today's video 16 really useful things that you might want to take bike packing even if you're a
seasoned rider there might be some stuff on this list you might not have considered number one
volley or ski straps these were originally designed to hold skis together but they're
really good at strapping stuff to your bike they're basically a stretchy rubber strap with
a belt buckle style thing on the end you can link two together to make them longer they are super
super strong these orange ones are the first ones i got they're a little bit worse for wear now
you can also get more fancy ones these ones are made by tail fin in collaboration with the uh
voile company a little bit smaller but do the same stuff
even if you don't need them when you set off might be worth taking some in your bag
because you never know what you want to take with you during your trip
emergency bivvy it's basically a big waterproof bag that packs down really small now this i would
take on a trip when i'm not planning to camp so i haven't got a normal bivvy with me luckily i've
never had to use it but there came a time when i was out of reach of the accommodation and needed
shelter i could combine this with a down jacket and leg and arm warmers and you basically have
a makeshift sleeping arrangement that will get you through the night with enough protection
from the elements roll up shoes or rock pool shoes this is not their intended use
but they roll up really really really small probably the lightest thing you can get in terms
of footwear not for everybody but if you're doing an event where you want to be as light as possible
these are a really good option they're also like five quid
i'm with jimmy for this one satellite tracker garmin in reach mini this one's quite dependent
on where you'll be going but it could literally be a lifesaver like it's actually got an sos button
on it the example here is the garmin inreach mini jimmy has one we've been bike packing together i
don't have my own yet but i will be getting one when i do go traveling abroad once set up this
device will relay your location at set intervals which you can choose and it will allow people to
track where you are so if you're going somewhere that's dangerous or really remote you can let
your loved ones know exactly where you are in the world you can also send messages to people
i'll flash up an example on the screen of when we were in scotland and emily was messaging you
or you were messaging emily did she message you um now she doesn't care about you i messaged her yeah
say we weren't dead it's to say we haven't been eaten by bears the special bit is that it does
all of this without needing any phone signal works through a completely separate network of
satellites battery life is absolutely ridiculous it's set to do intervals at 30 minutes apart then
it lasts 24 days got an sos button conveniently under a little cat so you don't accidentally press
it demonstrate pressing it and the emergency services will turn up looking back we were a
little bit silly not having one of these with us when we were in vietnam because we got lost
in a jungle it's outrageous that you haven't had one of these it's really bad isn't it
earplugs so cheap so simple so valuable these can turn a terrible night's sleep
camping into a mildly tolerable one how much fun you have on your bike packing trip can be very
reliant on how much sleep you get and the quality of that sleep take some earplugs with you they
take very little bag space up and they'll probably make your trip a lot better water filter bottle
is a bottle that filters water obviously but they now come in cycling size bottles which is
really handy we first used one of these over in vietnam when james got one for christmas
and we ended up using it all the time should we do a product plug who's it made by grail
not sponsored but really good really good piece of equipment mine is now covered in it was brilliant
because the tap water in vietnam wasn't safe to drink and we could filter it through there
and decant it into other people's bottles and then we were set for the first few hours of the
day it also came in extremely handy when we were in the middle of nowhere in a jungle and we did
find a stream to drink from which we could then safely use because we had the bottle one of these
or something similar will be coming with me for the foreseeable future on all bike packing trips
even in the uk because you never know when you might end up in the middle of nowhere this one
it's in the lid so you can just drink out of it as soon as you put it inside the bottle
packable down jacket this one's made by patagonia it's a micro puff it makes you look like a worm
when you zip up the hood as you spend more money on a jacket like this it either gets warmer or
smaller and when you're packing one of these away in your backpacking luggage you'd be surprised how
much space they take up this one's fairly decent packs down pretty small they make a even smaller
one called the nano puff which is very slightly lighter so it won't keep you quite as warm i found
that this one is a nice happy medium you may want to also explore zhilei's if space is an option
because the lack of sleeves really does mean it gets a lot smaller i would take one of these even
if i'm going to the hottest countries i ended up using this loads in australia and vietnam both of
those are hot places if there's any risk of this jacket getting wet then you might want to consider
getting a synthetic down one rather than reel down because it dries much quicker a dedicated
gps head unit instead of a phone basically one of these devices will measure a host of different
metrics via gps and the higher end ones will let you navigate as well smartphones are totally
usable to track your rides but there's a few reasons why you might want a dedicated head unit
especially if you're bike packing firstly most head units battery life will far exceed those of
a smartphone especially when gps is running this is a garmin 830 and it lasts about 20 hours and
you can extend it more which i'll talk about later the head units in the garmin range have all got
varying levels of navigation from a simple breadcrumb or dotted trail right up to full
mapping i would recommend if you're doing bike packing that you go for one with full maps which
also lets you change routes on the fly as well anything can happen when you're out riding and the
madder stuff always tends to happen when you're bike packing it's just the way it is i'd rather
have a dedicated head unit out in the elements and my phone safely tucked away in one of my bags
for peace of mind further to that if i was to have an accident and crash i'd rather have to replace a
about 300 pound head unit than a more expensive phone having two items with similar features that
you can use as a backup to each other is better than having one lastly a lesser known feature on
a lot of the garmin head units you can set up alerts so if you're doing an ultra or a really
really long bike packing ride and you're likely to be tired and potentially going to forget to
