6 best sites to help you find your next adventure bike

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No matter what you call it, adventure biking, bike touring or bike packing... You will need a bike that can carry more then a pair of water bottles. So how to select a bike to buy? Luckily there are a lot of sites out there addressing this issue. Here is a list of sites that helped me get started:

Toms bike trip: What's the best touring bike?
Tom goes through budget and premium segment of the touring bikes as well as expedition bikes.

Bikepacking.com Bikepacking Bikes list
An ever growing list of bikepacking bikes. This site should help you in finding the right bike just for you.

road.cc 13 of the best touring bikes
Goes through the major brands of touring bikes and what their key characteristics are.

cyclingweekly Best touring bikes for adventures on two wheels
Also a list of major touring bike brands and what to think about when selecting a bike

TDA Global Cycling: Choosing a Bicycle for long distance touring
Goes through tips on selecting the perfect bike for your bikepacking/touring style

Crazy guy on a bike: What to look for in a touring bike: A checklist
Just as it says, a list of things to think about when selecting the touring bike for you


Hope this helps someone out there!

Stelvio 2019: Start of a plan

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For some years I have wanted to take my bike out for a really long ride. Just me and my bike for days and weeks... Not months or years, not around the globe as I like being at home as well.
The idea of actually experiencing the country that you travel through, the journey and not only the destination.

So my grand plan is to some day take my bike from Sweden to Italy through the alps and specially the Stelvio pass. The longest ride I've taken so far is 180 km on a light road bike with no more packing then 2 water bottles. I would imagine that 1500 km would be a different thing altogether. I don't know if it is bike-packing or bike-touring and the label doesn't really matter....

This year I got diagnosed with liver cancer, or more exactly bile duct cancer (Cholangiocarcinoma) and this has kind of opened my eyes to a different part of life.
Current progress is that I've gone through 2 major liver surgeries, they have cut out half the liver and the bile bladder. I am currently on the second of eight cycles of chemo and hopefully it will be all done in January 2019.

This whole experience has forced me to start thinking what I actually want to do with life, things that I've pushed forward and thought that I could do them later... But there is no reason to not do them now directly. So hence this trip and the planning.....

Goals with this trip

• Make a trip worth it name and gain a life experience not soon to be forgotten
• Show myself that I can do it and that I'm physically recovered after cancer treatmen

Next steps

• Continue cycling, running an weight training to help with the chemo therapy
• Save money and buy touring bike that fits me
• Find 1 or 2 other persons that are equally crazy like me that can join me on the trip (my wife does not want me to go alone)
• Find out what other gear I would need
• Go for a 'test-tour' for 2 to 3 nights with wild-camping and campsites

So that is the plan so far, I'll update progress on this blog.

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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.