Next week we’re doing a multi-day hut-to-hut hike with the whole family and we each need to bring a hut sleeping bag: “Huttenschlafsack”. We have one blue silk/cotton (250g) and two white cotton ones (450g) and need a fourth but time is short, so I’ll just make one out of an old fitted sheet.
The fitted sheet, queen-sized 160*200
What’s important is that the top end of the mattress is firmly covered, so your head doesn’t touch the intensely used mattress. I can re-use one of the corners of the fitted sheet for the top part and I’ll have to invent a second one.
The feet and the body should have enough space inside the bag. The top sheet needs to be at least 100 cm wide to cover the body.
How to join the top sheet and the bag bottom …
We start with the bottom end:
Cutting off the elastic to make the serging easier. It’s tempting to sew it closed right away along the bottom and halfway up the side, but my experience with pillow cases tells me it’s easier to sew the other parts while the bottom is still open.
It was decided that the top sheet of this cotton sleeping bag should come to within 15 cm from the top end of the bed.
And it was decided to make the bottom part 70 cm wide so it would fit on mattresses from 60-80 cms.
With these two decisions the system is well-defined. The remaining degrees of freedom are very small.
Cutting line for the top sheet, 15 cm from the top edge of the mattress.
X marks the spot of the other corner of the bottom sheet, 70 cm from the other one.
If I cut the top sheet to size until the corner of the bottom sheet, then I can use the cut off part to make a nice corner that fits around the mattress.
How to finish off the corner where the top and the bottom sheet meet? I guess I’ll just serge around it in an 180° turn. It’s “only for three nights”.
Ad hoc, trying to make the most of the elastic part. Not really good sewing technique.
A proper corner. No elastic is needed for the 15 cm down the side.
The corner has been cut out.
I’ll start with sewing the corner seam and then serge the edge of the bottom sheet, making that 180° turn and continuing across the top sheet and down the side. At some point I’ll insert the other edge of the bottom sheet so the bottom makes a nice foot bag.
Publishing this now. Stay tuned for the post-sewing part! Will it be what I want it to be?
Intermediate check when the thread ran out. Looks good!
New spool of thread, creating the usual problems. Doesn’t look good.
Managed to sew it all with odds and ends of grey thread. The foot part is not symmetric, as expected.
So I’m sewing off the corner to make a foot box.
Tucking in the ends of the threads because this sheet can be used inside-out if you want to have the opening on the other side.
The finished hut sleeping bag!
With a spacious foot box at the end. It’s 185 long, 90 wide. Made of 50% cotton, 50% polyester and weighing 500g. Not the lightest but certainly the cheapest, and the most comfortable one!
What about the other sleep sheets?
This one (185 long, 73 wide) has a pocket at the top and a pocket at the bottom. You need to bring a separate pillowcase. This works. The foot pocket could be removed as I doubt it would stay put. The material could make the top part a bit wider.
In the end I just ripped out the two little side seams and made it 15 cm longer!
This one (175 long, 80 wide) has a zipper and a foot box but the top part is never going to stay in place. I have some leftover material that I cut off the fitted sheet. Maybe that can be used to create a pocket at the top which can go around the head of the matress.
The top part has been extended and will now wrap properly around the head of the matress.
It’s now 185 long.
The blue one is 200 cm long and 90 wide. Just one pocket at the top, with extra material around the shoulder part. Being a silk/cotton mix, it is the lightest, and by far the most expensive, of the lot.
What a relief to finally have a whole set of proper sleeping sheet bags for hut-to-hut hiking!
This ultralight water resistant organizer baggy has accompanied me on all my trips for the last half a year, the last time on a 17-hour train journey from Copenhagen to Zurich.
It contains my just in case it’s very cold safety kit, complementing my physical health and technical bike safety kits.
Today’s temperature safety kit
Merino socks and the alpha sweater I bought at ISPO2025. I usually have a beanie in there too, but didn’t think I’d be that desperate on today’s three hour journey.
Even though there’s a heat wave rolling over Europe, you never know how cold it is going to be, especially in the couchette section of the train. On the way up to Hamburg a freezing draft had come down on my head so the beanie was a headache saver.
