Kayoba Stove

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The stove is a must if you want to eat a real meal outdoors. So, with all the alternatives, what should I choose?

What I've looked at

Liquid stoves

Trangia

This is what I was raised with. A good old trangia kitchen running on chemically clean alcohol. The downside being that it gets messy. You have to carry a bottle of fuel and it is a bit hard to re-fuel if needed.

Canister stoves

MSR Windburner/Windboiler

A little on the expensive side, but fully integrated system that is according to other articles on the internet very fuel economic.

MSR PocketRocket 2

The one I went to buy, but it wasn't in.

Biltema Friluftskök, 1,4 kW

A cheap system

Kayoba Stove 2,9 kW

A cheap system with piezo lighter.

What we ended up buying

Some years ago I bought a cheap Trangia clone. But now it is missing the extra ring used to control the flame I decided to go for a canister kitchen instead.
Went to the store to buy the MSR PocketRocket 2, but the website falsely said that they had it in the store. So instead I went to another store and bought a cheap stove just to get by. Kayoba Stove is what we got.

First impressions - Kayoba Stove

Easy to use piezo lighter got the stove started in no time even if it was a little windy
Water boiled in a couple of minutes, could have been faster I guess. Cooking was easy, both boiling and using a frying pan
Next morning the coffee was done in minutes.

Everything fit into the existing trangia clones cooking pot including the canister. Using the frying pan to secure everything in.

Total weight with the stove, pots and frying pan is less then the liquid fuel bottle only for the old trangia.
So far I do not regret going for a canister stove.


Disclaimer
I bought this product myself and this is my opinion on them. I am in no way affiliated with the manufacturer of this product. Neither did I get paid to link to any site that is mentioned in this post. 

Why the MSR Elixir 2 is the perfect tent for me

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Requirements

Fit 2 people when car touring (stuff in the car)
Fit 1 person comfortably when bike touring or hiking (stuff in the tent)
Freestanding, should be able to setup pretty much everywhere
Light but durable
Not all too expensive

Tents I looked at

MSR Hubba Hubba

After reading a whole lot on the internet about different tents for bike packing etc I had pretty much decided on the MSR Hubba Hubba, it was light and roomy enough for my requirements but a bit on the expensive side. And when reading the details it seems that there are some plastic details instead of metal, for reducing the weight. Also the fabric seems to be on the lighter side. Luckily I ran across the

MSR Elixir 2

The MSR Elixir 2 is pretty much the same tent as the MSR Hubba Hubba, but a little bit cheaper and denser fabric and metal usage. This increases the weight with 800 g compared to the MSR Hubba Hubba, but I think that the price difference and more durable fabrics tilted the weights in favor of the MSR Elixir. Hence, this is now our tent.

Color choices

We do like colors but I rather value privacy, so the choice fell on the Olive Green variant. Here in Sweden where it is OK to pretty much tent wherever it is not really a problem but it is always nice to have the option to stay hidden if you want.

The MSR Elexir 2 Tent First Impressions

Our first night in the tent was on our little car touring trip around the Gulf of Bothnia, a trip where we mixed hotel nights with camping. The first night was at Orsa Camping at a nice location on the beach. The tent was easy enough to pitch and only took a couple of minutes with the included footprint.

• Start with placing the footprint on the ground and staking the corners
• Follow up by preparing the tent poles. 
• Place the tent above the footprint, the direction doesn't really matter as it has openings in both directions.
• Put the tent poles in the color coded holes in each corner of the tent.
• Lift up and connect the tent to the poles
• Place the top pole above the two long ones after the tent has been raised and connect it to the tent.
• Place the rainfly on top of the poles, starting from one of the short ends to the top pole. Secure it to the footprint.
• Connect the rainfly to the top pole and then continue rest of the way.
• Secure the ropes with extra stakes
• Done

During the night there was some heavy raining and wind, the tent didn't flinch and we remained warm and dry inside.

Packing the tent in the morning was no problem either, took a couple of minutes.

Size info, 2 persons

The size of the MSR Elexir 2 tent is enough for 2 persons to sleep in, but for longer backpacking trips I think that we will invest in the MSR Elexir 3 just to get some extra room. I am 190 cm, and had no problem with sleeping in this tent.
For my original plan of using this when solo backpacking and bike touring I think that the size will be perfect.

Disclaimer
I bought this product myself and this is my opinion on them. I am in no way affiliated with the manufacturer of this product. Neither did I get paid to link to any site that is mentioned in this post.