eat you can set yourself up reminders at different time intervals or even different mileage intervals
pretty much any regular interval that you want there's even a smart alert feature which triggers
based on your ride conditions so it calculates it via elevation gain speed temperature duration that
kind of thing really useful if you need a reminder to do anything like sleep if you're doing an ultra
bib shorts with pockets in basically didn't exist when i started cycling
now they're creeping into a lot of kit companies ranges it's basically two more really handy places
you can store food or phones or whatever you need quick access to during your ride extra storage
space is always welcome when it comes to bike packing a couple of things to bear in mind though
the pockets are generally not waterproof and it's quite a common place to land on
if you have a crash so consider what you put in those pockets carefully speaking from experience
here another one at jimmy's house because he uh had some props dehydrated meals these are
meals that you have to hydrate with a lot of water just oh well nice yeah a bag like this which is
wafer thin is 500 calories you just have to add quite a lot of water to it so combining it with
the water filter bottle which is also on this list uh you've got a pretty good solution to get some
calories if you don't have access to anything else i've not had these ones these are both dessert
ones that were on the list for when i was uh going on adventure which didn't end up happening for the
re well the obvious reason that everyone's aware of now um covered covered yes dull and rice and
spinach because we haven't been able to go on adventure for some time it's about to go out
of date so i think we should get a kettle on so what do you think i know it was lightweight
they always have lines on the back of them you fill them up with boiling water which you do in
your camping stove leave it give this the seal it leave it 15 minutes it's like uncooked rice
the flavor's there i need this to get home how's that 500 calories seven out of ten good bang again
valve extenders even my mountain bike wheels are quite deep now so unless you have the shallowest
of wheels take some valve extenders with you depending on where you're going you might not
have access to a well-stocked bike shop where you can get inner tubes with valves that are
long enough for the sake of a tiny tiny bit of bag space you can save yourself a lot of hassle the
best type in my opinion are the ones that are just a tube because you don't need to have removable
core inner tubes to use them they're just a tube that you stick on top battery technology has got
really really good in the last few years and when me and my buddies go by packing we always take
these one of these each usually this is a high volume power bank this one's made by anka
and you can basically recharge all of your stuff multiple times from it you get multiple phone
charges you get even more charges of a head unit and obviously you can recharge the bank itself
whenever you stop at a power source ideally you want to be self-sufficient for as long as possible
and you never know when like a pub's gonna be closed or a cafe is gonna be sharp you never
know when you're gonna need power to access your phone which may be dead honorable mention here to
the garmin charge pack this is a small power pack which is specifically for garmin head units it
doesn't just work with the 1030 it also works with the 830 and any of them with this small contact
patch on the bottom and it gives you approximately 24 hours more battery life for your head unit it
clips onto the bottom of a normal garmin mount and then you clip the head unit on top so you can use
your garmin while it's charging you can also use it to charge other devices with a usb cable like
a normal power bank also nice because it doesn't take up any backspace when it's mounted like this
cable ties another thing that is very very small and doesn't take up much backspace
so probably worth taking even if you don't end up using it but on our travels we've come across
quite a few situations where they have been really useful any situation where you need to attach
stuff to other stuff they probably come in handy for example broken spokes brake hoses that have
gone wrong and you need to tie them to the frame so they don't flap about feel free to get creative
better to have them and not need them then not have them and need them food pouches or stem bags
there's a host of different brands available whatever the setup that you're running in terms
of bike bags i'd recommend having one of these on because it's a very convenient place to store
food and if you don't have a convenient location for your food you end up not eating as much as
you need keeping on top of nutrition and fueling is integral to having a successful bike packing
trip so little choices like this can make a big difference if they're basically a bag with an open
top i would recommend getting one with a drainage hole because they are fill up with water otherwise
garmin varia radar this is featured for good reason in my tips videos before and
it's everyone's favorite apparently based on the comments section so this is a really useful device
that lets you know your surroundings and when a car is approaching from behind it also alerts you
on your head unit so particularly when you're backpacking you might be tired you might not
be doing shoulder checks as often this produces an alert on your head unit that tells you when
something's coming and at what speed of course it depends on where you're going bike pack into how
useful this will actually be because off-road it won't be as important it works particularly well
when you're on quieter but faster roads so in situations where you end up relaxing
and then a car can take you by surprise there are a few different versions available this one
with the light is probably the most sensible for bike packing because it serves two uses
a leatherman multi-tool there's a surprising amount of times on bike packing trips where i've
needed a pair of pliers i ended up buying one of these after chris hall recommended it to me knife
pliers and allen keys all on one multi-tool i would recommend using one of these in conjunction
with a regular bike multi-tool with a chain tool on it as well again really useful having both if
you lose one i wouldn't take this on a normal ride but if i was bike packing doing cable maintenance
and valve cores and that kind of thing it's really useful having the pliers on the end the allen
and screwdriver bits come off and you can lose these quite easily so that's why i always take
the duplicates in the form of another multi-tool that marks the end of this video if you have any
suggestions for useful bike packing items that are a bit unusual put them in the comment section down
below if you want to check out any of the stuff i mentioned i'll put it all in the description
down below please like this video subscribe to this channel for more and i'll see you soon