WTF is that grinding noise as I rotate the rear tire while doing a routine chain tightening?!!! Oh frig, I've notched a bearing and I can hear and feel it drag as I rotate the rear wheel of my 2009 Kawasaki Versys KLE650. Bugger me. Or rather bugger my plans for riding this weekend and the next until I get these sorted. I was watching a movie called "Mondo Enduro" by Austin Vince, and they had two bearing failures while riding around the world, and only managed to continue through good fortune as they were able to buy one locally while on route, and the other occurred in Russia, and they really lucked out when the Russian whose home they had broken down in had a spare in his pile of junk that was a perfect fit.
You have to use it, and it's been raining on and off all day long, so I threw a leg over and went for a toot.
I ran around a few fields, snuck out onto the road and detoured back onto the clay and enjoyed letting the rear slip around a bit before I stopped to entertain the cows.
Why burn it when you can drink it? 'Cause this is the stuff that will make you go blind, in fact, alcohol is so common that much of it contains a bittering agent to make it unpalatable.
These stoves run on "Denatured Alcohol" and are significantly lighter than white gas or Coleman Fuel (naphtha), and the fuel they use can be diluted with water. If your alcohol bottle leaks, you can simply let it evaporate off or flush with water to render it harmless. They have become a favourite of the ultra light backpacking crowd, and appeal to those who want a simple, no moving parts stove, or who may be on a budget or wish to build their own.
lightweight
fuel available worldwide
no moving parts
no maintenace
DIY
inexpensive
Of course there are many commercial models available as well, manufactured from brass, tin, titanium or aluminum, such as:
Trangia - perhaps the most famous of all alcohol stoves, and has been selling the Trangia since 1925. A number of clones have been made, including one made entirely of aluminum as opposed to the heavier brass construction. The simmer ring can be used to extinguish the stove, and once it cools down, you can cap it and keep the remaining fuel for use later, a feature that the other stoves don't permit.
The Trangia burner with simmer ring
The Trangia Mini
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Vargo - offers a number of titanium stove models with differing reviews
eBay search "alcohol stove" will come up with thousands of hits including the "whitebox" stove, similar to the type I review.
Alcohol, propane isobutane/cartridge, white gas/naphtha stoves seem to be used in the following order due to starting weight for hikers:
overnight and weekend trips up to three days - alcohol
longer than three day trips - propane isobutane/cartridge
long trips over a week in duration - white gas/naphtha
This boils down (pardon the pun) to BTUs per pound of fuel (All figures are approximate):
Alcohol = 10,000 BTU per pound
Petrol/Gasoline = 19,000 BTU per pound
White Gas/Naphtha = 20,000 BTU per pound
Propane/isobutane blend = 21,000 BTU per pound
So the alcohol stove is less half as efficient under ideal conditions as the Cartridge stoves, and of those stoves, the venerable old Trangia from back in 1925 manages to beat most of the competition with roughly 60% efficiency. You need to add wind, temperature and other factors in, so the rule of thumb is one ounce of fuel per meal for 1-2 persons, (I've found I need as much as two ounces under adverse conditions) and at ten meals and with higher efficiency, you now want to pack the cartridge stove as it now weighs less than your alcohol stove with fuel.
I guess on a motorcycle weight is much less of a concern, and the more reviews I read on this subject, the far happier I am with my white gas stove, the SVEA123R which can also burn petrol if needed, and that appeals to me as I can siphon some out of the tank if the noodles aren't done yet when I run out of fuel for the stove.
I've made a couple of the soda can stoves myself, a side burner soda can stove, and I'll admit that while my first one worked, it wasn't very pretty, and it took a bit more effort to fashion a more streamlined version. I found a great YouTube video from Biker Bits Australia and embedded it at the bottom. All you need is a sharp knife, a thumbtack, a pair of pliers , cotton balls and two soda cans to have a working camp stove. Check out how easy these are to make, and how well it performs for Mark.
