kit list time! whats your lightest setup?

[HaYWiRe]

What's the most minimal and ultralight you've ever been for an overnight trip?

I'm not talking about lightest comfortable, but pure raw lightweight goal.
And how many of you would do it again?
Did you find out from experience where that fine line is between ultralight and "stupid-lite"?

We all have different tolerances but I'm pretty sure most of us have been over hopeful with some setups at some point


All I'm saying is I need a sleeping mat, too many sleepless lights to save weight in the wrong places....

[whitestone]

Obviously the lightest kit list would be nothing, i.e. you weren't intending to be out overnight but circumstances dictated otherwise. For planned overnighters then I've used the following:

PHD down vest 80g
Thermal top 285g
SOL Escape bivy bag 241g
Klymit X-frame mat 260g
Buff 25g

I've used the above twice this year, on the YD300 and the Peak200 ITTs so obviously it works for me in summer. I could have skipped on the mat but my old bones might not have appreciated it. I take the thermal top so I have something dry to wear at night and the buff because I ain't got any hair on top! 900g isn't bad, it all fits comfortably into one of the small Wildcat tapered dry bags. On the BB200 in October I added a Cumulus 150 quilt which is another 350g

However by the time you've added the weight of bags, harnesses and the essentials like a rain jacket, lights, pump, repair kit plus electronic gadgets then getting below 4Kg is a reasonable aim IMO. On the BB200 my extra kit came to 3.9Kg and while I didn't use all of it, had anything gone wrong then I'd have been glad of what I took.

[voodoo_simon]

Rider, bike and kit all under 75kg...

[Scattamah]

As I don't have an alternate "heavy" setup, this is 95% of what I'm always out in...

Tent - Solplex (in sack with poles and pegs): 579g
Sleeping Bag - Zpacks (advertised weight): 397g
Mat - Neoair Xlite regular (in stuff sack with repair kit): 403g
Down jacket - Montbell Plasma 1000: 135g
Long-sleeve merino - Inov8 (sleep top): 150g
Boxers - generic cotton (sleep bottoms): ~80g
Socks - Woolie Boolies (sleep feet): ~90g
Beanie - Angora wool: 36g
Suunto Quest watch (alarm clock): 38g
Spray/wind jacket - Montane Featherlite smock (in stuff sack): 140g; or
Rain jacket - Rab Flashpoint 2015 (in stuff sack): 193g
Bearbones towel: 88g

2189g with rain jacket - this setup is good for overnight or a month long ride.

I've tried subbing the tent for a Hunka (360g) but I'm not quite there yet trading ~220g for the space/convenience/comfort/bugfree-ness of the Solplex.

Above config + a few extras can be seen here - viewtopic.php?p=97492#p97492 with brief description a couple of posts below. The cuben dry bag on the front is 22g. If I was going all out, I'd not take the sleeping clothes, towel and the spray smock in lieu of a full rain jacket (~600g saving).

Interesting exercise this...found some scales about the place and have finally got real weights on my stuff and not advertised weights. Heavier than I thought.

Greetz

S.

[whitestone]

Rider, bike and kit all under 75kg...

Not a chance! I'm over 80Kg in my birthday suit

To Scattamah: I often modify kit so my weights can be different to that advertised. I'll stick stuff on the kitchen scales and round up to the nearest 5g which is what's in my spreadsheet and what I'll quote. Quite often it's not the "big" items you need to worry about as they can be relatively easily swapped out for lightweight (if expensive) alternatives but all the little stuff where each item isn't that heavy in itself but by the time you've packed them all you've added rather a lot.

My multi-tool weighs 185g and a spare inner-tube weighs 190g, pump is either 90g or 150g. Even with the lighter pump and some spare brake pads that's 400g. Electronic and electrical items come to nearly 600g so that's a kilogramme. A full set of bikepacking bags/harnesses and associated dry bags is 1200g, not that for a lightweight setup I'd take everything but you get the idea.

[AlasdairMc]

Obviously the lightest kit list would be nothing, i.e. you weren't intending to be out overnight but circumstances dictated otherwise. For planned overnighters then I've used the following:

PHD down vest 80g
Thermal top 285g
SOL Escape bivy bag 241g
Klymit X-frame mat 260g
Buff 25g

My lightest of the lightest kit is somewhat similar. I carry an Exped pillow and a Berghaus down jacket, lightweight running gloves and an Icebreaker hat. However, I've never had to use the Escape as it was used as a 'just in case' setup on a long road trip. How do you find the Escape? Does it breathe well and is it any good in the rain?

[Ian]

My lightest set up for a single night out looked like this:



It includes sleeping bag, mat, thin Bivvy bag, pan and stove etc. Wildcat Lion holding a 5 litre dry bag and Wildcat Tomcat.

No idea what it weighs, and yes its very conditions dependent.

