Lands End to John OGroats (LEJOG) is one of the premier cycling challenges for cyclists in the UK. For years its always been a pipe dream of mine but now I’ve got to the point ready to be able to attempt it early in 2018.
One of the most important parts of any journey is preparation, these series of blog posts will cover the equipment I will be taking with me.
The Bike
Luckily I thought ahead, and am the proud owner of a 2015 Kona Sutra touring bike, which I use primarily to cycle to work with. Because of this I also already have a set of Panniers. All that needs to be done is give the bike a good clean and a full service before I depart.
Sleeping Bag
My primary sleeping bag is a North Face Cats Meow, which sits at the top of The North Faces synethic sleeping bag range, and can handle temps down below freezing. This is all well and good but it weighs a hefty 1.3kg and is rather on the large size; not great if you want to save space in a bikes pannier.
To resolve this I have purchased the Rab Neutrino 200 sleeping bag. Managed to find it for £175 from the usual RRP of £220.
The Neutrino 200 is the lightest of Rabs sleeping bags, and is good down to near freezing. On the scales in its stuff sack its just over 600gms. Its made from high quality responsibly sourced down, and is hand stuffed in the UK.
Sleeping Mat
For nearly 10 years I used a Blacks Ultralight sleeping Mat weighing in at just over 790 grams, it was 2.5cm thick and was self inflating. I thought this was a good oppurtunity to get a lighter and more supportive Mat. Originally I had hoped to get a Thermarest NeoAir mat as it was less than half price from Snow and Rock however that fell through (they actually didn’t have any stock) so started looking at other choices. I looked at the Sea to Summit Ultralight mat, however ended up stumbling upon a company called AlpKit. They do some great quality camping gear with some of it made in the UK. What they also seem to do is make high quality replicas of other products. So I bought their version of the Sea to Summit Ultralight; the AlpKit Cloudbase, costing around 40% of the Sea to Summit version.
