Unboxing Marmot Micron 40 Long

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My new sleeping bag arrived! Read how I ended up buying this one in Finding the best sleeping bag for my requirements.
I'm 190 long and the Marmot Micron 40 Long version fit perfectly. When minimizing the hood, just my nose poked outside. I'll let the photos talk the rest.

Marmot Micron 40 Long arrived in its storage bag. Bottle of home made cider for scale (33cl bottle)

Marmot Micron 40 Long rolled out, with its storage bag and compression bag on top.

Marmot Micron 40 Long in its compression bag, bottle of home made cider for scale (33cl bottle)

My Marmot Micron 40 Long hanging in its winter storage in the storage bag that it came in waiting for the next adventure!

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. 

Finding the best sleeping bag for my requirements

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Finding the right sleeping bag can be a total nightmare. I thought that I'd done my research but when my bag arrived today, I sent it back to the store.
Why? Too large packed volume. Need something smaller to fit on my bike.

This  post is tagged Stelvio 2019 as that is the trip that needs a sleeping bag. And there are some requirements that the bag needs to fulfil. Mainly

• Light, preferably less than a kilo
• Cheap, or at least cheap-ish. Originally budgeted 1000 SEK (around $100) for a bag but I think that I'll end up doubling that after the fiasco with the one I had to return.
• Comfort temperature as close to zero degrees Celsius as possible. 
• Suitable for a 190 cm person.

Why zero temperature, the trip is in June, European summer! 

True, but we will be crossing the Alps.. Temperature in Bormio is 6-13 C in June and I don't want to freeze and catch a cold if the weather is worse.

My current sleeping bag case extreme temperature set to 12C so it's not making the cut, it is pretty much OK during the warm summer months but not even close to spring or fall usage.

Now that we know the requirements, let's start looking at technical stuff related to sleeping bags.

Temperature ratings

So, I know that sleeping bags have comfort and extreme ratings. But how do that actually work? What should be read into the temperatures?

Let's look at the European sleeping bag ratings explained on Wikipedia, the EN 13537:

The standard measures four temperature ratings:

• Upper Limit — the temperature at which a standard male can sleep without excessive perspiration. It is established with the hood and zippers open and with the arms outside of the bag.
• Comfort — the temperature at which a standard female can expect to sleep comfortably in a relaxed position.
• Lower Limit — the temperature at which a standard male can sleep for eight hours in a curled position without waking.
• Extreme — the minimum temperature at which a standard female can remain for six hours without risk of death from hypothermia (though frostbite is still possible).

Don't know if I care that much about the Upper Limit, if it really gets that warm then I think that I can sleep with the bag used as a blanket.
So: To fulfill the requirement the lower limit should be close to zero and comfort around 5. Let's start with that.

Filling material, down or synthetic

	Down	Synthetic
Insulating power	Very high compared to the same amount of synthetic material.	More material needed to get the same insulation as down
Compression	Very good	Not as good as down
Durability	10+ years	Breaks down faster then down
Insulates when wet	Not really	Yes, and dries faster
Made from	Animal, a byproduct from the food industry. Make sure to use certified products to minimize unnecessary harm.	-
Cost	High	Cheaper than down

It rains in Europe in the summer... A bit unsure about the down, but hey.. low weight and high compression ratio sound really nice. So maybe I will go for down.

More reading on sleeping bag fill:

• One Planet: Sleeping bag fill
• Outside Online: What Is the Best Fill for a Sleeping Bag?
• Gear junkie: Down Vs. Synthetic: Understanding Sleeping Bag Insulation

What are the options?

A lot. But seems to be hardest to find a bag that fits the length requirement. A lot of bags are 185 cm, so lets see what sleeping bags I'm choosing between that are suitable for us longer people.
I ended up compiling the following table of the best things that I found. The Cumulus is there for reference as my travel mate is looking at that one.

