Monday, June 16, 2008

Sunday night, monday morning.

After getting on the wrong train from haymarket i doubled back and got back to glasgow with enough time to hurriedly pack up the pinkster and get out for a bivvy ride. When i decided to bed down somewhere near the whangie ( a large split in the rock caused by the devils tail as he flew to a witches coven meeting...apparently) it began to rain. It was 11 oclock and i was pretty bushed and didnt feel like getting wet, so i didnt pay much attention to the ground, covered as it was in a thick coat of grass.






Needless to say, the grass hid several 6" high, hemispherical mounds, positioned in such a way that i never really got comfortable all night. Hey ho.

The packing aim for this trip was as light as possible. As such the complete weight of the bike, racks, waterbottles and kit was 17kg. The bike and racks weigh 12 kg so given the 2.25kg of water on the bike, thats pretty damned light. My ruck sack was a little heavier than i wanted, with 3kg of water. Fully dressed i had 8kg of kit on my person. Soooooooo, subtracting the H2O, shoes etc i had about 6-7kg of stuff. Not bad, and right where i was aiming for. I can go lighter, but not much without sacrificing certain comforts (coffee, hot food).

The packing was a different matter. I had less stuff on the racks initially - bad idea, and i also didnt have enough dry bags to keep the sleeping bag totally dry -bad idea 2. Live and learn.

A winding 50 or so miles through the roads and hills with a drop down to clachan of campsie had me back home and sorting out the bike for this week ends mountain mayhem. New tyres were needed on the tif as i spotted the tyre had bugun to split, and i took the opportunity to true and tension the wheels. Good work. Time for bed...

7 comments:

badger dave said...

is that a rim still in the wrapper! One day I'll have a room like that

Anonymous said...

jon
I htink i am coming to visit you tonight, (Mon jun 23) could you leave a message or call me...
sorry to be so vague.
phoning you is not easy...or are you even in toun?

riderx said...

What bivy are you using? Looking for one for my own biking adventures.

Cheers,
Joe

dRjON said...

jacquie--- ;-)~

riderX --- im using an old north face mountain marathon. its a small coffin tent, 2 layer and most importantly has a bug net....(youve experienced mideges here?!)

the reasoning is that a bivvi with a net is almost invariably 900 or so grams, as long as its water proof. BUT i cant get any kit inside, a small tent these days can even be the same weight (terra nova laser competition) and you can sit up inside...worth considering. only downside is they pack bigger cos of poles...

jenn our friend in the gdr this year is using a laser comp stripped to its 800~ gram single layer and foot print whatsit and swears by it...

HTH!

Anonymous said...

Hey Jon,

I'm intrigued by your lightweight bivvi setup. How does your (light) front and rear pannier setup affect handling on technical trails? Importantly, are they still fun?

dRjON said...

its a little hard to say as the bike was designed for them, so it has a relatively low bb, slack angles and is a little sturdier than normal. in general, if stowed well, i dont notice the weight, and i ride pretty much everything i would without the kit. the only limit is i cant get quite as far over the rear wheel due to the rack and kit on it. otherwise, i can do whatever. I did slightly modify the mounting hardware for the OMM racks which *may* increase the stability a tiny wee bit, i also made 2 monunts for the rear rack that have hemisperical washers in them (from brake pad post mounts) with concentric aluminium tubing so that they mount tight and perfectly aligned as i was concerned that the long struts may loosen bolts if there was no ability to take a little sideways force.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jon.

I've put off sorting something similar, but only because I've not known what I want!

What you've said has given me some confidence that I want a similar setup. Nice one!

Take it easy.