Ugly as sin, but it works quite well!
I made the above with a sharp knife, pair of scissors, straight edge and a thumb tack (later on I went with a drill bit), and a black felt tip marker and two pepsi cans.
Fire!!!
I dropped it into a frying pan on top of the stove, and lit it up. This model takes a minute or two to preheat, and in that time will burn with a lazy yellow flame which turns into a hotter blue flame as it warms up. Note that the flames may not be visible in daylight. I had to turn off the kitchen lights and the camera flash in order to get this picture.
I find that wire allows enough air flow to keep the stove lit under the pot
I found a vendor on eBay that was selling a sideburner that was well endorsed by ADVRider.com members, and decided I'd join the crowd and order one as I had no access to the aluminum beer bottles it would take to fashion the stove, and was pretty excited when it arrived, so I threw together a wee kit and decided I had to try it at work in about -10 degree weather in a snowbank.
And it tries to escape through into the snow bank.
I found that as the burner began to heat up, it also had the disturbing tendency to melt the snow beneath it and plummet down, so I grabbed an aluminum plate from the truck to serve as a base, placed the windscreen around it, and was able to set my pot on top of it (to immediately extinguish the flames). *sigh*
I then fashioned a loop of steel wire to set on top of the burner to allow a couple of millimetres of air flow, and lit it again. This time it burned well, although it extinguished before the water was boiling, and I refilled the burner to maximum this time with about three ounces of fuel or more.
Heating up the water for my lunch
It took a lot longer with more fuel than I was expecting to get to a boil in the cold weather, around 8 minutes or so, but eventually I was able to pour in my Cup Of Soup packet and stir it as it quickly cooked.
Soups up!
Alrighty now. It passed the test, but I was disappointed by how much fuel it took to boil the water, and later on that summer when a group of friends and I chose to ride the Trans Labrador highway, I left this behind in favour of my trusty SVEA123R.
I wasn't about to give up though, and after a bit more research, I found that the "Penny Can Stove" seemed to be favoured as highly efficient, so found another eBay buy that came with a stove, flashlight and lighter!
You can see in the picture that it is would with rope. The idea is you fill the stove via the hole in the top, then stopper it with the thumbscrew. Now you need to raise the temperature to increase the pressure inside the stove, so you soak the rope with fuel, and set it alight. Once this stove gets going it will put out a ton of heat, and run longer than the sideburner stove I tried, but with flames all over the outside, you need a flame proof surface to rest this on, or you might end up on Smokey the Bear's most wanted list. (Don't STAMP on a grass fire, try to SWEEP it out, or dump water on it. Don't ask me how I know)
All this and more could be yours!
This model also needs a pot stand supplied, and a windscreen as well, and I was able to find a multipurpose one on eBay that I would use with this stove and my SVEA123R.
If you'd like to build your own Penny Stove, you will find a link here to instructions on how to make one. PDF Format
Another eBay gem
I never really used this windscreen with the alcohol stoves, although it seemed a really neat idea, the SVEA123R comes with a built in windscreen, and the alcohol stove is so lightweight and small that a windscreen this large and heavy is overkill.
Back to the beer bottle stove and another roadside lunch break, and it was clear that the little stove performed much better in the summer weather, and it seemed to take no time to heat up a tin of chili for my lunch. In fact, I used too much fuel and had to remove the pot from the burner long before it went out!
What's cooking?
I needed to test this in the field, and later on at a Vintage Road Racing Association weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park I was able to put beer bottle sideburner to the test once more, this time on some hot dogs that I was sure Suzi would enjoy as much as I would.
Everything is in here but for the food
What I really love about this setup is how small and light it packs away. This pot set is actually part of a larger 4 piece set, and is the smaller of the two pots, the larger one stores my SVEA123R set. Inside you can see:
aluminum foil windscreen
j-cloth cleaning rag
fuel bottle
the inverted stove on top of the fuel bottle
I can easily cram a packet of Cup-a-Soup or some tea bags in here!