Sleeping bag	Filling	Comfort	Lower Limit	Extreme	Max length	Weight	Pack volume	Pack size	Price
Cumulus LITE LINE 300	Down 850	4˚C	0˚C	-14˚C	185	600 g	5.7 l	17 x 25 cm	2290 SEK
Fjällräven ABISKO TWO SEASONS LONG Unisex	Synthetic	6˚C	-1˚C	-14˚C	195	1050 g	-	19 x 32 cm	1599 SEK
Marmot MICRON 40 LONG Unisex	Down 650	8˚C	3˚C	-11˚C	198	723 g	3.9 l	-	1999 SEK

Conclusions

Damn. OK the Cumulus did not really fit as it is too short for me.
The Fjällräven and Marmot did not have comparable pack volume/size so unsure. 3.9 liters sound small though, the one I ordered by mistake was 7.8.. So this is about half the volume so smallish.
The Fjällräven pack size being larger then the Cumulus makes me believe that the pack volume is larger as well.. So moving towards the Marmot Micron 40 long unisex. About double my original budget..

I think that I will continue looking for a while and see what I end up buying. Luckily I have some months to decide. I'll keep you posted.

As always if you like this, be sure to leave a comment and share on social media! Not needed but appreciated!

Budgeting for my first transcontinental bike trip

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Budgeting, something that needs to be done when planning a larger project like the Stelvio 2019 Adventure for me. Why? Because I don't want to be halfway through and not being able to afford food. Basically I want to know how much money I need to save up until hitting the road.
Oh yeah, the transcontinental word in the heading just affects me, I think that the budgeting steps are similar independent of the scale of your trip.
But where to start?

First note

After reading A LOT of sites about budgeting and cost calculations for bike adventures, I found myself not being the average 'lets do this the cheapest way possible' type. So don't expect the numbers to be the lowest you can find. And also, I will write an update after the trip on how the actual numbers differ from the budget. But anyhow, this should only be read as inspiration. Do your own research and find numbers that fit your trip! : )

Before the trip

The before trip expenses will be the biggest part of my budget basically for one reason... The bike Much of the 'before' costs will be high because this will be my first bike adventure and I need to buy pretty much everything. I have a tent, sleeping bag/mat and stove. But everything else like bags I will need to buy. But hey, I can reuse all that gear on other adventures so a one time cost (+ maintenance and replacements)

Turns out a need a new sleeping bag as well.

Bike

This is the largest single item in my budget, other stuff will not even come close. If you already have a bike that you are happy with for your trip. Then this can be skipped.
My friend that will join me already has a cyclocross so he will use that. I only have a racer today so going to need something a little more sturdy and capable of handling a better variety of roads and packing.

Additional gear

Here goes all extra stuff that you need to buy or upgrade for your trip. Be it pannier bags, power-banks or pretty much whatever you need.
For me this post included: Power-bank, Action Camera, Pannier Bags and a new sleeping bag.

Plane or train tickets to start and/or end of the bike trip

If you don't plan on both start and stop to pedal at your own door you will probably need some kind of tickets. Be sure to check that the carriers that you chose are OK with you bringing a bike with you. And also look out for potential extra charges for bikes.

For my trip I will need plane tickets home from Italy as we will be leaving on bike from our home town. I think that it could be easier to do it the other way around, travel to a location and then cycle home.. but this is the way that I chose to do this.

Language classes

You might want to try learn at least some basic phrases in the native tongue of the countries that you will pass through. Either as evening classes and thus included in your budget or like me, using a free app on my phone.
I use Duolingo to learn basic Italian and I also prepared a list of phrases that I anticipate could come in handy in both German and Italian.

During the trip

A lot of the 'during the trip' budget will be dependent on how many days or weeks you plan on being on the road. If you don't know that yet, then you could look at my post on Using Strava to plot a bike route through Europe.

Food

Tricky one here. Our plan will be to buy food as we go and probably enjoy a restaurant or two. So this will be the biggest item in the budget during the trip. 350 SEK per day.

Campsites

Our plan is to wild-camp through Sweden where it is allowed and then try to hit campsites through Germany, Austria and Italy. In case we don't make it to a campsite for a night or if we arrive early then our backup will be B&B, motels etc. Worst case is to try our luck in the wild.

