The Bike Hermit & Don Jewell heading out for 5 day trip from Boise to Enterprise, Or.
Living in the High Desert we have come to appreciate the ability to carry enough water when touring. Look closely at the Bike Hermit’s feet and you can see his white water bottle attached underneath his down tube. (click on the photo to see it better) The challenge is “Chief”, his A Homer Hilsen, only comes with the “normal” two cage bosses. Don’s Surly Ogre (on the left) has 3 cage bosses, as does the Surly LHT and the Surly Disc Trucker. Thankfully we’ve found a sweet solution to add more bottles – Elite VIP bottle clips. Made in Italy these clips resemble a zip tie, the heavy duty type but with cage bosses attached. Designed to fit any tube between 22mm and 50mm diameter. These are slick. We have also mounted them on Surly Pugsley Forks (see below). A light weight inexpensive addition, well worth it for anyone planning rides/tours where water is not readily available. As you can see from the 1st photo, The Bike Hermit also chose to carry a camelback and tucked into his gear is a folding hydration bottle and the water filtering system in case they have to resort to cattle troughs and trickling streams.
Wendell’s Pugsley with cage bosses for more water capacityElite VIP Bottle Boss
Ever since I read “How To Use A Flashlight Tactically” on the Art of Manliness (yes, that’s for real) blog I have wanted a tactical flashlight. A tactical flashlight is not much bigger than the palm of the hand, has a bright LED beam, is made of impact resistant material, is waterproof and has a robust, shielded on/off switch. Technically a tactical flashlight would have “striking” bezel, a hardened aluminum piece which is scalloped or shaped in such a way that the flashlight can be used as a tool or for self defense. OK, I admit that if faced with the situation, I’m not sure I would have the wits or the skill to use the flashlight to temporarily blind and disorient an assailant long enough for me to get away or to punch him out. But the thought that I could is somehow comforting.
Maybe I can punch my way out of a wet paper bag with this!
My new flashlight is small enough to conceal in my fist with only the bezel sticking out and the on/off switch cradled against my thumb. And it has a metal clip to secure it to the pocket of a bike bag for quick access, or to attach it to the brim of a baseball cap so I can use it as a headlamp.
This flashlight weighs about 2.4 ounces or 70 grams. I don’t think I would want one much heavier.
On a related note:
Brother David Sunshine (pretty sure that’s his given name) posted on the Surly Bikes blog an article about his survival kit. While we’re not necessarily preparing for the apocalypse….we’re just going bike touring…..there are some good ideas for what to take with. And the specifics will change for each person depending on where they are going; a trip around the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound is different than riding the length of the Baja.
From surlybikes.com
I can see that my own survival kit needs some work. For backcountry touring I want to get a signal mirror and a compass. And my fire starting skills could be improved. I should carry a fire steel and learn how to use it. When I was in Boy Scouts we spent a lot of time building fires. If you couldn’t start a fire with only one match and without paper, it could be embarrassing. So much of the fire building process was in the prep…plenty of dry tinder, several stacks of dry twigs in graduated sizes, then larger sticks and logs…and in the structure….making a teepee shape over the tinder out of the smallest dry twigs and slowly adding bigger twigs as the flame grew. What I did not know until I read this is that inner tubes will light on fire pretty easily. So having several strips cut out of old inner tubes means I will always have fire starter. Not sure that would have qualified in the Boy Scouts but, oh well.
Well, I definitely don’t want a Rube Goldberg approach to bike touring. I prefer the K.I.S.S approach. Small, light, simple and multi purpose are useful metrics for equipment choices. Like the survivalists say: the more you know the less you need.
Of course for the items which need to be readily accessible when on the bike I also like many external pockets on my bike luggage. But that is a subject for a different post. Some things, such as a tire pump and a spare tube, are obvious for taking on a bike tour, but I want to take a moment to discuss a couple things that might not seem quite so obvious.
Zip Ties
Zip ties are rivaled only by duct tape and baling wire for versatility but they are much easier to carry than either of those. Throw a handful of assorted sizes into the bottom of a bag and forget about them until you need them. Use them to replace a broken pannier clip, hold an errant brake cable in place against the frame, replace the zipper pull on your sleeping bag, keep a fender in place, strap extra spokes to the chain stay, and in countless other situations.
