Bringing water tablets, although not terribly healthy for frequent use are great for the safe, occational couple day trip.
Beth, can you let me know more about this. I’ve had a (fairly breif to be honest) look on u.r.w. and they were raving about a £30 Argos tent in 2004, and in 2006 someone mentioned a £30 tent that was 25, 15 and finally a fiver before they stopped selling it. I can now find a £16 on the Argos web site which is 1.62 kilos. Is that the same one?
STM
Here’s a page of reviews on the argos tent-
Well both the actual tent and the price seem rather variable. But that linked page looks pretty much like the one I got for £15 quite a while ago now. And a friend of mine more recently got a 1 person argos tent for around the same price, might have been £16. It’s the one that used to be £30.
It is a budget/comfort compromise, I’m certainly not saying it’s the best or lightest piece of equipment available! But if you take some bits out and off then you can get it a bit lighter than 1.6kg. And it’s waterproof. (Airtight too in certain kinds of weather.)
Edit: Also, I find it quite comfortable, but if you’re more than a couple of inches taller than me I think it would start to feel quite cramped.
Actually, having done some further research it looks like the tent has changed quite a lot, I got mine about a year ago I think, but it must have been old stock. So no, it’s not the same one.
Thanks Beth. Even though it doesn’t seem to be the same tent, for £16 I guess I can’t go too far wrong. I fancy a bit of backpacking on my new N36, so this looks like a good match.
STM - not wanting to consider how ethically sourced a £16 tent is!
My mother, back in her backpacking days, once bought a $1 tent. Of course, it was a tube tent, which basically means it’s a cylindrical tarp that you hang between two trees so that it’s resting on the ground and crawl into, but it’s perfectly functional. One of my friends bought a $50 tube tent recently that is the same, but is tough enough that you can hang it in midair without resting it on the ground, like a hammock. He justified this purchase by saying “what if there’s wolves?” He lives in southern California too. Suffice to say there are no wolves.
We used to make tube tents in Scouts. Basically, get a camping mat, a cheap tarp, cut the tarp so it isn’t too big, gaffa tape the tarp to each side of the camping mat. Hang it up with a string across two trees, sleep on the camping mat.
Makes for a very cheap shelter, and they aren’t that much heavier than a sleeping mat. You can cut the mat a little to make it narrower if you’re a real weight weenie.
Joe
I should make the point that my comments were for non-winter camping, and only after you’ve developed your technique under safe conditions (like overnights close to civilization).
The alcohol stove will not function well, if at all, near or below freezing. In windy conditions, it can be difficult to get a pot of water boiling. So if you are using an alcohol stove, you have to take this into consideration when you select a campsite, if you have a selection. One night on the Pacific Crest Trail in the S Cal desert there was no place to go, so I slept right in the middle of the trail, just north of the next hiker, who was doing the same. It wasn’t windy, but it was cold (prolly mid to high 30’s), and it took a bit of time to get the stove going. One way to avoid this to some extent is to stop and make dinner before the sun goes down, then keep hiking/riding until it’s time to stop. This approach also helps keep cooking smells from hanging around your resting place.
Not having a change of clothes assumes a lot about the clothes you do wear, and how you wear them, and this too, is not a winter technique.
One very important element of snow camping is good ground insulation. I’ve been out in -27degF with 3 ground pads, and was still melting the snow under the tent.
One disadvantage of a waterproof bag is that it is difficult to keep the bag’s insulation dry, since it can’t be forced out by body heat.
I can’t wait to hear more about uni-packing trips off-road.
Yeah, I think the only way to get camping gear ethically is to go the second hand route on ebay. There is often some pretty cool army surplus stuff on there though, so it’s worth investigating.
Going to have to try that, it sounds fairly comfortable actually. Scouts is so much better than Brownies.
Been browsing some lightweight backpacking sites after reading this thread. Some people get way too enthusiastic - there’s some serious advice out there about trimming your shoelaces down and cutting the blank edges off maps!
Well look at the threads in here that talk about shot-blasting the paint off your uni to save weight, or filling the tyre with helium!
STM - wondering if trimming my beard will help me hop higher!
I’m planning a C&O Canal uni trip (184 miles) and I’ve gotten my total gear weight down to about 45 pounds (that includes EVERYTHING that doesn’t have Brian DNA 
), with 16-20 pounds on my but, uh, back (including the clothes & shoes on my body, and the pack with 6 pounds of water) and the rest under/behind the seat. Subtracting 20.5 pounds of Coker that means I have about 24.5 pounds of gear, including EVERYTHING. As far as pack weight, it will be 11-16 pounds - including the 6 pounds of water.
Basically I reduced everything to the least weight I could: a 1 oz DIY stove (that includes a wind shield) and a super lightweight bivy -actually a mosquito net bivy. I even weighed my shirts and underwear:p (1 pair, for when I’m not wearing bike shorts(2)) to check for the lightest ones I had. I weighed everything (Tea, bags, cardamom cinnamon, 1.944 gr. X 3 bags * 6 days = 35 grams). If a stuff sack wasn’t absolutely necessary, it got left out, each gram adds up. Then I figured out how to pack some stuff under/behind the seat – the bivy, the stove & pot (titanium), a spork – whatever I could that I wasn’t too worried about it getting wet if it rained (it will be plastic wrapped, but I won’t count on that working perfectly). I’m still working on the exact method for mounting under/behind the seat (I know I can, just not the exact method) and I’m still looking at lights. And I’ve still not decided on food (freeze dried), gorp or toiletries, but you can bet that they will be as light as I can make them (sample size toiletries?) and only some of the gorp will be on/in the pack, some will be under the seat.