Average campsite fee per night in seems to be $13-16 according to Rick Steve. So we will budget for 160 SEK per night, that is roughly the higher amount given an exchange rate of ~10SEK per dollar.

Hotels

Bonus nights, to give us some recovery. I've budgeted for 3 hotel nights. The only definitive one is the one in Bormio to explore the area and maybe visit Livigno after completing the Stelvio climb and before taking on the Gavia pass. And 1 extra emergency night at a hotel if needed. Total of 3 nights.

Ferries

Check your planned route and see if there are any ferries that you might want to take. Check their website and put down a note on person+bicycle fare. For us this will be Sweden to Germany, and perhaps the water-bus in Venice.

Calculations

So. At this point lets look at some example tables. Damn. 

So. First off, I decided to split my budget into 2 separate columns.

• Before the trip
• During the trip

Before the trip column consists of all the stuff that I need to buy before we take off in end of May. This is pretty deterministic. One row per item that needs to be bought and its cost. As I said previously, the biggest item is the bike. I already have a tent.

During the trip column is a bit more dynamic, it depends heavily on the number of days and nights that the trip will take. I.e. food budget for X days, campsite fees for the amount of nights in continental Europe.

Item	Pre-cost	During-cost	Temp	Paid
Kona Sutra 2018	15679
Shimano - A530 SPD	439
Shimano RT4 SPD Touring Cykelskor			727
Surly Front Rack 2.0				903
VAUDE Aqua Front (or Ortlieb front roller plus)	1168
Framebag	395
Sleeping bag	1000
ORTLIEB Back Roller Plus set of two pannier bags 2x35L			1400
Action Camera				56
VINSIC Dual USB 30000mAh Powerbank Mobil Plattor Laptop	900
Lezyne CNC Micro Floor Drive	749
Trelleborg-Rostock (ferry)		600
Food (21 * 350 SEK)		7350
Camp sites (8 + 7 ) * 160 SEK		2400
Bonus-hotels (3)		2400
Venice-Göteborg (flight)		3000

As you can see, some items have names put in, others have just placeholders and an estimated price. The Temporary column is for stuff that I had on the buy list but for various reasons decided to omit from my first trip. I.e. I will not need pannier bags for the back rack of the bike, the front rack bags and a framebag should be enough.

The paid column is stuff that I've already paid for and don't need to think about anymore.

Not the cheapest budget, but hey this will be our vacation and some luxury is needed.

Total left	36080
Pre-total	20330
During-total	15750
Already paid	959

So, how much will I need to save to get there and how much should I raid my savings account for?

	Saving Per Month	Total	Bike deducted	Total pre deducted	pre and during deducted
August	3133	3133	-12546	-17197	-32947
September	3259	6392	-9287	-13938	-29688
October	1456,3	7848,3	-7830,7	-12481,7	-28231,7
November	2000	9848,3	-5830,7	-10481,7	-26231,7
December	2000	11848,3	-3830,7	-8481,7	-24231,7
January	2000	13848,3	-1830,7	-6481,7	-22231,7
February	2000	15848,3	169,3	-4481,7	-20231,7
Mars	2000	17848,3	2169,3	-2481,7	-18231,7
April	2000	19848,3	4169,3	-481,7	-16231,7
May	2000	21848,3	6169,3	1518,3	-14231,7
June	Hit the road

So, estimate is to save 2000 SEK per month specifically for the trip. As you can see, I've updated with actuals for the months that have passed and left in the estimated numbers for coming months.
Bike will be paid off in February and all other gear just in time for the trip. The during costs will be taken from savings (and .. big and here. It costs money to live normally as well, so it is probably not 14000 SEK that needs to be raided from savings, but maybe a part of it)

Conclusions

This is my trip budget, yours may differ and I am sure that you could do the same trip with a lot less expenses.
Things to note is that 20 KSEK of the budget is stuff that I need to be able to do it. For the next trip, that part is already covered give or take some maintenance or upgrades.
I could have opted for a cheaper bike, but hey I really want a Kona Sutra and hope to use it for commuting and gravel grinding as well as travelling.