Nalgene bottle fuel storage
It's time to get this show on the road, as Suzi is looking longingly at the hot dogs, and beginning to lick her lips in anticipation.
Sorry folks, this is going to take awhile.
I had to bring the water to a boil and keep it there, and the stove was easily up to the task, and in due course I thought the hot dogs were nicely done, although Suzi thought they were too hot.
Note the flames heat the side of the pot? I need a bigger pot.
I learned a couple of things here, first is that your windscreen needs to be close enough so the flames stay underneath of your pot, but not close enough for them to contact and melt or slag the screen itself. Second, those pot handles are HOT! I used my hat to protect my hands when removing if from the stove.
It's about damn time!
Suzi's review would go something like this... "It took forever! I would have been happy eating them stone cold! It's not as if they hadn't already been cooking on the motorcycle all afternoon long! Nom nom nom, please sir, may I have some more?"
It's all about the Heat. Directing, retaining, and reflecting it.
windscreen efficiency and ability to keep heat flowing up around the pot
pot size and shape relative to the flame spread
reflector base to prevent heat from escaping into the ground
Pot Cozy for keeping heat in the pot after it has been removed from the burner. Very popular with the "Freezer Bag Cooking" crowd (dehydrated meals)
Windscreen: For the DIY crowd, have a look at those heavy foil roasting pans in the supermarket. They are made of heavier aluminum foil and will make a nice roll up screen for your set. If you have more money, you make want to take a look at the "Caldera Cone" system which gets great reviews for speeding up boil times and reducing fuel consumption. I like the look of the tripod style such as that made by Esbit or Clikstand and it gets a good review as both a windscreen and pot stand in one.
Pot Size/Shape: Note that trend for pots to be squat with larger bottoms? This is the reason why. You want the flame spread of the burner to hit the bottom of the pot and spread, not heat the sides as this is inefficient. You might note that my pot is not wide enough for the burner. A trick is to add a bit of water to the burner fuel to REDUCE the size of the flames and keep them under your pot. Suggestions are about 50ml of water added per 1000ml of fuel, or five parts per hundred.
Reflector base: I see many pie tins cut to fit into the bottom of the cooking pot, but larger than the burner base. My main use for my burner base was to prevent it from sinking into a snow bank, and I found it very useful for providing a steady, firm base while using the stove on uneven soil.
Pot Cozy: Most of the examples I've seen have been made out of "Reflectix", basically foil covered bubble wrap found in the insulation section of your hardware store, and rolls of it were under $17 that would provide enough material to make several of them. One blogger suggests using car windscreen reflectors for material. There is also trend for "Freezer Bag Cozy", where a camper would fill their freezer bag in the cozy with the newly boiled water, then leave it in the cozy to re-hydrate and finish cooking while they go on about their over campsite tasks. These are similar to padded shipping envelopes.
Fuels:
In Canada if you are looking for a clean hot burning fuel, you will want to use a refined (think fewer additives) grade of Methanol, and you'll find Recochem Methyl Hydrate located in most paint departments, including that of Canadian Tire and Home Hardware, available in one to four litre containers. I found that a four litre jug is far too much and has been sitting in the garage for six years now. lol. The list below is rated from cleanest and hottest burning down to a sooty, lazy flame from the rubbing alcohol. Basically, the purer your Methanol is, the cleaner and hotter it will burn.
Recochem Methyl Hydrate, along with a link to the MSDS information for it. PDF Format.
HEET (yellow bottle) - available in the United States at most gasoline stations and Wally Mart (avoid the red bottle)
Isopropyl Alcohol 90% or purer USP at any pharmacy
Rubbing Alcohol
Do not use gasoline/petrol in these stoves, unless your intent is to lose eyebrows and to watch all that lovely aluminum slag down as you set a grass fire at your campsite, impressing both your neighbours and the local fire brigade. Use only alcohol that is Methanol based or Ethanol. Meths will burn cleaner and far hotter. NOTE: I've learned that you take a risk when using petrol, but it can be done:
Here is a Trangia set that someone is using petrol in, although the flames are very high and the pot is covered in soot. And Mark from Biker Bits Australia shows you a soda can hack that works with petrol in this video. Have a fire extinguisher on hand or a safe exit strategy or both.