[ianfitz]

I had a work night bivy last year in the summer during a very settled spell and took only a PHD minimus - 335g and a SOL lite bivy at ~ 150g. No mat. Had tea in a pub so no stove. A flap jack bar for the ride out and one for breakfast. Only had bibs and a short sleeve jersey, arm and leg warmers plus a wind proof gillet. Didn't weigh it but don't see how lighter would be possible in the UK. It fitted in a 3 litre bag on the bars so no harness just velcro straps.

485g for sleep stuff
75g for bag
80g each for flapjacks
?30g for straps
Well under 1kg all in anyway. But unless you are 100% convinced about the weather I'm not sure that feasible. I do have the homemade bivy which is fully waterproof and 275g, which would make sleep kit 610g, and probably still under 1kg . Would survive a rainy night, but never fun in just a bivy.

I did once bivy in snowdonia before supporting a couple of legs of the Paddy Buckley Round. bivy, sleeping bag, mat and stove was 1250g all in. Other supporters thought I was crazy but I knew it would be lighter than the masses of food they would have given me to carry if I'd met them road side

[ianfitz]

And thinking about it a more robust set up may, purely hypathetically of course, be:

Z Packs hexamid (with full midge net, cuban bathtub ground sheet and extended beak, really very weather proof) with Stu's carbon pole and pegs - 535g
Enlightened Quilt (good for 0c and a shade below) 445g
short neo air 225g
That would give you 3+ seasons worth of comfort for 1205g

[whitestone]

Obviously the lightest kit list would be nothing, i.e. you weren't intending to be out overnight but circumstances dictated otherwise. For planned overnighters then I've used the following:

PHD down vest 80g
Thermal top 285g
SOL Escape bivy bag 241g
Klymit X-frame mat 260g
Buff 25g

My lightest of the lightest kit is somewhat similar. I carry an Exped pillow and a Berghaus down jacket, lightweight running gloves and an Icebreaker hat. However, I've never had to use the Escape as it was used as a 'just in case' setup on a long road trip. How do you find the Escape? Does it breathe well and is it any good in the rain?

Not sure about breathability of the Escape - it's basically Tyvek with a reflective coating - I've certainly been "damp" to a very small extent in the morning but whether that's general perspiration or my breath when I've been curled up asleep I'm not sure. Reading some of the reviews before I got it, some people had problems with condensation, others didn't. For whatever reason the bag is pretty short, I'm 5'11" and It's just long enough to pull in around my shoulders. There's also no way of sealing the opening (though you shouldn't be in a completely sealed bag anyway) but this means that if there's some form of precipitation then you need to have the opening facing down towards the ground. Generally it's more to keep breeze/wind or midges away than deal with a night of rain. If rain was forecast then I'd take a tarp which would add 300g or so for Silnylon or 125g for Cuben Fibre (plus poles and pegs).

As Ian (Fitz) says: the super light setups aren't that practical most of the time, I'll only use mine for ITTs where I am looking for minimal kit, for general touring type trips then I'm happy to trade a bit of extra weight for comfort. Even then I'll only be taking about 1800g. Apply a bit of money (look up Ian's ZPacks Hexamid ) and my 975g of tarp, poles and bivy bag setup loses 440g or one whole English Lb but at an extra cost of £300. However my tarp setup can be used for two which might also be a consideration. At that weight then a Terra Nova Lasercomp is also worth looking at: 900g and can sleep two cosily - might be a bit too cosy with the deep inflatable mats like the Exped or Neo-air.

No one right answer except use what works for you!

[jameso]

Under 1kg gain over my usual day-ride gear that has toolkit etc already. Just summer sleep-over kit - 730g of bivi kit PHD quilt-bag (290g), neo-air 3/4 mat (260g) and bivi/sleeping bag cover(180g). Home-made bar strap and a dry bag - about 70g? So ~800g on the bars. Food is bought from a shop and carried with a Sea-2-Summit pacsac, about 60g. Used for local SS 24hr rides mainly. Could do a few nights in fair weather quite happily with that. Add in a 300g jacket and a 200g waterproof and it'd do for 3 seasons riding. Most rides include a mini stove, fuel, the odd comfort item and a phone, snacks, plus clothing to make crap weather bearable etc, so creeps up to 4-5kg easily.
I guess you could do a summer overnight in good conditions with nothing more than a basic bivi bag and a thin jacket but at 1kg or so it's so hard to notice that I've never bothered to try - maybe for a 2-3 day race it'd work though.

[SRS]

My lightest set up for a single night out looked like this

The Bahookie is undoubtedly a lovely bike with plenty of up to date features, but that Shand 29er just looks so elegant...

Apologies for going off topic.

[RIP]

Some impressive figures here. Kit threads are always interesting and a valuable exchange of ideas. As I think the Ians said, if the weather's "fine" you could take pretty much nothing at all couldn't you. The scope is almost limitless if no items are mandated - balloon mat, cuben tarp, down bodysuit etc. Last summer I ended up crashed out under a tree at midnight on the way home from the pub, and I just had something like a backpack, fleece and jacket, with no tools or overnight kit. Not sure it was pleasant but I survived. But maybe it doesn't count as BP-ing since I didn't "plan" it, so what are the rules of the game there I wonder?

