Rightyo,

Need some advice. The gf an I are on our way back from a successful camping cycle tour round Arran. This weekend we just had separate mats and sleeping bags. Unfortunately my mat proved quite deflatey which, when coupled with a suspected broken rib led to a sleepless night.

We are looking to do a few more tours including cycling across France in the summer over a couple of weeks so looking for a more resilient set up to allow us to sleep together.

What set up works for you when touring with your partner to allow you to sleep together? I’m thinking two thermararests held together with a sheet and a unzipped sleeping bag as a duvet.

Only real requirements is that the whole sleeping set up has to fit into one 14l front pannier.

Thanks

Left and right zipped sleeping bags give you the option of zipping them together or using them individually or unzipping and using them as loose duvet as you suggest. We never bothered with tying mats together as the tent was so narrow that there wasn’t really much chance of the mats drifting too far apart but I remember seeing a kind of elastic loop that could be used to keep a couple of mats together.

Do you sleep at similar temperatures

Mrs t-r uses a -15 bag almost all year round- except in france summer where sheuses a -5 bag…..

Im lucky if i use my -15 bag once a year these days even during winter camping

For that reason alone id keep my sleeping bag set up separate.

What mat was quite deflatey ? Cannot praise thermarest enough when it comes to their mats. My classics are now 10 years old bpught after both wee arrics delaminated 2 weeks into a 6 month tour. Now have neoairs and despite rough treatment only had a couple of punctures in the xlite crisp packet one. The heavier duty ventures still trucking with no patches

Mat wise we just just use two mats close together. On top we use a down duvet with a custom ripstop o e side poly cotton duvet cover mad by my mother. It has a mi. Skirt to stop drafts as the duvet was sold as a single, but it is fine for two when camping. The entire lot is heavy because we used a cheap IKEA duvet but considering it is for two it’s not bad when you split it. If you bought or made a duvet using better quality down it would be very light sleeping system for two.

I found this setup warmer than. I expected probably due to shaded heat.fits I a rear pannier. A better made version might fit in a front but I think that is a tough requirement.

Could look at a camping quilt instead of bags though I’ve not looked of anyone does doubles.

We use a cheap thin double sleeping bag, then whatever we need inside, which is typically more for Miss TNW than me. In France I might not have anything inside the double and she might have a sleeping bag liner. In this country in autumn, I might have a 2 season bag inside and she a three.

Finding a packable double bag might be tricky though. Two down quilts (Alpkit Cloud Cover?) attached together?

On a round the world trip we took the trouble to get a left right pair of zipped sleeping bags. We used them about once like that

We just slept in the same tent next to each other with mats and sleeping bags

NB the answers here concern sleeping

We have a couple of sewn webbing loops (think kind of flat figure of eight in shape) to stop our mats moving apart. Of course we forgot to take them on a trip into Fisherfield this week. Somehow my mat ended up stood on it’s edge between me and the tent sidewall….

Mrs Stoner and I rode across Spain and France for a few months. I made a double duvet of Pertex and goose down that attached to a double sleeping bag liner of silk. Two thernarests kept together with shock cord with a twist.

For saving pannier space nothing beats the newer Neo-Air type mats. I’ve got the Exped Synmat which takes up less space than my super-light thermarest but is infinitely more comfy. It’s like you’re cheating.

A couple of friends rode around the world with theirs but didn’t see the need to strap them together (tent was small enough to do that for them).

No experience of them but I see thermarest do a “down coupler” sounds like what you are looking for. The do blanks now too.

There’s two separate issues here:
1. joining up sleeping mats
2. joining up sleeping bags

Ideally you want your sleeping mats to cover the floor of the tent so that they can’t drift apart. The figure of eight straps mentioned by a couple of posters can also work. It follows that the size and shape of your tent floor will determine what to use. Obviously rectangular mats will fit side by side but Exped mummy shaped mats can be laid together with one facing one way and one the opposite. Also both mats should be the same or similar thickness.

Sleeping bags that zip together sound like a good idea but when we had such items we rarely used them in that way, always seemed a lot of faff TBH. You can get two person quilts and comforters which would probably be better suited to purpose.

When you say everything should fit in 14L, is that just for the two mats and sleeping bags/quilts? The current crop of inflatable mats (Exped Synmat, Thermarest Neo-Air, etc) along with summer weight down bags/quilts should be fine. I can get an Exped Winterlite mat; a two season down bag (PHD Minim); a two season quilt (Cumulus 150) and a bivvy bag in a 13L dry bag with room to spare.

Thanks all

The Ikea single own duvet could be a winner – there is an Ikea near my office, think I will pop in during lunch sometime to have a squatch at how bulky it is. I’m not overly* concerned about weight as I think carrying an extra kilo to have a comfortable nights sleep is worth it over two weeks camping.

The front pannier requirement was more for balance, the tent is in the other front pannier and weighs 3.5kg incl pannier . I expect sleeping set up to be similar.

My leaky multimat (400g) sprang a leak due to the stuff sac splitting and the matt chaffing on other stuff in the pannier. Got a patch on it now, will see how that works.

We found my multimat was comfier for sitting on in the tent due to being thicker but clearly less resilient compared to my gf’s thermarest which is 3 times the pack size, twice the weight but more robust…

*that said I’m not going to be lugging a double full size air bed and full double duvet across France

The mat/bag/quilt/bivy bag combo I mention above comes to 1.9Kg including the dry bag. All the items are 400g +/- ~40g each so there’d be little difference in swapping the bivy bag for another mat. Don’t know how much your panniers weigh but it’s in the right ball park.

Re: abrasion, it’s often worth leaving items that can expand out of their stuff sacks so that they can provide some protection to more delicate items and also stop them moving around in the bags/panniers.

Never mind all this bed talk, you must’ve got some great pics on Arran?, weather here has been wicked of late.

Get ’em posted.

here’s a link to a brief description of our sleeping kit
http://pompinos.blogspot.co.uk/index.html#114554666987868456

We just used two separate sleeping bags for touring, mainly because with doubles or duvets, there always seems to be a big gap and the top which lets all the cold air in when the other person moves.

Some photo’s from the weekend;