That there 25 tips post on the BearBones blog.

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Some comments about the tips. :)

Link for anyone who missed it. http://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.co ... -tips.html

Put your 'dry' kit in 1 bag, and put your tarp / tent in a fairly easily accessed spot. That way, when you arrive at your bivi spot you can put the tarp up, then get under it, out of the weather and deal with the dry stuff, keep it dry and get on with getting warm.

I don't think this one goes far enough with bigging up dry bags. I tend to break down everything into as many small parcels in dry bags as I can. This way you can pull the parcels out and put them down anywhere without having to worry about them getting wet. It gives you a bunch of dry bags which I just find handy and if you remember which bits are in which colour bag then you don't have to pull to much out of the dry to get to what you want.

Use your down gillet or primaloft jacket etc as a bag-filler. Wearing insulating layers in the bag seems the natural thing to do if it's cold but it stops the bag lofting, so just use something to fill the air space, use it like a wrap or baffle around your neck and upper body to keep warm air in without sealing yourself into the bag and getting constricted.

I don't really understand what the difference is between filling the air space and stopping the bag lofting? Is it not the same volume of down jacket (in my case) inside the same size bag? I don't get it. :?

I like to have my GPS showing me total time and moving time (and overall average and moving average). The trick is to keep both as close together as possible, as once there's a gap you'll never get it back!

I thought this one interesting as I deliberately didn't want moving time and average moving speed on my Garmin display for the exactly the reason you have them on Ian. I didn't see much point in knowing that info because as you say you can't get it back so why not de-clutter the display. I just use time elapsed and average speed so I don't fool myself into thinking I'm going quicker than I am. Makes for some mostly good surprises of late (looking at the stats once home) where reducing the differential has been top priority. :)

[jameso]

I don't really understand what the difference is between filling the air space and stopping the bag lofting? Is it not the same volume of down jacket (in my case) inside the same size bag? I don't get it.

What I meant is use it as a draft-excluder cosy kind of thing rather than wear it fully when you need to add warmth to a bag that's out of its range. Wearing an insulating jacket covers you, insulates you and stops a bag lofting, so layering up seems the thing to do when it gets cold but I find it's not a lot warmer than just having the jacket. Having a jacket/gillet filling the open end of the bag and say your chest area for a side-sleeper helps reduce drafts and cool spots. I don't always explain myself well, it works for me in practice though. ie a minimal 8deg bag and a thin down gillet are all you have - at just below zero it's not exactly toasty, but I can sleep ok like that and I'm not blessed with a lot of natural padding : )
I know a guy who said that being near-naked is warmer in the bag than being clothed, if the bag's in range. I worried when bivvi-ing with him in winter, but was happy that he'd not be getting out of it in the night like that so no chance of seeing what could not be unseen..

I like to have my GPS showing me total time and moving time (and overall average and moving average). The trick is to keep both as close together as possible, as once there's a gap you'll never get it back!

I think this is a good one, even if you don't use GPS etc, just be aware of it. The main thing I learned from racing rather than riding, as obvious as it sounds, in practice it was suprising. Think of how far you can go in 3 mins or so, a 3 min gear-faff from me is a gap closed or opened up by you. It's soul destroying to work hard to open a gap and then lose it because you need to stop and faff with something that really should have been sorted or to hand from the start that day.

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Thanks for explaining. It's almost like a plug around the top of the bag, that makes more sense now.

I think this is a good one, even if you don't use GPS etc, just be aware of it. The main thing I learned from racing rather than riding, as obvious as it sounds, in practice it was suprising. Think of how far you can go in 3 mins or so, a 3 min gear-faff from me is a gap closed or opened up by you. It's soul destroying to work hard to open a gap and then lose it because you need to stop and faff with something that really should have been sorted or to hand from the start that day.

I was surprised to see that I had about 3.5 hours of no moving on the BB200 last year. This was my first race of this kind so it opened my eyes big time. I have done all my training for this years racing trying to reduce this and I'm getting 6 hour+ rides down to 10-15mins not moving which has been very encouraging.

[slarge]

I used to do a lot of trailquesting, and the time stopped had a real penalty. Any stoppage, opening gates, looking at maps, having a leak, eating etc etc was lost time. In a 3 hour TQ it was not uncommon to be riding for 2:45 and 15 minutes of stoppage time - that was 4-5 km lost!

The same goes for any race, a 1 minute gap takes a lot of effort, but can be lost in a single stop to check a zip is closed, pick up a dropped bottle, etc.

Making it a constantly visible piece of info has some advantages, but I do suffer from info overload sometimes!

[Ian]

I similarly "discovered" the total time thing on a Trailquest years ago. An extract from my blog following the event reads:

I stopped to look at the map and survey my immediate surroundings. The total time displayed on my GPS continued to tick. Beside it, the figure showing my moving time had stopped. I was in Cornwall for Round 6 of the Endurance Life Coastal Trailquest series. Usual format, visit as many checkpoints as you can in five hours. Oh, and don’t be late.

It occurred to me, as the difference between my total time and my moving time increased, that I’ll never make those few minutes back, and as a result I will be arrive at my final destination later than I would otherwise have done. Such is the nature of trailquests – a balance of planning and execution.

Since then, a measure of success of pretty much any ride is how little stopped time I have. I do look at the view though, I just do it while I'm riding along :)

[FLV]

Re the drybags.
It's pretty personal and conditions dependant as to how much kit and how many bags you split it into. The tip was more concerned with organised packing and the a ability to get out of the 'weather' quickly and get warm and dry efficiently.
Generally I only take about 6 or 7 items total so my dry items are 4 ish of them, not having to open anything else prior to sorting your shelter was the idea.

Good to hear what works for other people too. How many bags do you use?

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Dry bag on the bars with sleeping gear. I have sleeping bag liner inside the sleeping bag, on top of the mat and in the bivi bag so no messing about. I tend to just keep the tarp in the frame bag next to the main zip.

I use a dry bag inside my saddle bag with everything inside that. Means I can pull it all out in one go and bring under the tarp avoiding bringing any of the mud on the pack with me. Inside that I then normally have my down jacket in it's own dry bag. Sleeping clothes which double as spare ride clothes in another one. If I have some spare extra socks then that in another bag. Tend to carry one spare so I put wet ride clothes in to use as a pillow. A lot depends on time of year and conditions. I had only done summer bivis before the winter bivi and there n back so still working through the pro/cons of winter kit.

EDIT: In a race situation I think I would have less stuff anyway and so would use less bags. I would be less bothered about the comfort aspect so wouldn't worry about things being a bit damp or whatever.