Perhaps if the criteria were narrowed we'd get some extra results as a comparison. What would one take if it was winter and one knew rain was forecast for example, and you fancied a breakfast brew? Couple of weeks ago I had 8x10 tarp, poles/lines/pegs, tyvek "g/sheet & getting changed on" mat, Exped W/lite mat+pillow, PHD Hispar 400, down hat, which came in under 2kg on bars. Other kit was tools/spares (350g; multitool 167g, sigh) and brewkit (Coleman F1+100gas+matches+pot+TiSpork; 400g hmm). Toilet/1st aid approx 120g. Full spare baselayer approx 420g. Maps and phone 300g. Steripen and water 700g. I mostly resent the 400g of drybags etc to carry it all in - time for some cuben bags .

Something often not included in a fair comparison is clothes-stood-up-in. My winter togs are about 2.4kg including helmet and boots.

R

[whitestone]

Away from racing/ITTs my baseline summer bivy kit is:

Alpkit Rig3.5 tarp: 375g
Homemade poles: 100g
pegs: 55g
Exped Synmat Winterlite (tapered shape): 405g
Cumulus 150 quilt: 350g

That's 1285g

If things get breezy then add a bivy bag: 400g.
New total: 1685g

As things get cooler I'll add a PHD Minim 200 sleeping bag (430g) and double it up with the quilt. Also the bivy bag will be a Hunka XL which is 500g to accommodate the extra bulk. This will do me down to -5/6C or so.
New total: 2215g

For really cold climes then swap out the PHD and Cumulus for a Rab 1100 five season bag @ 1850g
New total: 3285g

There's things like a dry base layer to add to the above figures - something like 400g.

Cooking kit: beer can stove, foil windshield, Alpkit 650 MyTiMug,Ti spoon, lighter => 110g (same again for fuel)

Then I add a load of crap I don't need

[HaYWiRe]

Its pretty obvious there has to be consideration for weather and we all gave different comfort levels...i mean how many of you would chose your setup on a regular basis?

But when you purely think about raw weight its quite fascinating how little can be achieved. Talking about sub-kilo setups casually when you have to step back and realise your entire overnight kit weighs less than a bottle of water!

And you're right in that its the little things that add up fast without noticing. I have about 800g of medical supplies I need that are non-negotiable, so its funny to count grams on arm warmers and tent pegs

[AlasdairMc]

I think I'm missing a trick with my sleeping bag. I favour comfort in any condition, so my bag of choice is a Cumulus Quantum 350 at a bit over 700g. It's too warm at times but it has served me very well in all my adventures and I'd rather be too warm and vent than too cold and shiver. The footbox is a work of art, very toasty. I could probably drop a bit, either to a Rab Module or an Alpkit quilt but both are compromises.

Bivi bag - either a Terra Nova Moonlite at 185g, or a Discovery Lite at 300g. If comfort is more important than weight or bulk then I've got a Laser Comp 1. There's definitely a Terra Nova theme here...

Mat - Klymit X Frame short or a Thermarest NeoAir xTherm.

[ZeroDarkBivi]

More than you might expect. For the last BB200, I took the minimum I thought practical (and compliant with the rules) planning to ride through. This came to a surprisingly hefty 8.7Kg, and that doesn't include the bike.

Clothing: 3.1 kg (winter boots are heavy and I didn't want to get cold overnight)

Food & Water: 2.6 kg (I still ran out of water before resuply at Knighton, but had excess food at the end)

Kit: 2.3 kg (Bivi gear, spares, tools, lights, first aid, gadgets, etc. For context, my two spare tubes weighed more than my bivi kit, and I only used the GPS & lights)

Bags: 0.7 kg (Frame/Bar Roll/stem cell/gas tank)

Add another 12kg of bike and I am propelling a third of my body weight over muddy Welsh hills...

[whitestone]

Few count the clothing worn, though I suppose we should, I do include the extra clothing that you probably don't use, or hope not to use, such as waterproofs or spare thermals, arm and leg warmers. A lot depends on the weather, this year's BB200 was surprisingly benign, I was warm enough with my usual summer kit. I didn't put my arm warmers and wind jacket on until the cafe at ByS, I was getting cool on that long drop to the cafe so would probably have put them on around that time anyway.

ITTs are an exercise in judgement in having just enough kit and food for you, not anyone else. Different physiologies and how we cope with different weather, etc. mean that we'll all come to different solutions and total weight. I got things right on the BB200, I got them wrong earlier in the year on the Braunton 150 and had to scratch.

Purely by contrast, we went for a bivy on Friday night, it was -2C when we left the car so probably got a little colder than that. We were out to be comfy rather than race. Sleeping kit, including tarp, came to 2.5Kg then there was all the other kit like duvet and lots of food, oh, and some whisky . At least 7Kg in total (not the whisky!)

Edit: I think I've linked to this blog before https://www.backpackingnorth.com/ultral ... -overview/ it's backpacking rather than bikepacking but the sentiments and techniques are just as valid.