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I am doing the Solstice Sprint Road ultra soon and plan to sleep in a hooped Bivvy bag for 2-3 nights.
I was going to take a 3 season down sleeping bag but looking at the forecast the night time low temperature is going to be around 14oc each night.
I don’t have a lighter sleeping bag, would it be stupid to just take a silk sleeping bag liner, thermal leggings, merino base layer and down coat instead.
Would save a good chunk of weight and packing space too, if it gets cold I guess I just have to get up and keep riding.
Personally I'd take something like an Alpkit Cloudcover. Packs down really small, and I'd want the option of sleeping comfortably without needing to get up and ride at 3 am simply due to being chilly rather than because it's a good idea.
Your mat will make a huge difference. You don't want to be warming the planet as you sleep. What are you planning to use?
I don't think I'd want to risk it just with thermals, I'd probably want some proper insulation.
Cloud cover + down jacket is a good shout. The cloud cover is relatively inexpensive and does pack down small.
If you can stretch to it, then something like a sea to summit spark is smaller, lighter and warmer though.
I own both. Here's my sea to summit spark sp1 compressed..it's amazing
Also - is your hooped bivvy really that light if you are really wanting to minimise weight?
A single skin small trekking pole tent might be lighter and more comfortable.
Alpkit cloud base mat
If it rains or invariably the bivvy yields condensation the silk liner might not cut it even in summer. Something like the the OMM PRIMALOFT® ACTIVE SLEEPING BAG LINER might be a happy medium..
Thanks all, the Bivvy is the alpkit elan, weights about 900g.
May end up sticking with my down bag in that case (a 3 season plant x zastrugi job from one of their sales a while back).
The sea to summit spark looks ideal, that packs down tiny! Just not sure I can justify buying lots of kit for an event when I have stuff that does the job.
If the goal is lightweight then the sharp end of races seem to use foil backed eggbox mats (trimmed to about 2/3 length) and a quilt. You can do without a shelter as well but then you need to find some otherwise even if it doesn't rain, the dew will probably soak you.
Audax hotels (bus stops), bird hides on nature reserves, barns, etc. The downsides of that are you don't get the nice "sleeping under the stars" experience, and you have to be picky with your stopping paints. On the upside you might actually get far more space, proper level ground and a better nights sleep!
My normal sleeping kit is a Felxtail 4-season inflatable mat, Iceflame 4-season down quilt and Naturehike cloud-up 1 person tent. Yep, all form China 😂. Going light-ish with the quilt means I can take the tent as a luxury and my reasoning is that if it's not dry enough to sleep outside, then I want a tent, if it is dry enough then why am I taking anything at all? I'd be tempted to try a properly light 1 season quilt like the cumulus 150 and a non or minimally insulated inflatable mat at some point in nice weather. If only for the novelty of the combined weight being sub 1kg and probably 2l in volume.