Brompton Overnight Gear

Self-contained Brompton set-up

Here’s a complete listing of gear brought on a sub-24-hour overnight camping trip on a Brompton folding bike. The trip took place in mid-October, with daytime temps in the low to mid 50’s and low 40’s overnight.

Luggage

• Brompton-mounted T-Bag

• Lightweight nylon backpack

  Comments: My original idea was to get everything in the T-Bag, and —in warmer weather— this would have been completely doable.

Essentials

• Bike: Brompton H3E Superlight

• Phone & charger

• Wallet

• Toolkit (fitted inside Brompton frame), spare tube and pump

• Front and rear rechargeable bike lights

• Personal items: toothbrush and toothpaste, advil (just in case)

Shelter and sleeping

• 2-person Nemo Galaxi backpacking tent (fits neatly at the bottom of the T-Bag!)

• Nemo Tensor Ultralight Sleeping pad (this is amazing and rolls up smaller than a beer can)

• REI synthetic sleeping bag, nothing special

• Thin alpaca wool blanket —this would not have been necessary in warm weather, but made a crucial difference on this trip since I knew my sleeping bag would be insufficient.

Coooking/Food

• Pre-cooked spaghetti with meat sauce packed in plastic container

• MSR Pocket Rocket campstove and one fuel canister

• MSR Camp Cookware Set (more than I needed but it was the only one I had)

• Insulated steel tumbler

• Tea bags

• Matches

• Folding eating utensils

• 32 oz bottle of water

• MSR Trailshot Pocket water filter (I didn’t need it, but I did'n’t know what the water situation would be)

• Pssst, don’t tell anyone! 1/2 small carton of Bandit Cab to enjoy with my spaghetti.

  Comments: I considered bringing coffee-making apparatus, but opted for tea bags for optimum simplicity. It turned out I did not miss the coffee. Similarly, I would have enjoyed having a hot breakfast at the campsite, but decided against the complications of carrying extra stuff and having extra clean-up.

Clothing

• Thin stretch cargo pants (these were sufficient for the ride in, but were packed away once I arrived in favor of warmer gear)

• Gym shoes (my Brompton does not have clipless pedals)

• Thin wool long johns

• Insulated windfront biking pants (not tights)

• Cotton t-shirt

• Thin LS merino wool jersey

• Insulated synthetic jersey

• Neck gaiter

• Synthetic fleece hat

• Thin packable down jacket

• Lightweight gloves

• 1 pair of thin merino socks

• 2 pairs of thick merino socks

  Comments: at night I wore pretty much everything except the jacket (which I used as a pillow) and the cargo pants. I layered the cozy merino socks with air gaps between the layers, and they kept my feet warm all night.