Part Two, Tentative London northbound and Scotland Bike Tour.

[Danneaux]

I will bring a Steripen in case I need to treat water.

I sure have liked mine in field practice. I use Eneloops to power it and charge them from my SON dyno/Cycle2Charge.

For the butane I was going to buy...

For the Eastern Europe part of my tour, I carried an alcohol stove as a backup to my preferred iso-butane, figuring I could power it with homebrew rakia (moonshine) found in "secret stores" along the way. Alcohol content can hit 80% in a strong homebrew. Didn't need to use it, as I found tall and short iso-butane cartridges in a Veliko Tarnovo BG hiking store that more than lasted my four-months on the road. Alky stoves can be near weightless and are small to toss in the corner of pannier, HB bag, or rear jersey pocket.

I primarily carry a self-made "penny-stove" made from a Heineken can. With all accessories (stove, penny, pot/cup with handle, lid, stand, windscreen, lighter, SA knife, P-38 can opener, pot lifter, 2 folding sporks, fuel bottle, carry sack), it weighs 460g, about 16oz. I considered it cheap insurance and have used it as my only stove/cook kit for fast, long (300k-400k) day rides and overnighters.

Best of luck and all good wishes, George, and what sounds like a wonderful tour!

Best, Dan.

[mickeg]

There’s a chain store called Halfords. It’s an odd combination (to me, at least) of auto parts and bicycles. Their website shows the 4 pack of Campingaz cans. Maybe there’s one near your hostel.

The one I mentioned was 4 miles from the hostel I stay at in London was a Halfords, website says available one hour after purchase at that store.

Thanks.

[mickeg]

I will bring a Steripen in case I need to treat water.

I sure have liked mine in field practice. I use Eneloops to power it and charge them from my SON dyno/Cycle2Charge.

For the butane I was going to buy...

For the Eastern Europe part of my tour, I carried an alcohol stove as a backup to my preferred iso-butane, figuring I could power it with homebrew rakia (moonshine) found in "secret stores" along the way. Alcohol content can hit 80% in a strong homebrew. Didn't need to use it, as I found tall and short iso-butane cartridges in a Veliko Tarnovo BG hiking store that more than lasted my four-months on the road. Alky stoves can be near weightless and are small to toss in the corner of pannier, HB bag, or rear jersey pocket.

I primarily carry a self-made "penny-stove" made from a Heineken can. With all accessories (stove, penny, pot/cup with handle, lid, stand, windscreen, lighter, SA knife, P-38 can opener, pot lifter, 2 folding sporks, fuel bottle, carry sack), it weighs 460g, about 16oz. I considered it cheap insurance and have used it as my only stove/cook kit for fast, long (300k-400k) day rides and overnighters.

Best of luck and all good wishes, George, and what sounds like a wonderful tour!

Best, Dan.

The Steripen pen I have was deeply discounted by REI about a decade ago.  Has an internal Lithium Ion battery.  Once or twice a year, I top up the battery.  Tested it a couple days ago, still works.

I have actually never used the Steripen, I bought it as a lightweight backup plan if I had to Wild Camp in Iceland a decade ago.  I am well aware of the UV treatment for water systems, but the engineer in me has greater trust in a filter that blocks out the microbes that are bigger than viruses.  I did not mention it before but I have yet another backup plan, theoretically two drops of chlorine bleach per liter should disinfect it, but I have used four drops to make sure if I was unsure.  I bring a one ounce bottle.  I was hesitant to mention, as I think that chlorine bleach is prohibited from airline transport, but I bring it anyway.  There has been a couple times where I used both the filter and chlorine treatment.
https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-09/documents/emergency_disinfection_of_drinking_water_sept2017.pdf

That said, I am certainly willing to try a Steripen as a tiny little contingency.  Would probably also use the chlorine to make sure.

I think you already know that I use a Sawyer water filter for backpacking and canoeing, I put together a gravity system, takes minimal effort to filter two liters, attached photo.  For those trips, I filter two liters per day, don't bother filtering water that I instead will boil (coffee, most suppers, etc.).  But that is way tooooo much stuff to carry on a bike tour as a "just in case" contingency.  Thus the Steripen and chlorine it is.

