The other bag was generally a free-for-all but usually contained my glasses, camera, phone and wallet (plastic bag with money and card). The external pockets held a whistle (mandatory for the event) and a bag with all my electronic cables.
Alpkit Top Tube Bag
This is the medium size I think. Contained a lot of odds and sods.
- MSR Trailshot water filter (not used)
- 10,000mAh Powerbank battery
- 3,500mAh battery
- Baby wipes
- First Aid kit
- Passport (well it had to go somewhere)
This held all my tools and spares. Even though there might be bike shops along the way they aren't going to be of use if one of your bike specific parts breaks so best to be as self-sufficient as possible.
- One spare inner tube (the right size this time!)
- Multitool
- Leatherman Squirt pliers
- Tyre levers
- Emergency spoke
- Spare mech hanger
- A tin of spare nuts and bolts
- 50ml tube of sealant
- Tube of chain lube - wet as the dry variety doesn't last if you are going through puddles.
- Black Diamond expedition sewing kit
- Puncture repair kit
- Repair kit for sleeping mat.
- 2 sets of spare batteries for the SPOT tracker.
- Carbon fibre pole for the tarp (from Stuart at Bearbones)
- Pegs for tarp
Wildcat tapered dry bag
- Buff
- Light thermal top
- Light thermal shorts
- Spare cycling bibs
- Spare cycle top
- 1 pair spare cycling gloves (not used)
- 1 pair spare socks (not used)
- T-shirt
- Mountain bike baggies
- 1 pair underpants
- A dry bag containing toiletries.
- Endura lightweight waterproof tucked into the harness strap.
I wouldn't take a second pair of gloves as I only wore the main set for one day to avoid sunburn before my hands got a tan. I'm not sure about taking the spare bib shorts and top either, a bit of talcum powder on the pad at night and I'm usually OK. I use the dry bag as a pillow at night and the buff is a cover to that to give a bit of extra comfort.
Not sure of the overall weight, the only bit that felt "heavy" was the seat pack. I didn't bother with any cooking kit, relying totally on finding cafes and shops en-route. Even if I had it would only have been a meths stove, a mug and a small amount of fuel. As I noted at the top of this post, I've got things pretty well sorted and mostly it's just tweeks for the circumstances of each route/ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment