This Snowpeak pot is a stainless steel tea kettle and was bought for the sole purpose of having it a spout. Using the plain rimmed MSR Alpine StowAway pot to pour chai was always a mess, with quite some amount of chai lost.
It took me a long time to come up with a decent meal cooked in camp. Having eaten pasta with sugared tomato paste for over a year I knew that should not have to be repeated ever again but how do you cook a tasty meal when you are not a cook and one that is also low on gas and water consumption?
It took me quite some figuring out how to beat the constipation of camping food after I started wholesome healthy home grown food diet.
A set-up of any form of transport is important. Not when you are cycling or rolling back and forth to the bakery but when you try to get some distance done, it better be the right set-up for you. We did not had the chance to test any kickbike before we started the journey through the USA. We ordered straight from the Kickbike supplier and that is not the way I’d recommend. When I ordered my bicycle years prior I had it more or less custom made. This is crazily expensive, something I would not recommend either.
Yet another stove I bought.
I have used all sorts of stoves, from Primus and Optimus Multi Fuel when I started a 5 year worldwide bicycle trip to an Optimus Svea 123. I tried a gas stove, a self-made hobo stove, an alcohol stove and plain wood fires.
Sleep is one of the most important things to enjoy life. Isn’t that equally so for a cycling life?
How to make a hobo stove
When stoves break down, often exactly when you really need them, it has you think: ‘This is not the time for you to break down’.
These brakes are excellent. That is, if you know how to repair them when they snap. I cycled with Magura for about 2.5 years without much problems. They are expensive so I hoped they would have lasted longer…
The Svea was designed in 1920 and the technology is simple. A design that is not the best option to choose for a stove on an extended cycle trip. The Svea is currently used in Sweden and Japan for stationary use or as a working antique stove with a nice look. An Optimus Nova would have been a better choice, since that is a modern liquid fuel stove for mobile use.
More or less 900 euro, the Hilleberg Soulo is a great one person’s tent. It withstand fierce winds, it adds about 4 degrees to the outside temperature and it has enough space not to feel imprisoned.
First and foremost, after cycling more than 4 years, only a few brands are so good that I chose them again, would I have to. Therm-A-Rest, Cumulus and Optimus.
2025: bought the exact same jacket. Reused the old one.
2024: the jacket starts to rub off its inside protection layer in the neck. This means the rain drips through and the jacket can no longer be used in heavy rain.
2023: the jacket is still very much in use. Though, naturally I try to avoid rain.
The very last moment before I would set off to South America, including rainy Patagonia, I decided I needed a new rain jacket.
Always being bitten by mosquito’s and awake for hours while trying to sleep, itching myself until bleeding and ever so often on the search for any kind of repellent.
Remaining of the assumption that (bicycle) gear last forever, I now know it isn’t. I should get rid of that tale. Yet, Cumulus comes close. I bought the sleeping bag at the start of the cycling trip (probably somewhere in the beginning of 2012), so it lasts long.
Plus
I am was quite fully satisfied with the Svea 123. I even use it in hotel rooms, though I am very careful not to spill fuel and always put a folded windscreen underneath the stove as not to burn the hotel down.
One thing I absolutely do not like about cycling
Besides rain and getting stuck in branches with my helmet when I search for a place to camp, it is the cycle short. A tight synthetic underwear kind of garment with a thick patch of foam. It feels unnatural. It looks strange. It is not hygienic.
Over the years I conclude this is all you need for spare and repair parts. Another visual list of those parts is here to see: ‘Spare & Repair’
For all who wonder what you actually need to carry in your tool bag, here is a neat clear list of contents: tools.
A helmet or not?
While cycling in the Netherlands I am aware of the many looks I receive. Dutch don’t like to wear a helmet when commuting. Understandable. What is less understandable is that even racers often cycle without a helmet. I think we believe it is not cool to wear a helmet.
Durston X-Mid 1 ultralight tent
Soto titanium pot & Vargo hexagonal titanium stove
Valtcan titanium bento box
Bushcraft-Essential Bushbox outdoor stove XXL
45,000 kilometer further. Am I still happy with my gear?
Over the years one will find out what works and what not. I might be able to shine a light on saving money for you, because one thing I found out is that when you start a trip, you ALWAYS spend too much money.
Many people asked me what I was carrying in all those bags. Most people did not understand that I carried my whole household with me. So let me explain without too many words what I am taking with me, still too much though…
The 10.000 kilometer Gear Update becomes the 15.000 kilometer Big Gear Update
Why? Haven’t I already enough to do? Why an update? Is that necessary? No, it isn’t at all. Actually, a whole blog is not necessary. Thing is, I made photo’s all through the whole Africa trip, with the intention to make a nice little update about my gear, some items really expensive, some really not that handy or good.
Cycling Cindy