This organizer has no hard parts that can scratch, so you can just slide it in anywhere. The zipper is small and slices nicely. If a water bottle or other liquid leaks in the backpack then it will keep the contents dry, due to its waterproof zipper. I could just jam the socks, beanie and sweater down the side of my pack, but then it wouldn’t be easily reachable and the alpha sweater has big loops that catch easily on hard parts. I like having it all in one easily recognizable baggy.
At one point towards the end of the train ride I had some yoghurty garbage I needed to take with me, so I did temporarily move the contents down the side of the main compartment and put the sticky garbage in the organizer. At the hostel I rinsed the baggy out and it dried quickly.
What I really like about this organizer is that it seems to contain much more that its 1 liter size and 16 grams of weight indicates. The shape has almost optimized the material vs volume equation as it is almost round. This is especially true for the next size up 5 liter organizer, which weighs only 20 grams.
Lovely Lunchbag
While cycling I keep all my lunch food and snacks in this organizer.
It fits perfectly in the handlebar bag, creating a second layer of insulation, keeping the bike bag clean, and allowing me to quickly bring all my food to the lunch spot. It’s amazing how much fits inside, and if I end up shoving this bag with a squished nectarine inside another bag, I can be sure that it will stop a big sticky mess.
The material is robust, showing no signs or wear, it feels nice to touch, and had easily recognizable colors. These organizers have an optimal size to weight ratio, have sealed seams and handy loops to hang them up.
Although I originally didn’t need two more baggies, I have grown to love and appreciate these additions to my organizing system and they travel with me all the time now.
Thank you, Exped, for another ingenious, well thought out piece of traveling equipment!
The empty bottom of my aunt’s cupboard, not too heavyLooks nice immediatelyWe took the doors off the top structure. It’s rather high so we used movers’ straps and a “cradle” of rope to stop the straps from sliding off the end.We reduced the weight and stabilized it as much as possible to bring it up the stairsManaged!Even putting it on top of the set of drawers!Looks great alreadyPutting in the rather heavy internal drawer structureThe drawers and the writing surface. It’s a well-built piece of furnitureBeautiful woodThe other door needs to be repaired first
Happy to have made it up the first big hill, along a good train-level grade in the shade
Lunch at the cemetery overlooking the valley
Seeing a deer cross the road in the provincial park
Long cool rides in the shady forest
Arriving at the Lago di Varese
A cold beer upon arrival at the campsite
Recovering at the Lago Comabbio (Unfortunately no swimming due to the algae)
Shower and dinner at the campsite
Waking up beside the lake
Happy to have made it up the second big hill (from hell, steep and scary)
Delicious cappuccino and croissant from a nice woman who offered me the use of the bathroom “because I was a cyclist”
The views on the way down
Riding along the lake of Lugano
Jumping in the lake at the end of the trip
What went well?
Acid seat post bike rack: I had fastened the screws holding it to the seatpost really tightly and the rack didn’t budge. Nice and solid.
White longsleeved wool shirt: it let the breeze through while keeping the sun off my arms. And didn’t smell bad at the end of the day. It even looks nice, though a bit see-through. But many people in Italy were wearing see-through tops on this hot day.
Flipflops: work for taking showers and wearing to the restaurant. The slides are not really elegant enough to wear with my LBD and the sandals are heavy and not great for the shower. Flipflops are fine as long as I don’t need to walk long distances. (But I’ve got my bike for that.)
LBD: my gorgeous little black dress from Arc’teryx works as a bikini cover-up, post-shower wear, and out for dinner. And it doesn’t weigh a thing!
Medium-sized super thin towel: big enough to lie on, even luxurious when put on top of the evazote pad
4 mm evazote pad and 250g thermarest neoair sleeping mat work well together
As my bike trips are generally at low altitude in warm weather, a super light sleeping mat is good enough. Just in case it pops, I also have an evazote pad. This pad is also great for relaxing in comfort on hard ground by the lake and keeping your wet towel from picking up dirt. Staying clean and presentable during a multi-day trip is not so easy. Since road cycling is by definition in populated areas this is a thing, especially if you take the train home at the end.