Folding Knives
Say you forgot the tent stakes, or lost them. With a good, sharp knife and a small branch the day (or night) is saved.
Then you can use it to cut up the veggies for pasta primavera. And, even though I have never needed a knife for self defense, there is a certain sense of security in thinking that I could. I can even whittle a willow whistle. I’m continually surprised by how much I use this tool and I’d feel a little helpless without it. There are some features which I appreciate in a folding knife but I don’t really know that much about various steel alloys used for knife blades. Most makers will use different alloys for knives with different intended uses. For bike touring I think a trade off of durability with ease of field sharpening makes sense. The Edgie folding knife by Columbia River Knife and Tool For the last few years I have been using the “EDGIE” a folding knife from Columbia River Knife and Tool (CRKT).According to their website this model has been discontinued. With diamond coated spring sharpeners built into the folder frame the blade edge is honed each time it is closed. At just over 4 inches in length when closed and with a blade of almost 3 inches I have found this to be an ideal size. This knife has a straight blade edge which has been fine for my use.
If I were buying a new knife today I would probably look for some other features, such as, a blade which locks open, a blade with a different point shape, and a knife that is made in the USA. Buck Knives is located in Post Falls, Idaho USA and most of their knives are made there.
The Buck Ranger I love the old school look of the Ranger knife I can almost smell the old canvas of our Boy Scout tents. It looks to be a perfect size and it comes with a leather sheath, which is pretty sexy. A small stone for sharpening the blade intermittently doesn’t take up much room and one can relax in camp at day’s end reflecting on the just completed ride and reviewing the upcoming route while sharpening one’s blade. Way better than Boy Scouts because you don’t have to work on stupid merit badges.
Back in the day there were not a lot of choices in lightweight backpacking or bike touring stoves. The bike hermit used (and still has) a Svea brand stove. Aside from being dangerous, unreliable, inconsistent, inefficient, heavy and difficult to use, that stove is great. Nowadays there is a better selection of stoves from which to choose, with various models burning everything from white gas to isobutane/propane to denatured alcohol to sticks. The different fuel sources all have pluses and minuses and most people will have a preference for one or the other based on their own demands.
My most recent experience has been with the Primus EtaPowerTrail EF Stove
Primus EtaPower stove in use. The black knob on the line attached to the top of the fuel canister allows for flame adjustment.
This is an isobutane/propane stove so the fuel source is a sealed canister with a screw fitting for a fuel line which connects to the burner. The fuel is pretty easy to find at most outdoor stores and even Walmart, so even though you can’t fly with it or ship it, you can get it on route.
The kit I purchased includes the burner unit with fuel line , a base, a windscreen, a 1.7 liter aluminum pot with a lid and a pot handle.
All the parts
This is not the most compact stove available but it has some features I like.
Namely;
-Relatively large and very stable base.
-Windscreen
-Easy to light
-Great heat output Boils about 3 cups of water at 32 degree F. ambient temp. in about 4 minutes.
-1.7 liter pot is good for cooking pasta dishes or for making freeze dried food with water left over for coffee or cleaning.
-Separate, light, easy to use pot handle
-Piezoelectric start precludes need for matches
The burner unit snaps into the base.
The burner in place. The piezoelectric starter button is the black button in the lower right of the photo above
Base unit with burner attached, ready for windscreen
The windscreen sits on the base and is secured by rotating counterclockwise to engage the helical cut outs with the bases of the pot support wings. The wings are then folded down to provide a level pot surface.
Pressing the piezoelectric ignition button creates a current in the wire which is suspended over the burner plate and a spark generates between the end of the wire and the plate, igniting the fuel coming through the line from the canister. If the wire gets bent and is too close to the plate, no spark will generate and the wire needs to be re-positioned away from the plate surface until the spark is visible when the ignition button is pressed.
The space between the end of the wire and the plate may need to be adjusted to achieve a spark when the ignition button is pressed.
Even though this might appear to be a complicated kit, it is well made and durable. I need to be more diligent in making sure all the connections are tight between uses. The entire kit (minus fuel canister) weighs about 27 ounces or 765 grams. Now I see on the Primus website they have a stove that is slightly lighter but much more compact, the Primus Eta Lite