DIY Penny Stove:
Biker Bits Australia - Mark makes it look easy and fun, and does a much better job of it than I did on my first attempt. :P
While I like the penny stove, I favour a modified Starlyte design:
In Conclusion:
While I love the simplicity and weight of the alcohol stoves, I find that I pack the SVEA123R for most of my trips, and have only used the alcohol stoves a few times over the past few years. Still, they speak to me, and I still have half a gallon of Methyl Hydrate aka Methanol sitting in the garage, and that penny stove sitting on my bureau. I keep looking at making a pot stand for the penny stove and thinking of what I have that would make a decent pot stand. This past summer I could easily have used the alcohol stove to heat all the meals I had at the camp site, and thinking of the decrease in weight by dropping to a lighter stove, smaller pot set is very appealing.
If you are interested and want to get started, then I recommend the Trangia Mini set as a great starting place, as it comes with a workhorse of a burner and everything you need to cook over alcohol efficiently for one to two people. Check out eBay for deals and copies.
I think I've got one or two more tours left in me this year before I'm forced to call it quits for the season, and I'd really like to make those runs on a lighter bike with less weight as it really affects wear on the machine and handling in the twisties.
Update: I've been playing around with the Super Cat Alcohol stoves made with a hole punch and a cat food can. If you just want to "Boil or Burn" then check out how slick and easy these are to make and use. Windscreen, Super Cat, Alcohol. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Now I know where that hole in my pants came from! It's been burning away on the exhaust header of the XR400R! Lol.
Now that the V is waiting on parts, I had an itch and the XR managed to scratch it.
With yesterday's rain storm there were plenty of puddles to choose from on the clay roads, and I was a wee bit of a nervous nelly in spite of the knee armour and CE rated armour in my old jacket. Once the front end started to slide it was just a question of getting my weight over the front tire and adding throttle to keep it rolling and in the general direction of where I wanted to go.
After a brief roadside stop to get this picture, I was reminded of two things, how tall this bike is, and just how deeply that kickstarter would turn this into a delicate balance, teetering to the left as the bike sank lower into the soft clay soil, and kicking on the right trying to breathe life back into the old single.
I did learn that vibration moves the choke from half choke back up to full, so I may be able to put those inexplicable stalls behind me with a little attention to the clickety click detent plate that holds the plastic arm of the choke lever in place on the side of the carburettor.
I also had to tighten that pesky folding mirror, as it was flipping and flopping away merrily over the back roads.
You pull up to your campsite at the end of a long day, swing a leg off the bike and unload your tent and get it set up as the light begins to fade...
A cow pasture along the shore of the Annapolis River NS
Now do you sit down in the wet grass and dirt, or do you climb back onto your motorcycle's seat? If you are fortunate you have a picnic table in your campsite and you take advantage of it to set up your stove, relax and enjoy your evening, but if you are me, you pretty much eat standing up or wandering around because you are too cheap to pay for a campsite, and you found something like a cow pasture, or the backside of a community centre or fire hall...
It was getting to me and I started seeing more posts in a group I belong for recommendations for camp chairs, and I came across one for a chair that ticked all the boxes for me:
cheap
compact
lightweight
sturdy
well reviewed
cheap (oops, back to that again are we?)
I'd done a five day ride a couple of weeks ago, and spent a full day at the racetrack to which I hadn't brought a chair. I got to watch the races sitting on a comfortable cement block, while those around me sat in comfort.