Food&drinks: good to have a range of things to eat and drink. Water, maltodextrine, magnesium. Oats with milk powder plus dried or cut fruit is perfect to eat in bed. Hardboiled eggs are great too. So is a carrot or some cherry tomatoes. But not in ziplocks – I should make my own dyneema baggies!
Matches my jacket and nice fabric too!
My Tucano hip belt looks stylish when worn as a cross-body bag. It’s just the right size for my wallet, alternate glasses, Coros Dura navigator, and phone. My Mandarina Duck bag got stolen on a bike trip last year, with all my valuables in it!, so my bag needs to be worn the moment I step off the bike. Needs more practice.
Speaking of which, the Coros Dura navigator kept me on track the whole way. The couple of times where I accidentally didn’t follow it were disorienting. Especially when I took the wrong turn on the roundabout and ended up on a fast road in an unlit tunnel! Or when I got momentarily lost in a maze of small streets.
The first aid kit was useful for stopping the blood from getting on my stuff after badly engaging in the dangerous activity of cutting a nectarine into small pieces with a very sharp ceramic knife. (Lightweight too! But will it pass security?)
What should I keep on doing?
Riding
Reducing weight to a minimum.
What could be improved?
The new bike seat was uncomfortable. The old one felt so good when I mounted it again. I need to raise the seat back up. Would the old saddle be good enough for a week-long trip?
My gears didn’t change smoithly. Need to adjust them.
I had just started out on my ride the day before yesterday when a Swiss-German guy remarked, headshakingly, “Uf en ne Rennvelo?” This didn’t really make me feel good. The guy I bought the bike from certainly weighed more than me plus my 12 kg of baggage. Maybe wider tires would be more comfortable on the gravel parts but there wasn’t much of it and I have anti-puncture tires now. Yes, wider tires might be a smoother ride if I ride more on gravel in the woods … but is that worth buying a whole new bike? The ultimate questions: how much does it weigh and how efficiently does it get you there?
Proof of puffing
The clasps of the panniers rattled and I feared that one of them would come loose and break, just like on the last trip so I padded it out with a discarded cigarette box. I should have looked for that padding material at home. (I still can’t find it so maybe I’ll just order some.) This was actually quite a source of stress during the whole ride, fearing to hit a pothole at speed with the pannier flying off and/or bringing the bike to an uncontrolled stop, while on a fast narrow road with no shoulder.
I could bring the non-broken clasp from the pair I replaced.
It’s not so easy to ensure that the pannier with a broken clasp stays in place using a piece of string, and the consequences of a pannier in the spokes are annoying, if not downright dangerous. So bringing a replacement clasp is worth the space in the bike first aid kit.
Bring cutting board, plus scrubby and towel
The ceramic knife is extremely sharp. I cut myself while slicing the nectarine for breakfast. Do bring a cutting board next time instead of winging it in the air. Also useful for safely cutting salami, which I craved at the end of the day. A sponge and drying towel are also a good idea. Then why not an esbit stove, pot and a rehydrated meal … I wouldn’t have to sleep in a campsite at all! No beer and no shower though …
I stemmed the blood flow with a very old bandaid, which disintegrated very quickly. So review the first aid kits!
Another dangerous activity is riding on a fast narrow road through a dark tunnel. Fortunately I was quickly able to increase the power of my front light so I could see where I was going in the dark. My back light was probably underdimensioned so I should get astronger back light. SeeMe300 or the SeeMe400 with a built-in motion sensor, which automatically switches to maximum output when you hit the brake.
Maybe, maybe not to change
The camo bivvy bag was a kind of suffocating ziplock at some point during the night. So I opened the outer shell completely and even opened the mosquito netting to let some fresh air in. There was no condensation in the morning, and I do like to eat breakfast in bed with a view. It really only needs two pegs to set up. I could permanently attach them to the bivvy so I have one less set of items to keep track of. When it got darker I could set it up at the lakeside and no one noticed it. So I’m ambivalent. Great for low-profile stealth camping but not super comfortable, especially not in the rain.
Comfy seat: it was nice to lean back in it, as an alternative to just sitting on the evazote pad. A bit of luxury after a long day gives pleasure.
