Sunday 14 June 2015

Nutrition, Packing and a Trial Run

So, as I sit here watching the cricket and suffering with Sinusitis, I've got plenty of time to start tying up loose ends before we head off to Iceland in a month. Like 'how are we transporting the bikes?' and 'what are we going to eat?' and 'how the hell are we going to fit everything onto our bikes?'... You know, unimportant niggling little things like that.

I've said it before, but planning this trip has not been easy. I guess it's because we're bikepacking newbies. So we have absolutely none of the gear we need for this kind of trip. It turns out my tent is wrong (well, it's preposterously large, heavy and weak), my bags are wrong (an 80ltr rucksack is not advised), my stove is wrong, most of my clothes are wrong. At the start of this I didn't have a bike, bags, spares, maps and a host of other things it seems are essential if I want to survive.

And it's not like I don't mind using what I've already got, but my mountaineering boots are wrong, using my road bike would be suicidal, and apparently having a route in mind is deemed wise (I'm still not convinced on that last one).

So when I say that planning is not easy, I think what I'm trying to say is that this trip is proving to be a bit of a gear-fest. And that's because we're starting from first principles. The next trip (I hope my wife doesn't read this bit) should be a doddle.

But despite the fact that the cupboard was very much bare when we started planning, we're pretty much ready. So ready in fact, that we managed a trial run up on the Quantocks last week. It was useful to try the bikes (nearly) fully loaded, to see how we're going to pitch the tent while pretending the weather wasn't glorious (this is where we learned that the current tent sucks) and to sit out and just enjoy being in the middle of nowhere. It was good fun, with the notable exception of the food. The food was sodding awful.

"So what are you planning on eating?" I hear none of you asking. Well, I've been researching food to a ridiculous extent too. And it turns out that Bachelors Super Noodles contain pretty much the same calorific content as those posh dried food ration packs they sell for £5 a go in the local Outdoor shop. Yes, I'll confess that Super-noodles are neither super nor, probably, noodles. But they fill you up, are light, are full of energy and they're very very cheap. Nonetheless, with something like 9 to 10 days of food needing to be carried, there's simply no way to haul everything we need. So we're going to be running at a fairly high calorie deficit throughout. I can only hope that where we cross main roads (such as Myvatn) we can find a nearby shop or garage! Otherwise we're going to be hungry.

Another box ticked is the bikepacking bags. If you're not already familiar with this stuff (and judging by the traffic sources to this blog, most of you know WAY more about this than I do), then there's a new(ish) move away from traditional panniers and racks, and towards bags which attach directly onto the bike. I'm led to believe that the main reason for this is so that you don't have to rely on a rack which, were it to break, would leave you utterly buggered in the middle of nowhere (after all, who packs a MIG welding kit in their spares?).

So the bags I'll be using are mounted to the bars (Wildcat - Fat Leopard), the seat-post and saddle (Alpkit - Kaola), the forks (5ltr dry bags on Salsa - Anything Cages) and inside the main triangle of the frame (Alpamayo Designs - Frame Bag). No doubt experienced readers will be wondering about the last one. This is a very new (so new they haven't launched officially yet) bike bag company set up by a friend of a friend. We're very fortunate in having a couple of their custom made (pre-production) bags. And with absolutely no loyalty at all, I can say that they really do look the business. Time will tell what they're like in the 'real world', but first impressions are very positive indeed. I've uploaded a few images.

So what have we got left to sort out? Not a lot really. Though we still have to work out how we're actually getting our bikes to Iceland. They're booked onto the plane, but do they go in (hugely expensive) padded/hard cases? Or do they go in clear plastic bags. The latter apparently protect your bike because the baggage handlers are less likely to stomp on something when they can see what it is? Hmm... While there is some logic to that, all it would take is one careless/hungover handler, and the trip is over.

Well, there's still time to sort that out. 4 weeks seems like a long long time away and I'm not a patient man.







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