Today I’m off to explore Sri Lanka on my origami bike! I’m taking with me a good friend who has very little cycling experience, and therefore we’ve decided to do a folding bike holiday. We’ll be using public transport to get from A to B, but then folding bikes for everything in between. Our main objective is to see how using a folding bike can enhance the travel experience.
The expected temperature range is between 14-32 degrees celsius (57-90f) so we’re able to pack quite light when it comes to clothing. We’ll be in hotels and guest houses and won’t be needing any camping or cooking gear.
We each have a set of running shoes so that we can do some hiking up Adam’s Peak (Sri Pada) and through various national parks around the island. We’ll probably be more active on our feet than on the bikes!
The bikes we’ve chosen are Brompton M6L folders. You can fold these right up in about 15 seconds and they have a really small pack size (585mm x 565mm x 270mm / 23″ x 22.2″ x 10.6″). To get up and down the hills of Sri Lanka we have six wide-range gears to choose from. The origami bike is finished off with fenders to keep us dry, and a front-mounting C-Bag to carry all of our luggage.
You’ll be able to follow my folding bike holiday over the next three weeks on Facebook or Instagram.
Clothing: 2007g
Casual Shirt x2 – 400g
Thermal Layer – 200g
Quick-dry Shorts – 130g
Underpants x2 – 80g
Socks x2 – 50g
Sandals – 587g
Running Shoes – 430g
Rain Poncho – 130g
Toiletries: 330g
Toothbrush – 20g
Toothpaste – 40g
Deodorant – 50g
Sunscreen – 50g
Electric Shaver – 170g
Camera Gear: 1000g
Panasonic Lumix GH4 Camera + Lenses – 750g
Rode Lavalier Microphone – 20g
100gb+ of SD Cards – 5g
Camera Charger and Batteries – 200g
Airstash Card Reader – 25g
Tools, Spares, Essentials: 990g
Phone + Charger – 150g
Wallet – 50g
Sunglasses – 30g
Pump – 50g
Multitool – 130g
Spare Tube – 90g
Helmet – 220g
Lights – 80g
Chain Lube – 30g
Bidons x2 – 100g
Passport – 60g
Bag: 1310g
Brompton C-Bag – 1310g
Gear Total: 5637g
Brompton M6L: 12200g
This is great, looking forward to see how it goes.
I guess my previous posts inspired you. I have travelled in India and Burma with the same bike, the same weight, but with a 20L bag, and the ability to camp and cook. Always something to aspire to.
What did you use to pack the Brompton in while in transit? Given you’re emphasizing the ‘light and transportable’ nature of the bike, was it a Dimpa bag from Ikea?
Velo Cycles Brompton goes to Sri Lanka!
Peace Alee,
Just wanted to say that this link: https://www.cyclingabout.com/bike-touring-gear-list-cycle-clothing/ is missing.
I didn’t know how to report this so I opted to post it on one of your newer posts.
Peace.
Hi Dayna. Sorry about the slow reply, I’m back home now. I just used a cardboard box for flying, but didn’t cover the bike for buses, trains or taxis. We left the cardboard boxes at our hotel on the first night, then picked them up on our way back to the airport on the last. There’s no faster bike to pack into a box than a folding bike! 🙂
My gear list was perfect! I used everything, but there was one important thing that I missed – long pants. These were 100% necessary for exploring religiously significant areas.
Thanks Abdalla! Where did you find that link? I’ve discontinued that page because I rolled my cycle clothing in with the regular clothing page. 🙂