Stuff I didn’t take
I didn’t miss any of it. Except that I would bring the waterproof bag for my spare clothes so they’re double-bagged and certain to stay dry in case of a downpour. It takes more time to pack than you’d think. So I ended up not doing everything that I should have in order to leave early enough to ride up the hill when it was still coolish. So foolish.
Attaching the small backpack to the rack was fiddlier and more annoying than expected. The trailing straps frustratingly ended up in the spokes several times, causing me to once again to step off my bike to tuck them away. So I decided to use the closing clasp to attach it to the seat post. But this becomes a single point of failure with the risk of having your stuff scattered along the road. So this needs to be rethought. Maybe the straps need to be shortened, maybe the holes in the rack need to be enlarged, maybe just take a dry bag with no straps and use elastics? (Ugh, don’t like elastics.)
Things can go wrong quickly on a bike. A tire deflates, a bag falls off, a sudden thunderstorm comes up. What could I do better to reduce risk and increase fun, even in adverse weather conditions?
What if something like this shows up?
Look, Mom, no poles!
An inner tube is used instead!
Is it worth it? Save 500g and be able to sit up? Na, for that price I’ll wait out a thunderstorm in a horizontal position or in a restaurant or hotel.
Interesting point: if the air temperature goes down overnight, the AirBeam tube deflates, observed in an excellent review by Outdoor Guide.
What about a proper 1-person tent with poles?
Like the Cassira 1 from Exped? 900 grams, bombproof, lots of space.
Or…
An umbrella? 350g on top of the 1.2kg bivvyI do love me a dyneema tent! 571g, single-walled, ventilated plastic bag. Need a pole though, 99g.Or this one. Wasn’t I busy making one like this? Using a kayak paddle split into two?
Another great view to wake up toBike draped with drying stuff. The light wool shirt dried nicely and doesn’t smellWatching the ants crawl over the bivvy bagYummy breakfast with a viewStarting out at 8. Again no one at the reception so I left 20€ at the restaurant and didn’t leave my personal details.High road to VareseA steep long hill with three exhausting switchbacks to climb. What am I doing?Made it to an inviting cafe to recover after 140m up over 4k.A well-deserved cappuccino and a 3-chocolate croissant at the Piazza Libertà, across from the Questura. Thanks to Donna Leon I can imagine what goes on in there.At the top of the hill from hellNo-touch toiletNo-touch sink. I wish these were everywhereMy patient “locked-up bike”A nice older man stopped to tell me about a faucet in a park around the corner when he saw my almost empty bottleLots of kids with parents playing in the park. I was grateful for the water as it was getting hotter and hotterGreat views of the eastern valleyScenery becoming familiarI changed my saddle as the new one wasn’t comfortableWonderful dip in the lake! That felt sooooo good! Fresh for the last mile home, five hours after starting out.
Off I went, at 10:30 in the morningSwitzerland as seen from ItalyLakes and mountainsThe bike route goes up an abandoned railway line through wonderfully cool tunnelsUp a nice doable grade, even with 24 kg bike and baggageLots of birdsOccasionally I take a breakListen to the birdsAdmire the huge treesLuscious forest with lots of creeksMost of the path was in the shadeAnd water millsLovely asphalt (whose origins are in … Saudi Arabia?)Really enjoying thisBike is behaving wellHowever, once the path ran out of asphalt and it became bumpy, I had to add some padding from a discarded cigarette box to stop the four pannier clasps from rattling.Arrived at the town at the top of the hill, 200m up over 5k! Even with the car this is quite a ride up.A triplet of donkeysWW1 artefact!Lovely views down the valley on the other sideMostly empty roadsAnother war artefactWater, valuables and foodA free campsite with a view beside a well-groomed playgroundThe whole male side of one family commemorated here. What a waste and heartache.Lunchtime!A very useful baggy with lots of space, keeping things together nicely. Fits perfectly in my lunch bag on the handlebarI stopped dangerously on an inside curve but had to