Also, the 350 SEK per day on food is hopefully calculated as a worst case. In reality we might just burn a part of that and save. But as I wrote above, I rather over-budget and not use the money as the other option is not as nice. Being stuck in Germany and not having food.

Ok, enough trying to rationalize my budget. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.. Right?

Other resources:

• Travelling Two: How Much Does Bike Touring Cost? We do the math
• Bicycle Hobo: How Much Does It Cost to Bicycle Tour
• Me, My Bike And A Camera: How Much Does a Cross-Country Bike Tour Cost?

As always if you like this, be sure to leave a comment and share on social media! Not needed but appreciated!

Planning an Epic bike ride with Strava and Google Earth/Maps

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In a previous post I went through some basics on how to use Strava to plan a touring trip to get good estimates on length and time needed.
This time we will look at how to use Strava, together with Google Earth and Google Maps to plan an epic bike gravel fun bike ride in the Alps.

So my plan is to get over Stelvio and then have a 'rest' day in Bormio with hotel nights perhaps and just take an unloaded bike out for a stroll.
So what are there to see in the Bormio region? I've heard that Livigno is nice and that a lot of cyclists use it as their home base so why not go there? And then find another way back to Bormio.

Or, just go nuts and create your very own dream ride wherever in the world (besides Germany, they don't seem to have street-view).

Tools used in the video are all free to use:

• Strava, for creating the map. There are other tools to do the same. From time to time I also use Garmin Connect. Download the map as GPX
• Go to gpx2kml.com, just as the address says this tool is used to convert the GPX file from Strava to KML used by Google.
• Open Google Earth, do a fly by of the route once imported and check for details. Use street-view to check what type of road it is. In the video about 50% is paved and the other 50% is gravel.
  Also use Earth to check views and find the most epic ride.
• Do changes in Strava if you find stuff that you do not like and repeat the steps.
• Once you like the route. Open Google Maps and import it there to get it available on you Google Maps app in you phone and you are set for navigation help

So there, now we have our epic gravel fun-time ride on our phone, ready for us when we get there!

Might have jumped some details in the text above, but be sure to check the video if something is unclear or leave a comment! And as always if you like this, be sure to share on social media! Not needed but appreciated!

Unboxing: Surly Cromoly Front Rack 2.0 Silver

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This rack seems to go under many names but as I understand it. They are all the same as on Surly homepage there is only one front rack that fits the description.

• Surly Cromoly Front Rack 2.0 Silver
• Surly Front Rack 2.0
• Surly Nice Rack 2.0

Some weeks ago I posted an article 'Starting to think about Adventure Bike Front Racks'
After a lot of thought I decided to go the Surly way. The reason behind the decision was purely that I found it at a really nice discount that I couldn't skip.$80, can't get much cheaper then that.
Placed the order last weekend and received this beauty today.

Unboxing video

What's in the box?

So what's in the box?

• The Surly Front Rack
• A heavy duty rubber bag
• Bolts, nuts and washers
• Three different metallic mounts
• Distances

Next step

Next step is to mount it on the bike, but the bike doesn't arrive until January 2019, so it will be another story.



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. 

Preparing for an adventure, learning useful phrases in foreign languages

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Planning an adventure outside the borders of your country of origin?
Eventually you will end up in situations that force you to communicate with locals and they may not always know English, or chose to not know English if you don't open up in their native tongue. (Happened to me in France)
I speak Swedish, Finnish and English fluently but my plan to travel through Germany, Austria and Italy makes me feel like I need to learn at least some phrases in German and Italian to get me by as my previous dealings with Germans and Italians have left me in peculiar situations where for example hand gestures were needed to communicate easy things like how to open a gas-station pump at a gas station at 4 AM on the autobahn.

Of course you can always use Google translate on your phone, but some of the simple conversation starter phrases should probably be learned, and only use Google Translate as a backup.

So what phrases could we need for our trip? Let's dream up some examples and translate them to both Italian and German.

