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Outdoor kit, includes camping kit, right? In that case, it has to be my porta-potti 😀 Obviously not when cycle touring though 🙁
Without any doubt it's my Paramo zip off waterproof trousers. From warm, wet days to Scottish winter and skiing. They stopped making them about 8 years ago and I will be gutted when they die.
Argos 1 man tent. Used for approx 170 nights camping over the last 8 yrs or so. £20, 2kg, and tall enough and long enough for me at 6ft3. With three extra peg points has stood up to some high winds without leaking. Fast and easy to pitch. Other than being heavier than ideal I can't fault it.
Country Innovation Rover jacket, a two layer Ventile field jacket. Brilliant bit of kit for yomping around the British countryside. Obviously not for high energy pursuits but brilliantly comfy and robust, gives me satisfaction every time I put it on which is pretty much everyday from October to April.
OS maps
Nike pac-lite goretex jacket reduced in a sale somewhere years ago..
Still my go to jacket if it's chucking it down
Alpkit Gourdon has been great, used pretty much daily for four years no. It's just about had it but at £25 it's a bargain. Cheap, light, comfortable, simple and pretty much waterproof.
Any map. Harveys or OS.
Patagonia capeline base layers. I still have one from a trip to Canada in 1998 - and seem to have worn it most weeks since. So comfy and wicking, bombproof.
Patagonia Goretex XCR trouses, with braces and in-built gaiters. Bombproof and sooo comfy and practical. Much missed.
Sombrio riding shorts. A decade of use, and finally showing the wear, but still comfy.
Montane Dyno - my 80% of the time jacket...
Lowe Alpine packs - single compartment, no zips, climbing model. I have had two since 1991, both were totally comfy and reliable, and have seen me on hundreds of hill days/rivers/weekends away etc.
Macpac Minaret - by todays standard, heavy. But utterly bombproof, comfy shelter in awesome purple colour, that lasted hundreds of nights and a couple of storms that flattened 'better' tents, two ML assessments, once round the world and a few nights on iffy beach pitches on Scottish Lochs.
[b]Honourable mentions[/b]
Silva compasses, Petzl headtorches, Shimano Brakes, Hope Hubs, Mountain Equipment sleeping bags.
Paramo Velez smock. Pricey, but unbelievable performance.
Another fan of Scarpa boots here. Love my Terra's.
Karrimor Carbon Lite trekking poles....less than £30.
Love my Osprey Talon 33 rucksack too actually. Best Xmas present for a few years that one!
Two Lowe Alpine fleeces. One is a turtle necked, almost corduroy like thing in about a 200 weight, the other a half zip 325 weight.
Both are over twenty years old now, and I live in one or other through most of the winter. Bombproof.
I bought a Di Marchi White Baselayer with a windproof chest for £10 in a sale at least 15 years ago, when it arrived I was so impressed I bought a couple more. They are used all the time, commuting, skiing, biking, hockey training and even early season cricket matches.
Scarpa Mantas - yes, good. My oldest pair are 30yrs old...!
Nothing is quite as satisfying as waking up a campsite with the roar of an MSR Dragonfly (and the smell of fresh espresso)
And the current "missing link" in fleece apparel - Mountain Equipment Ultrafleece. I still have three tops and a shirt, with youngest dating from about 1993.
Subsequent fleeces are either soft and stretchy mid layers or bulky outers. The thin, but tightly woven (?) Ultrafleece was an excellent outer. Relatively windproof, light, really good in drizzle and quick drying. Ideal on its own over a base layer.
(Oh, and I really miss fleece joggy bottoms)
Easy, Buffalo Mountain Shirt. Not just the best bit of outdoor kit, but the best anything I've ever bought. 100 quid about 15 years ago and it still gets worn regularly 6 months of the year. Saved me god knows how much in heating bills too 🙂
Perhaps a left field answer, but my Tesco down sleeping bag. Bought it about 6 years ago for around £40. Packs down to about 10cm sphere and kept me warm and comfortable on many (around 50!) nights where the air temp has been around and below freezing. Used it on Sat night on the lakeland 100 where the bivi bag had frost on it in the morning but I was still toasty warm.
A close second would be my Vango Viper 2 man tent, bought for me as a teenager 16 years ago and still going strong - ground sheet is getting a bit porous now, but nothing a footprint doesn't solve. Fits into a 13l pannier or drybag, weighs 3kg and can comfortably sleep two folk.
Assume sailing can be included?
Slam Winter Sailing Jacket. Not only bombproof, stinkproof but warm and fits like a glove.. I've gone through so many of these things over the years (through sponsorship), tried a few other Brands too.. [(Murphy & Nye came close) But this jacket is the best ever.
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I've got some older SLAM stuff as well. Very good kit back in the day. As was the excellent Danfoss fleece MrsCFH bought years ago. Brand has since disappeared, I think.
Buffalo mountain shirt. Have they actually changed the design in the 20 years I've had mine? Ok, technically mine isn't the smock version, rather zipped front which looks like I've stepped out of the 80's with shoulder pads.