Alright, one is sitting comfortably
Anyhow, I've packed along a folding metal chair a few times, one that went over 8,000 kilometres to Labrador and Newfoundland and back, and while I got plenty of use out of it, it was so much easier sending it up with the purse (car trunk) rather than trying to fit it on my motorcycle.
Back in 2006 I'm packed up for a weekend
Two days worth of camping, and back in 2006 I've got the bike loaded down with far too heavy a load. I'd like to say the panniers were loaded down with the booze and mix, but that would be a lie. I was roughing it and would be leaving the mix behind.
That was a $10 dollar Canadian Tire special that I used for years, but with a steel frame, and it's long length, it was just too heavy and bulky. When I tipped in on the twisties, it was like an outrigger and I could see the feet in my peripheral vision, dipping down into the inside corner. I stopped taking it on the bike with me.
My friends would take this up in the purse for me, CSBK Mosport
In 2011 I crossed the Trans Labrador highway and hauled along a three legged "Bass Pro" special that while much smaller and a bit lighter, was still too heavy to be dragging around on the bike as pretty much dead weight.
The Bass Pro three legged chair, and Suzi waiting for her dinner
My friends invested in some camp chairs made of mesh and aluminum that made me think that my 245lbs would either have the chair resting on the ground, or the mesh seams ripped apart in no time, plus the price wasn't appealing, and for some reason all the other chairs got used before it did...
Hey, all the chairs in one shot! How cool is that?
VRRA weekend at CTMP
My trip around the Cabot Trail this past July, and then my Lighthouse Route ride in August saw me do a lot of camping, and at the end of the day I really wanted to sit down with some back support, unlike sitting upright in a tent, for example.
You know, the more I look at it, the more interesting the design of the REI - Trail chair becomes, as it could easily be used inside your tent where most of the others would damage the floor and footprint. In fact, I think some people use this as both and sleeping pad. There are other on the market designed to do exactly that. Think of rainy days where you wait out the weather under the tent... Hmmm.
Bed, chair. Chair-bed? Bed-chair?
Nor do I want to pay $200 or more for chair made in China or Taiwan and resold by REI or MEC, so I did some research and found a compromise in the form of an AOTU chair sold on eBay.ca for about $40 CDN. It ticked all the boxes for me, and hopefully it will arrive before my next adventure into the great unknown.
I'll be sure and review it for you once I get it on the slow boat from China. Perhaps a trip sometime this fall.
Before I leave you, I'll pass along some of the recommendations that stand out and suggest you visit Trailspace.com for some excellent reviews of various camp chairs.
Kermit
Helinox - Chair One
REI - Trail Chair
Obviously there are many more chair styles out there, but these three tend to top the lists. Once again, check out the trailspace.com reviews for many more camp chair ideas.
Personally I think the Aotu chair is a knockoff of the Helinox Chair One. I hope I made the right choice.
Cheers!
Update 2017-08-29:
Mail for you Uncle Ron!
I just got the chair in the regular mail run, and for $36 CDN / $27 USD this is what you get:
zippered bag with webbing loops for attachment to straps or bungee cords
aluminum and plastic legs/back/seat
seat and back
It's wee, but not that wee.
weight: 873 grams or 1lb-15oz
packed dimensions: 350mm x 140mm x 110mm or 14" x 5.5" x 4.3"
There goes the famous eBay selling tactic of key words such as ULTRALIGHT BACKPACKING etc. I suppose you could backpack with this for day hikes, but don't let that ultralight fool you.
All this and no instructions
The frame is certainly decent in quality, with a couple of minor scuffs
It will almost assemble itself if you shake it just right
It sets up easily, although I was confused at first how the seat went on as it ships without instructions, and I found after one trial run, that I could set it up in 1:45 minutes, and the tear down was just 1 minute!
The aluminum looks durable and think enough for the job
The tolerances could be tighter
Only time will tell how long these will last with my fat arse on it.
It does stow away easily
Assembly in under two minutes
The legs will sink a tad in hard mowed lawns, and reviews of this type of chair indicate that in softer soil, I'll need to be prepared as the feet will sink in.