take a picture of “Our lady of the cyclists”. See the front gear?Beautiful villas with gorgeous gardens on the edge of the provincial parkNot another hill?!? I thought we were done with them!La Pianura Padana! All downhill from here.Cooling down in the deep shade at the Lago di VareseNicely-maintained lidoLido di GavirateMan fishing behind the sluiceFunny white birds, all lined up!Hot in the sunGood thing most of the ride is in the shade!View of the creek to the leftView to the rightUpwardsCars aboveWhere I came fromLake of Comabbio!Made it!Liquid recoveryHorizontal recoveryThe front of this saddle chafed my hamstrings so I’ll replace it with my old saddle, which I fortunately brought along!Quiet rowers (but noisy coaches, exhorting away through megaphones)Those funny lined-up immobile birds again!Snacks at the lake while relaxing until dinnerIn the shadeNice restaurantVitello tonato with chips and a panacheCampground at the lakesideSunset over Lago di ComabbioSitting on the edge of the dockGood night
Create route of intended rides, export to GPX, import to Coros, upload to Dura
Put wax on chain the night before
Pump up tires
Check weather: temperature, rain, wind speed and direction
Charge
Front light
Back lights (singular, one broke)
Headlamp
Phone
Heartrate armband
Coros Dura
Coros Watch
Battery pack
Earphones
While Cycling
Wool long-sleeved shirt
Buff
Bra
Undies with no seams
Cycling pants
Socks
Trail runners
Gloves
Helmet
Sunscreen
Sunglasses
To bring for during the day:
Rain coat
Rain pants
Grey half puffy jacket
Cycling shorts/long pants
Second wool long-sleeved shirt
Bikini
Towel
Bike lock
Small lock for tent and bags
Little bag to carry phone, wallet & other glasses
Evening
LBD
Black bra and undies
Sandals or flipflops
Normal glasses
Charging cables
Warm sweater
Warm hat
Comfy chair
Tent/bivvy
Drying microfiber cloth
Thermarest
Pump Bag to fill thermarest
Evazote mat
Sleeping bag
Pillow case
Toiletry kit
Pyjamas
Shower slippers or flipflops
Small backpack?
Eating
Hardboiled eggs
Peanuts
Maltodextrin
Electrolytes
Cream cheese and crackers
Breakfast oats and apple
Knife, spoon, fork, cutting board
People First Aid
Fluimicil
Ibuprofen
Antihistamine
Sunscreen
Bike First Aid
New inner tube
Rope
Luggage from back to front
Two 20l panniers for shelter, sleeping and evening wear
10l waterproof Exped backpack for the during-the-day stuff: rain pants, swimming stuff, flipflops, alternate cycling pants, warm layers
Right-angled triangle bag for raincoat and …
Two bottle carriers for maltodextrine and electrolytes
Oval bag for bike repair stuff
Obtuse triangle bag for two 500ml squeeze bottles of water
Lunch bag for food and additional electrolyte and magnesium
Now the problem is to decide:
Coros Watch – I don’t actually need to wear it anymore as the Coros Dura connects to the armband. But I’ll bring it as a backup.
Which wool long-sleeved shirt? The black&purple hooded one or the see-through white one? It’s going to be very hot, 28°, tomorrow, so the white one.
Red, blue, grey or black buff? The red one to add color to the white shirt.
Black or orange bra? If white shirt then orange bra.
Green flowery undies or black or no undies? If orange bra then flowery undies. I still like to have a layer in between.
Merino socks or cotton? One pair of each
Trail runners? Green or white? White
Full brim hat or baseball cap? I’ll be wearing my helmet, so hat is only needed when not riding, so no full-brim hat needed
The huge black towel, the medium grey towel or the tiny blue towel? Just right …
Long-fingered or short-fingered gloves? Long
Small, medium, or krypton lock? Small, just to stop someone from rolling the bike away.
I’m getting decision fatigue here …
Little bag to carry phone, wallet, other glasses & valuables – trail running belt, exped waist bag or red cross-body bag? The latter as the glasses fit too.
Warm jacket alpha sweater rather than thick down jacket, which would be overkill
Just bring the flipflops. You won’t be walking anywhere in them
Tent/bivvy – just the 1-person bivvy is fine
Pyjamas – cotton or wool? 17° at night
Do I need a supersmall backpack? No, I already have the exped backpack
Beware of overoptimism. It’s super hot here today: 33°! But look at what’s happening just south of us:
Torrential rain!