A bicycle with knobbly tyres
(Oh, and I really miss fleece joggy bottoms)
Still got some, but the wife hides them.
Slam alive and kicking in Italy and you can get the stuff from Aladdin's Cave in Swanwick 😀
paramo velez and garmin gps i love maps but am hopeless using them
+1 for North Face shoes. I tried some Lightwave GTX and now wear nothing else on the old plates.
Also:
- Carinthia Defence 400 sleeping bag. Toasty (slept in freezing tent with just a 6cm breathing aperture in the (generous) mummy hood. Hardwearing and reliable if heavy. A car-camping favourite.
- Tick-twizzler. Smallest item. Weighs nothing. Indispensable. I always carry because ticks are best not getting messy with. Quick, easy, safer than other methods.
- SAK Swiss Champ. Needs no explanation.
- Freeplay Companion windup radio/torch/charger. Keeps you company when solo. Even keeps you warm as you periodically wind it up!
- Freeload racks. I use both the touring and sport versions. Fits on every bike I've tried them on. Genius:
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For me its a Buffalo active light shirt. Fantastic kit. Then also a crux rk37, a roll top Kevlar bag that does for many things from canoeing to ice climbing to packed lunches. Can't wear it out, buy right buy once being a good motto for kit.
Love my Ground Effect Submerino long sleeve baselayers,excellent piece of kit.
A thermal rash vest made by Alder. It makes even the leakiest wetsuits toasty
I've had a Trangia stove since I was 19. It remains my 'go to' stove even today, over 30 year later despite a whole cupboard full of alternatives. Even when I do decide to use e.g. the Whisperlite I generally use the Trangia pot(s) with it.
Likewise my Salewa down bag. It's pushing 30 years too and beginning to fail but is still used on winter bothy trips.
Buy cheap, buy twice.
My (NATO green) Buffalo Special 6.
It was the first bit of 'Gucci' kit I brought when I was in the military, got it from a place near Euston railway station back in 1996. It has quite literally been all over the world with me, from hill top surveillance sites in South Armagh through to outposts in Northern Helmand. My goto comfy top for a variety purposes, it's now enjoying a rather more sedate life as my pre/post-ride top.
VW Camper. One with heating and a toilet.
Obviously I am missing something but... Aren't Buffaloes just horrendously sweaty as soon as you start to move?
only if you wear them at the wrong time of year.
for about 4 months of the year in scotland they are ace for the commute
Swandri bush shirt, Mum bought it when I was 16, I'm now 44. It's still going strong even though it's never been washed.
Another + 1 for the Trangia.
Mine must be getting on for 30 years old. Great bit of kit.
only if you wear them at the wrong time of year
Or if you wear them in the wrong way. They're a shirt, they're not supposed to be worn over multiple layers, but that is usually how those complaining of being sweaty are wearing them.
DrJ - I wouldn't still have one after 20 years if it just made one "horrendously sweaty" especially not given the physical nature of the work I've done whilst wearing it.
DrJ - I wouldn't still have one after 20 years if it just made one "horrendously sweaty" especially not given the physical nature of the work I've done whilst wearing it.
No - I get that - which is why I said that I'm missing something 🙂 Obviously it was the "naked under Buffalo" thing 🙂
oh yeah that too .....
nothing quite like opening the side zips and the frozen winter air hitting the skin.
Montane Prism jacket
This. On number 2 after #1 wouldn't site and needed to downsize.
non cycling
Trangia by a mile as it will outlast me
Bike - Lake winter shoes - waterproof and lasted over a decade of hard use
Cabelas goretex chest waders (for fly fishing),Montbell ultra light down jacket,its ace,RAB Ultralight bivi bag,versatile and bomb proof,Craft coolmax base layers,Icebreakers hooded merino top.
I am still waiting to find a waterproof top thats half way decent on the breathability frontI have had various flavours of Goretex and one Event all with pit zips and I still end up soaked from my sweat not the rain 😥
Helly Hansen baselayers.
Oh yes.
Oakley M-Frame
Again, yes. Mine got pinched while guiding in Croatia. 🙁 Constantly watching ebay for a similar set with Heater lenses (or were they Sweep?)
My personal favourite piece of MTB kit has got to be Shimano winter boots. One of those 'why on earth have I never bought these before?*' moments. So far lasted for about 10 years of fairly constant nightride abuse.
*Probably because they retail at over 100 notes, to be fair.
Brand has since disappeared, I think.
@Flasheart Slam still have a shop in Cowes (or did last time I was there).
From the Buffalo web site
[url= 
]Gotta luv the pipe and daft chin up grin [/url]
I didn't know North Cape were that popular. I used one of their long sleeve baselayers for about 7 years until I shrunk it. It was the best base layer I've ever owned. As soon as you put it on in the winter you started to feel 'cosy'. It was great.
My favourite bit of kit would have to be my Altura 3/4 Attacks. Waterproof shorts made wet weather riding as pleasurable as any other.
+1 Buffalo top. Awesome.
PMJ, was talking about Danfoss, not SLAM.
Buffalo owners --- do they really keep you dry and do you have to wash them every single time you wear them ala poly tops ?