Tom’s Bike Shed: Ultralight camping gear selection and setup for a long-distance bikepacking race!

In which I conduct a test-run of packing and attaching to my new bike the camping gear I’ve selected for the Ascend Armenia bikepacking race later this year. (Is this interesting? I have no idea.)

Further reading and links to some of the things I mentioned:

🚲 The bike: Oxford Bike Works Outlander custom-build [https://tomsbiketrip.com/first-look-the-new-oxford-bike-works-outlander-off-road-bikepacking-bike/]
🏁 The race: Ascend Armenia 2024 [https://www.ascendarmenia.com/]
• Sleeping bag: Alpkit PipeDream 250 [https://alpkit.com/products/pipedream-200]
• Sleeping bag liner: Scottish Silkworm [https://amzn.to/4arUFcA]
• Camping pillow: Alpkit Drift [https://alpkit.com/products/drift-camping-pillow]
• Camping hammock: Hennessy Hammock Deep Jungle [https://tomsbiketrip.com/the-hennessy-deep-jungle-camping-hammock-long-term-review-photos/]

Today I’m going to be looking through my gear to decide what I’m going to try packing on the new bike for this race uh see if I can keep things as minimal and lightweight as possible so I can go fast and far without causing myself so much

Misery in the process that I don’t actually finish the race so um yeah um let’s just get on with it sleeping bag it’s not the smallest and lightest sleeping bag in the world but it’s the one I’ve got scrunches down it’ll do sleeping bag liner not sure if this is

Necessary but it will keep things cleaner pillow again not necessary for people who don’t have bad necks I have a bad neck this will allow me to sleep and not wake up with a stiff neck or worse so essential items um I’m currently leaning towards taking

A hammock cuz it’s pretty light it packs down pretty well it’s bug proof it’s so comfortable at least for somebody with my back and I know how to put it up very quickly this one is a Hennessy Hammock Deep Jungle that should all go into this double-ended dry bag um which then

Straps onto the harness on the front of the bike that should be pretty much the uh entire camping setup um so yeah let’s see how that all looks when it’s packed up and strapped on that’s pretty neat uh let’s see how much it weighs I can’t believe I’m

Turning into someone who weighs their equipment got a little luggage scale here that’s zero and that is two and a half kilos just under um considering that I’ve been like touring with tents that weigh that much let alone a tent sleeping bag um well hammock and a sleeping bag and a

Pillow or in this size of uh dry bag that’s pretty good it’s not the lightest but I’m not I’m not going to be putting together the lightest setup in the world for this or competing with anyone else on it um I’m going to use what I’ve got and see if I

Can make the best of it let’s see how it looks when um we get it on the bike that’s quite good cuz the just about clears the light the front light um yeah I think that will be acceptable it’s pretty solid bit of wobble you actually want that cuz otherwise it would make

Everything extremely rigid um the thing about soft bags for bike package I found is that a little bit of give actually helps when you get offroads and onto rough surfaces um it helps the overall handling of the bike and I think it probably stops the B getting ripped to

Shreds as well kind of built-in suspension for your luggage or something like that is Tom in his Workshop talking about his bike and gear interesting I have literally no idea feedback welcome thanks bye