London to Paris - What to sleep in!?

Riding London to Paris this summer with a bunch of mates. Going to be a DIY effort on track bikes without support or planned accommodation so need to travel as light as poss!

My question is what's the smallest/lightest thing i can use to sleep in? Don't really fancy lugging even the smallest tent on my back with all my other shit - I'm thinking something more along the lines of a body bag with breathing holes?

Thanks!

P.s. No I'm not joking. Yes I am crazy.

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send clothes to a B&B in advance, stay there overnight and send your dirty stuff home in the mail

Hammock.

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Awesome posts from everyone - feeling really inspired :)

Hammock.

you think you're the queen of camping now don't you?

bivi bag ?

either go expensive something like a terra nova - jupiter
or hit up army and navy stores and grab a cheap canvas sack to sleep in

light, small, pack downable

alpkit bivi bag only 300 and something grams (much lighter than ex army) and about the same price. Add a sleeping bag and mat and strap on bars / under saddle / somewhere on the bike.

Sleep? Just knock it over in a day. Job done.

Topeak Bikamper?

Tent from decathlon for 90 euros sleeps two, weighs three kg.

If you're so skinny, and your bike is so light that 3kg is the end of the world, then take some proplus and push on through, like Hippy said.

A bunch of us road Amsterdam to Paris last year and we rocked a simple tarp rather than a tent.

Slept 5 of us, we were lucky with the weather but the tarp was fine, lightweight and easy to split up, we had poles between two people and one person got the tarp itself, you could do without poles too if you are ray mears.

We also had bivi bags, if you go cheap it will rustle and sweat like anything as the cheapo orange things are non breathable, think we paid about £30 for some ok ones, still pretty foisty.

I didn't bother taking any ground/roll mat which was one one of my biggest regrets, decathlon do thin mats which you can blow up slightly. I made do by finding cardboard boxes where ever we stayed and laying them out tramp style.

It's a good method of camping though, tarps are quick and easy so you can get packed up and off quick in the morning. . .

Stripy pyjamas FTW!

Sleep? Just knock it over in a day. Job done.

Yep, that's what we did. Managed Brighton to Paris in a day, just start early and get your ferry timings right.

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send clothes to a B&B in advance, stay there overnight and send your dirty stuff home in the mail

If you're not landed gentry like dj here then take cash and stay in a youth hostel.

if you camp minimally and things don't go well then friendships can be quite strained during the next morning whereas a cheap, simple bed indoors can be a lot more refreshing.

Or as hippy says, just do it in a day. It's 400k, which I just did in 23 hours. If you leave at midday then you should make good timing for an evening crossing of the channel for a nice hour's rest before you get going again. A twenty minute catnap under a bit of shelter is enough to reboot the brain as dawn breaks and you can push on through to Paris. Once you're there, book into hostel, sleep for the afternoon, nip out and buy some clean clothes for the evening.

However, if that doens't appeal then one thing I would recommend, don't lug anything on your back at all (except maybe a camelbak if you're twitchy about braze-ons.) Get a clamp on rack for your seatpost and carry stuff that way.

thinking about doing this route without an overnight stop to raise some funds for mcmillan..... dont think doing it on my fixie is wise need to sort myself out with an audax..... but would maybe help with the fundraising side of things

23 hours sounds pretty damn quick..... how much training do you regularly do?

I've only just started to do regular 50mile + rides fixed wheel

c

Not training as such, I just go out and do long rides and the occasional 10 mile TT. It's not even that quick, Keeping above a ten mile an hour average pace isn't that hard. This is endurance through, not pace so there are more important things, like psychology and feeding.

cheers for all the replys - bivi bag and tarp it is!

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this is a good vid of L2P Fixed......enjoy