[Closed] any low-budget bike-packing tips/gear advice?

Already thinking of summer and adventuring 😉

Have collected camping stuff over the years and last Autumn tried a quick outing to see what couldl cobble together that works.

Sleeping: I've tried a number of options sleeping from foam to Thermarest and Alpkit jobbies but finally came to rest (SWIDT?) on the [b]Multimat Adventure[/b] inflatable mattress. Packs down to very small 25x11cm. Weighs 500g, admittedly - but I weigh many more and it suspends my girth in relatively dreamy bliss. Takes about 5 min to inflate. 2/3 inflated seems to work best for my 15st. Clothes stuffed in a Buff or drybag make an OK pillow.

Shelter: Best budget lightweight tent I had was a [b]Pro-Action hike lite[/b] (Tigerpaws), often called the Argos special. It was about £15 quid in the sale and ridiculously roomy with 100mm sit-up space and a flap that doubled as wind-shield, cook-space (with a simple eyelet mod)

I let it go only because it was bright orange and hence rubbish for stealthy camping. Discontinued now anyway (and rare as rocking horse dung) so looked about and found [b]Hi-Gear Soloista tent[/b]. It works better than expected and has so far survived coastal gales and a fair bit of rain. Little bigger than a bivvybag with hoop. Fairly decent/small pack-size and easy to pitch. Only big downside is pitches inner first so could be a problem if pitching wet. Would like to modify it with alloy poles to replace the fibreglass ones. Don't know if that's possible yet. Any advice appreciated. 5' 10" limit on length. I just fit.

The Soloista tent plus Multimat cost me £40 quid all in.

Still have my 2 season Quechua bag with compression sac, bought for £25 yrs back at Decathlon sale. Tent, mat, bag and [b]Trangia mini burner/cook kit[/b] all fit in one medium pannier bag. So the whole setup has cost well under £100, pretty chuffed about it!