It racks around a bit, as the tolerances between the legs and the plastic hub are generous, but I suspect that it is also the nature of the chair and it's design. I'm just not used to it.
At six feet and about 245lbs I find I tend to slouch when I sit in the chair, as the seat base isn't quite deep enough for my comfort, but I also think that with time, the chair seat will stretch down and I'll be more comfortable as it does so. The height above ground is more than adequate and I had no troubles getting in and out of the chair, and found it very easy to lift up and set down again to reposition it.
Note that I should have chosen to assemble the chair with the carrying bag slipped onto the poles to provide a wee storage bag and to prevent the carrying bag from flying away in the wind. Easily done with the generous loops provided on the ends of the bag.
The bottom.
Want a second look?
I could stuff a hat, scarf, and mittens in there!
The carry bag is spacious enough that you simply disassemble it, fold the legs up, fold the seat back in half then roll it around the legs and stuff into the bag without much of a struggle. I can see myself stuffing extra bits of camp gear into this bag if I wanted or needed to. The material looks to be a waterproof nylon material, with single sewn seams and reinforced stitching for the webbing attachment points.
The first thing I looked at were the attachment points where the rods enter the seat back, and they were constructed of a heavy PVC type of material fastened to double thickness material similar to cordura.
Here is a review by Mark of Biker Bits Australia of the Helinox chair and table:
I was asked on Facebook if it was comfortable, and my answer is now "Yes". It was nice getting up to fetch something knowing that I had a nice comfortable seat to return to, especially after a long day riding around the peninsula. The grass was thick and the ground firm, and the chair didn't dig in at all.
Dr. Brian is prescribes a general anesthetic after ten hours of riding.
The wood lot
I had plenty of room for it in the side case (long story) and it went up easily and back into it's case in the morning with only a slight struggle in the 2 degree celsius weather. (the fabric and case were cold, as were my hands)
I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a light, packable chair.
One thing I quite liked was being able to get in and out of the chair just with leg power, as you find your balance easily and can sit or rise without spilling a drop of the good stuff. :P
Summary:
It definitely a knock off of the Helinox chair that retails for $150 CDN including shipping, so for one quarter of the price, you too can have this well made copy. Only time and use will tell if I got my moneys worth on this deal, but for now, I no longer have to park my butt in the wet grass and that makes me happy.
I'll be sure to provide an update once I put this to some serious use.
Pros:
Price - 1/4 the price of similar camp chairs
Performance - easy to set up and tear down
Materials - supports my old man lard @ss
Size - assembled it works for me, and I'm a 6 footer, packed it will be easy to strap onto the motorcycle
Carry bag designed with webbing loops for attachment to packs and bikes
Comfort - nothing digs in and the seat conforms to your butt, aside from the "slouch" issue I mention above.
Cons:
Weight - I'd be happier if it was lighter, but then I would I would lose the trade off strength for weight
Racks, rotates, moves when I am seated in it and I adjust my postion. Not alot, and I think it is the price you pay for the design. A minor annoyance
Feet sink into the ground. Anyone who does their research knows this about this style of chair (See the Hack for a fix)
Update 2018-07-22:
This is now my second season with the chair and it's starting to show some signs of wear. As it was raining off and on this past weekend at Round 4 of the CSBK at Atlantic Motorsports Park, it saw a considerable amount of use as I didn't relish the thought of sitting in the wet grass. The seams on the bottom attachment points for the lower seat are starting to let go in a few spots. There are three layers here, the seat, a hard plastic reinforcement, then the bottom layer you see here. It's got some life left in it yet, and a quick fix might be to use some fabric adhesive or even some two part epoxy on them to prevent further fraying. I'm getting my money's worth. The aluminum frame is in great shape, and the plastic hub which I thought would be the first to go is still rock solid.
Still worth it in my book. I'll let you know what happens at the end of the season.