***

I have never had any interest in alcohol stoves, I have seen people use them in campsites.  But I prefer stoves, of which I have too many to count on two hands.  But thanks for the reminder of this option.  I am confident that I have done enough research on where to find fuel.

The stove I am bringing cost less than $20 USD, works with both the mountaineering type canisters and the tall skinny ones.  Thus by being usable by both common types of canisters, my chances of always finding butane is improved.  Am bringing a cheaper stove because the UK airport security people on their website say they will confiscate any stoves that have actually been used, so if my stove does not make it back home, I am not out too much.  Stove in photo attached, fuel canister is off to the right, this was on my last bike tour in Canada.

I brought a liquid fuel stove to Iceland and it was a major hassle to make it clean enough so that it would pass inspection by security, so I will never fly with a liquid fuel stove again.  In Iceland I brought a butane stove as a backup and found so many half empty butane canisters left by campers before the left the country that I mostly used butane instead of liquid fuel.
https://cascadedesigns.com/blogs/msr-trip-reports/flying-with-a-camping-stove

Third attached photo is the liquid fuel stove I brought to Iceland, now it only travels by car or by bicycle, too much hassle to clean the fuel tank, pump, etc. to pass airport security.  I had to keep moving the two pots back and forth for the single stove meal.

[Andyb1]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

[mickeg]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

So, even when you are wild camping you can find a convenient water tap?  That is wonderful.

[Matt2matt2002]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

So, even when you are wild camping you can find a convenient water tap?  That is wonderful.

I took my Steripen on my 2 month tour along the Pamir Highway through Tajikistan and Kyrgystan, 10 years ago.
I think I used it once.
It was on  my, 'not to take again' list when i returned home.

Re taps when wild camping? Yes, we don't have many/any in forests here. However most graveyards have a free water supply/tap. I've often used them to top up a water bottle. No body/one objected.

[mickeg]

...
I took my Steripen on my 2 month tour along the Pamir Highway through Tajikistan and Kyrgystan, 10 years ago.
I think I used it once.
It was on  my, 'not to take again' list when i returned home.

Re taps when wild camping? Yes, we don't have many/any in forests here. However most graveyards have a free water supply/tap. I've often used them to top up a water bottle. No body/one objected.

UV treatment for drinking water is best done on the smallest microbes.  The theory is that it might not kill the microbes, but it makes the unable to reproduce.  The larger microbes, UV is less effective.  On the other hand, filters are most effective on the larger microbes, but often are incapable of filtering out the smallest ones.

For example, two summers ago I backpacked for a week on Isle Royale, that is the largest island on Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes along the USA and Canada border.  The entire island is a national park.  There are thousands of moose on that island and they carry a parasite that you really do not want to get, thus you need to filter or boil the water.  The National Park Service specifically does not recommend chemical or UV water treatment.

But if you are in a less developed country where there may be poor water treatment for human wastes or domestic animal wastes, you could have viruses in the water and those are much less likely to be reliably filtered out due to the small size if you only filtered the water.  If I was going to go to a country like that, I would be more inclined to use chemical and/or UV water treatment due to the possible presence of viruses, even if the water was from a community water supply.

But generally you do not need to worry about viruses in places where you have minimal human population without domestic animals.  There, filtering by itself is usually adequate.  Thus, my canoe trips or backpacking trips in the wilderness, I use either filtering or boiling, but not bother with chemical or UV treatment.

[Andyb1]

This may surprise some, but the UK public water system provides drinkable water throughout the British Isles.
Things are perhaps different in America?

So, even when you are wild camping you can find a convenient water tap?  That is wonderful.

You will be able to pick up enough water along the way for a night’s wild camping, assuming you have containers for a few litres.  Just ask at a house or a garage or shop - or as Matt has said, a church / graveyard will have a tap for the flowers - all water supplies are drinkable.  Scotland is not as sparsely populated as Iceland.

Just trying to help you minimise your gear.

BTW, just had £750 back from my insurers to cover (most of) my costs due to cancelled flights returning from Sri Lanka last month.  Hence my suggestion upthread of having abandonment in your travel insurance.