English	German	Italian
Excuse me	Entschuldigung	Scusami
Thank you	Danke	Grazie
Do you speak english?	Sprechen sie Englisch?	Lei parla inglese?
Closest bike shop	Nächster Fahrradladen	Il negozio di biciclette più vicino
Any good and cheap restaurant you could recommend	Jedes gute und günstige Restaurant kann empfohlen werden	Qualsiasi ristorante buono ed economico che potresti raccomandare
Could we buy an used cardboard box for bike transport	Könnten wir einen gebrauchten Karton für den Fahrradtransport kaufen?	Potremmo comprare una scatola di cartone usata per il trasporto di biciclette
Could we camp on your land for one night?	Könnten wir für eine Nacht auf Ihrem Land zelten?	Potremmo accamparci sulla tua terra per una notte?
Are there any campsites close by	Gibt es Campingplätze in der Nähe?	Ci sono dei campeggi nelle vicinanze
Do you know anyone that can weld my bike frame	Kennst du jemanden, der meinen Fahrradrahmen schweißen kann?	Conosci qualcuno che può saldare il telaio della mia bici

Any other phrases that you think are useful when on the road touring or back-packing that should be included? Or did you spot any misstake? Please leave a comment!


Another thing that I'm going to do this time is to prepare a card describing what we are doing and why in both Italian and German so that we can let people read it instead of us trying to explain in broken tongue.


Find all posts regarding Stelvio 2019

If you find this article interesting, please feel free to leave a comment or share it on social media!

A mushroom hunt in the woods

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Last weekend my wife and I took a stroll in the woods just to clear our minds and with the hope of finding some mushrooms as we were on our last few bags in the freezer.
Not that we really thought that we would find anything, it is November after all. But it didn't take too long to find a batch of Funnel Changerelles.

Craterellus tubaeformis, Yellowfoot, winter mushroom, or Funnel Chanterelle

Craterellus tubaeformis, Yellowfoot, winter mushroom, or Funnel Chanterelle

Campanula rotundifolia, or Blue bell in November

After spending some time harvesting them we started to hear noises in the woods in front of us. Something large was moving around and at first our thoughts went to wild boars as we had seen quite a lot of signs from them already.

After walking some hundred meters again, we spotted some Fallow Deer on the nearby field and I decided to try to stalk them a bit to get a photo with my phone (sadly I did not bring my good camera). I think I got within 40 meters of them with no way closer without exposing myself or making a lot of noise due to sticks and old leaves on the ground.

Fallow deer photographed with phone camera 10x zoom (Huawei Mate 10 Pro) Crappy quality at this zoom level

Had to use 10x zoom on my phone camera to get a picture.
Once I was done with that I started to move back towards my wife who was sitting 30 meters behind me but as soon as I moved I stared a doe right in the eye. I had not noticed them coming up on me on a path from my right without seeing me. But as soon as she saw me, she bolted and the buck that was right behind her did the same. Had I just sat still for 30 seconds longer, I would have had the perfect photo opportunity. But that picture will be in my minds eye for a long time.

We also found some golden chanterelles after this but I was too mind blown so I forgot to photograph!

Cleaning up the days findings

I classified this post as a 'micro adventure' as it is a break from our normal life and let us get outside. And this time it really felt like an adventure!

Adventure Inspiration 2018 November

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Another month of Adventure Inspiration compiled to a list of links:

An Everyman's Guide to Planning Epic Adventure

Found this little gem. Never too late to try something new. Really interesting reading.

Microadventures
Add more adventure to your life! Doesn't have to be large scale every time. It can be small as well!

DownTheRoad.org Bicycle Touring Around the World

Just a ton of inspiration from around the world by this guy Tim Travis. 

5 Elements of Adventure: Authenticity, Purpose, Inspiration
A look at what defines adventure.

reddit Bicycle Touring
If you haven't found this reddit yet, you should go check it out. Especially like their Weekly Report threads.

5 Stunning Hiking Trails In Sweden
Just as it says, information about 5 beautiful hiking trails in Sweden. Makes me want to grab my hiking boots and go!