Actually, I think that weighing everything that I’d like to bring and putting that info in a spreadsheet so I could experiment has helped a lot, as it made it so I can see exactly what I’m considering bringing. And I weigh in grams so the number would be larger and impress me more (18,760 grams!!). I’ll bring the bike shirt (lighter, 165 vs. 177 gr.) & 2 or 3 T-shirts and should I consider getting more bike shirts are questions that the spreadsheet has generated.
I’ve also experimented with how to pack the backpack to make sure I could fit everything into the lightest hydration pack I can - why bring a big, heavy (and half-empty) pack?
To be fair to Brownies/Guides, I actually helped out at a guides ‘survival’ weekend once which was where I learnt this one. Two of the leader types who were running it proper had just come back from a Guide weekend in the Netherlands, where they’d learnt to catch and skin rabbits (ick) and kill chickens (double ick).
Joe
When I took a proper sleeping bag on a long road ride it went under the seat (in a waterproof stuffsack).
I have a rail adapter, which is really useful for hanging stuff off. Also I ran a webbing strap up and over the seat, which really helps stabilise whatever you have underneath. The combination of those two and a strap round the seatpost to hold everything as close to the unicycle as possible, makes for a quite stable way of carrying stuff. Although having said that, I still prefer the current method of having a v.v. small sleeping bag and no bivvi, which means nothing on the unicycle and still a small bag.
As for lights, I got me one of these kits. http://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut681 and built it up. You need to buy a battery box with a switch on, and solder 4 connections (very very easy). It gives 4 hours of full light, then dim for ages and ages after, off 2 AA batteries, and my setup weighs about 100g. You can buy the LEDs from http://www.dealextreme.com/ in the US for a bit less money too, and probably the lenses and driver from somewhere else. My light just lives on my helmet all the time, is used for commuting, offroad riding light when I keep riding till dark on overnight trips, general camping light etc. The only thing I don’t use it for is proper technical muni night rides when I’m at home, which I have a really super duper bright light for. It is very much brighter than any 2AA light you can buy in the shops though. Mine is mounted in a mineral water bottle ‘sports cap’, which fits perfectly, an eraser between it and the helmet, and everything attached with zip ties to the helmet.
Joe
Oh yeah, one hassle with webbing straps is if it rains, you tend to have to tighten them up. But it does work well other than that.
Joe
Do NOT wear a large backpack
As I have found out recently do not wear a backpack that will prevent you from rolling if you UPD at speeds to fast to run it out. Not being able to roll is a very bad thing and UPDs happen.
Saying that, I plan on going on a self-suported uni camping trip sometime but i will be attaching the gear to the frame and touring handle.
ERIC
Old thread, but good subject!
Have you thought more about the backpacking after Unicon?
I will hopefully be with my sailboat somewhere in North, Central, or South America in the spring and early summer. Then the plan is to fly to Unicon taking only my Coker and a minimum of stuff. After Unicon I want to cycle to my home on the finnish west coast, going through Sweden and Åland. The islands of Åland are really beautiful and great for cycling.
I´m not sure if I will cycle through all of Sweden, since I want to keep it unsupported, and want to have enough time to spend at home in Finland once I´m there. Might take a bus for parts of it. It will still amount to many, many hundred kilometers.
I´m a guest on the Mediterranean Unicycle Tour this summer. It is really super organized and a great way to do touring.
This trip next summer will be the complete opposite, though.
Self supported, and with the possibility to be impulsive. No set day distances or goals, since you have your camping equipment with you and can just stop wherever.
Anyone interested?
Bugs, ants, snakes, scorpions
This is a great thread. I have done a lot of motorcycle outback camping. In the USA south, in summer, or Florida anytime but the coldest of winter, only the insane drunks can sleep on the ground. I had a tent, and would read at night for a while. The biggest spiders I have ever seen would crawl over the outside. I don’t want to talk about fire ants. Rattle snakes move about like they own the place. I can skip the sleeping bag, but the tent must be large enough not to be insufferably hot, and of course, bug proof. 
The combination of a gortex rain suit over leathers was impressive. At times I would be tired and not have found a camp spot at 2 am in the rain. I would sleep on top of a roadside picnic table, raining, wearing my helmet. All I had to do was spray Off under my chin and I was impervious to everything. The mosquitoes can’t bite through leather.
This is to heavy for a uni camper, but I still wonder about the “super suit” concept for warm area uni camping. Just scrape up a pile of leaves, and sleep in the rain with the bugs !
No need for a tent, bag, rain suit, just one piece of gear.
Fire ants are very mean…im from enterprise,alabama so ive gotten my fair share of fire ant bites…but i moved up here to colorado and we have ants that pinch that dont inject poision into to you…and they still hurt alot!! So dont sleep near big piles of dirt either when u camp in the south…especially big red piles of sand/dirt or for colorado its more like goofy piles of small rocks and dirt…
the south is a very humid area though so the heat during night is a factor…we used to bring fans when we went camping for our tents, so if ur sleeping outside in the south during the middle of summer then be careful if ur trying to leave ur tent open or sleep in the open because like feel the light said there are alot of bugs…
and yes waterproof is good for down there too because it rains alot in certain areas…
so in this case of southern cokering it would be a good idea to have bug spray…
Brian, for the C&O I doubt you need to carry 3 liters of water. Whew! Occasionally I carried less than that in the Mohave Desert. Sheesh you’re riding beside a stream!
A filter and a liter bottle would be all I’d bring, plus tablets in case the filter was damaged. No need to treat your dinner water, just let it boil a little longer.
Hang out at the water stop and drink an extra liter before you move on, and don’t carry more than half a bottle or so. We call this “cameling up”. Your stomach is the best place to carry water.
Five pounds off your back/butt is a huge savings and you’ll be glad you did.
Hehe, or have you already done the trip? :o