It might not be possible to find solid protection before something like that hits, so rain pants and jacket, plus a warm change of clothes, are non-negotiable.
3.3 kg: Pannier with evazote mat, inflatable sleeping pad, bivvy tent, chair, swimstuff, warm fleecy, flipflops3.4 kg: Pannier with sleeping bag, pjs, full set of cycling clothes, evening clothes, rainpants, sweater and hat1.4 kg: Waterproof backpack with electronics, toiletry bag, sunscreen, first aid and rain jacket0.3 kg: Waist bag, hat, wallet, headband, glasses, handkerchief, pee rag
8.4 kg Base weight = 3.3 + 3.4 + 1.4 + 0.3
Bike, baggies and backup tubesand back light, front light, Coros Dura navigator and backup pump, multitool, locks, …
11.5 kg bike total: 10 kg bike + 1.5 kg luggage and tech first aid
2.1 kg lemon magnesium drink, cassis 100g maltodextrine drink, two 500ml soft flasks water1.2 kg Cheese sandwiches, 4 eggs and 1 carrot, 2 nectarines and oats with powder milk, spoon, ceramic knife, mix, in a great Exped baggy
3.3 kg food and drink without dinner
23.2 kg Total: 8.4 base + 11.5 bike + 3.3 booze
I added my old 0.9 kg saddle, just in case the new one doesn’t work out. So about 24 kg to push uphill.
Santa Maria after 500m straight upHome, sweet castle
I used my super light running belt and just took my phone, 500ml of water and a meru lightweight towel to use as a handkerchief. It worked very well and is not as sweaty as I expected.
I might wear this on my bikepacking ride tomorrow so I would always have my phone and id with me, even if I have an accident and end up in the hospital. Or if I get off my bike and am distracted.
I’m still fearful of getting my phone stolen again. I didn’t yet make sure that I am digitally resilient enough to be able to buy a new phone and install all necessary banking and transportation apps easily.
It would mean I could leave this at home. Or repurpose it as a cookie jar.
The new improved version 3.0 of my bikepacking rack arrived and I mounted it on my bike!
Version 2.0 with repurposed IKEA rods that turned out to be not strong enough to stop the panniers from getting caught in the spokes.Simple rack for luxury hostel bikepacking when I just need flipflops, a bikini, a towel and a LBD.This looks very elegant, but will the buckles fit through here?Not the smaller top buckles …Nor the larger bottom buckles. I guess I’ll have to use my hot knife to create some extra space.The platform can slide nicely far back and is a bit lower down due to the bend in the tube.Which is hollow! Extra storage space! But not more than 10 kg!With the pannier guards on. It looks quite nice! I got this setup from the Cube store in Weinfelden, the very place where my pannier decided to give up.All black accessories – matching. Should I bring a hammock with me? On no … don’t go down that rabbit hole!Replacing the broken buckle, which allowed the pannier to detach from the rail, jam into the spokes and be violently ripped off. Bikes have some seriously powerful momentum!New replacement hooks. You can just buy them, so I guess I’m not the only one with this problem.It fits nicely.No horizontal sliding. Are the clip diameter and rack diameter compatible or is a filler needed to make that tight? I don’t want it to bounce around and then break again.Looks ok but need to find and test the filler bands they must have delived the panniers with. I hate looking for stuff, and I keep getting more.This attaches nice and tight!Lots of space so my heels don’t hit the panniers!This looks great!Exped has a solution. It’s a tight fitBut this would work. I’d need two more of these straps then. All my hard work for nothing if I use the small straps also for the big red pack. I’ll have to think about it. At least this already works for hot summer hostel bikebacking. Can’t wait!A new skirt saddle … For durable riding.It’s beginning to look like a motorbike! I’ll have to lower the saddle, and therefore also loosen the bikerack. It’s getting really hot.
Now all I need is a click-stand…
Something like this … No child seats are planned.
It could double as a tarp or tent pole … Stay tuned!
Cool and Interesting 