Okay, cos I’m a fashion victim I’m going to partake in one of those event where people ride bikes in the wilderness, and sleep and cook in said wilderness using impractical but appropriately expensive utensils.
I’m after a stove and cooking pot that are good for bikepacking. I don’t really have an idea of the budget for now. So what are people using and what’s no good/good/excellent?
Cheers FOA
PS: I know this has been discussed before, but I can’t find a thread (outdoor equipment thread is 70 pages and I don’t really want to peruse it just for stoves), so creating one. Mods pls delete if I overlooked the right thread.
Interested in this thread because a friend lost my camp stove over a cliff last weekend.
It was a mini Trangia I’d had for years. I think they’re very hard to beat. Being metho and not gas means fuel is always easy to find, and you can take the complete setup on plane, ready to go. Storing the fuel inside the cooker saves space and means you can get it going very quickly in the dark. Can get two decent billy boils out of a tiny amount of metho, provided it’s not too windy.
I think I’ll get the same again unless there’s something better I haven’t heard of.
Work out what fuel/weight/bulk/cost you want and go from there.
Propane will cook fastest/most expensive option, you will need to carry the bottle, jetboil best here, or open burner with a pot.
Metho stoves can be free or a few $, get fuel at any shop, okay boil time, soda can stove, trangia or ab13 from tier gear. I have an ab13 and it’s super light and super small.
Stick stoves fold flat and use what’s around you to cook, slowest boil time. Aliexpress have an okay I’m going to test out soon.
I use a Jetboil Zip for bikepacking which is fine for coffee and heating up small meals. Actually cooking would probably require a larger pot which would be possible as the stove comes with an attachment to let you use other non proprietary pots. Defeats the purpose of the unit if packing a bigger pot though…
Whisperlite International for camping / climbing trips.
This is sick lads, thanks. Getting very excited. Plenty of info/thinking to do.
@HM/Gypsy: ahead of the pack as always. Gypsy, that Weber went well in Japan?
@Sean: liking the idea of an alcohol stove. Given I’m just going out for an overnighter, this seems easy enough. One concern is where to stock the fuel on the bike. In the bags seems like a bad idea, and I don’t have mounts for a third bottle cage. Either make a ghetto one with zipties or the like, or dedicate one of the two bottle cages I have for it, and take a water pouch.
Loved the link BTW, page starts with some etymological analysis of the word ‘zen’, right down my alley.
I wouldn’t worry too much about storing the fuel in your bag Seb, as long as the bottle is half decent.
I’ve got a Bushbuddy and I love it, but it’s a bit quirky. It’s light and fits in my potset, but I’ve had a bit of trouble getting it going at times. There’s also always the concern about lighting a wood fire in the bush, but in my view the flame is well contained and safe. It makes your pot all sooty too, but I use a cosy so that keeps my stuff clean. I like it because I can properly cook on it. It heats water quickly, but I can control the heat by controlling the amount of sticks I put in so I can simmer away some dahl for as long as I like.
I also have a remote tripod gas stove. It’s also great; boils water quickly and simmers easily, but yeah, you need gas canisters and a windbreak. I prefer the remote tripod to one that screws on top because it’s more stable and the windbreak is safer/easier, but it’s heavier/bulkier.
Having said all this, for ultralight travel, I’m pretty convinced by alcohol stoves now and will be looking to get a good setup soon. That Tier Gear one someone linked too looks like a great setup. I’ve met people traveling with Zen stoves though and they’re so great. So simple. I’d always worry about how much fuel to carry on a big trip though, but really, if you’re stuck and you want to cook, just light a little wood fire and cook on that!
Thought you’d like it. The key to a good alcohol stove experience is adequate wind shielding IMO, I have the tiergear shield but you can just make one out of stiff cooking foil or rocks/branches whatever. I stock my fuel in a small plastic bottle (very small) inside my 1.1 liter Ti pot and get dinner/breaky out of it.
I’ve always been interested in making a beer-can stove. The weight and size is certainly appealing.
That said I’ve always gone for the standard mini propane stove setup for bikepacking and tramping (in NZ). Mostly for size, speed and ease of use. The downsides of it being unstable and lack of wind protection are minor when you are just boiling water for one or two people.
My setup of choice:
Maple Fire FMS-116
650ml titanium pot (Toaks, Keith etc)
MSR windscreen (basically heavy foil - really good)
100g cannister (lasts ages)
spork
(and use your leatherman/gerber as a pot gripper)
you can get these stoves and pots ff ali etc for pretty cheap …tho not as cheap as a beer-can
Jetboils look great but the size and weight has always put me off for bike stuff. Also they don’t look suitable for reheating food in (cleaning would be tricky). Seems more suited to hiking ATMO.
Aluminium roof flashing is great for cheap windshields. I have lots if anyone is passing by.
Planning on making some capillary alcohol vapour stoves for fun in the tetkoba pattern that are wickfree and burn completely blue.
I like the MikeD brs3000t stove, often cheaper on eBay than gear best. For easy fuel resupply, a tripod adaptor that uses the ‘hairspray’ butane cartridges gives you cheap and readily available fuel. Being straight butane it won’t work as well in the cold though.
