Comparison of Ortlieb bags
October 3, 2022 Filed under Advice
The images here are scaled to show the relative size of the bags.
Boxes and coffee
Now that the bike was unpacked and ready, I needed to deal with the box.
The next step was to get the box shipped out of the country. Like last time, I couldn’t be sure of my eventual destination, so I couldn’t just send it ahead of me. I needed to ship it to someone who could hold onto it for three months or possibly longer, and then be willing to send it somewhere else.
Extra strategy time!
Instead of getting out at the airport like a sucker I asked the shuttle driver to take me around the corner to the DHL depot.
I didn’t do this last time because I didn’t know exactly where the DHL office was or what it looked like. I thought perhaps it was a desk inside the airport itself. I also didn’t know where the shuttle would be dropping me off relative to anything else. This time I had a mental fix on it.
The lobby was closed but a guy came out and started to tell me that the nearest DHL shipment center was quite a ways away. Then he paused mid-sentence, shook his head as if to clear it, and told me to come inside because they could just ship the package here.
He brought me back into the rear office, and I sat in a chair by his desk. He opened the website shipping interface on his computer and walked through the forms with me. All around, people were moving boxes and loading up a van, listening to 80’s-era rock music loud on a stereo built into the wall. In about ten minutes they shut the van doors with a bang and it sped out of the loading bay.
My friend clicked the last button on the form and saw that the site intended to charge me 900 dollars to ship an empty box. He hissed in his breath, then without saying a word to me, he put on his earphones and made several phone calls, talking rapidly in Icelandic. He leaned his head close to mine and said, “bear with me,” then got up and left the desk for a while, still arguing on the phone in Icelandic. Eventually he pulled out his earpiece and sat down again. He opened another window on his computer, typed a few things, and presented me with a bill for $450 — cutting the cost in half. I had never asked for a discount, and he had no obligation to give one to a wacky foreign tourist like me, but there it was. I could only conclude that charging so much to ship a box was morally offensive to him, and he had the freedom to do something about it, and so he did.
While the paperwork printed and he ran my credit card, we chatted about traveling the island and the weather projections, and I showed him a picture of the bike.
He wished me a good journey.
Note for next time: bring an entire roll of tape, not just a quarter.
In the evening I visited the cafe I’d grown fond of on the last visit.
“I think a tip jar is just thievery. People in Iceland get paid a living wage. But it’s complicated, because sometimes visitors feel obligated to leave a tip, or the custom is too strong and they feel weird if they don’t do it. So I have a jar at the end of the bar there but I don’t label it. Really though, don’t tip. It’s just businesses taking money for no reason here. It’s almost stealing.”
“I see what you mean. Yeah, I wish it was like this back in the U.S. Employers can hire someone and pay them very little, because they know they’ll make money from tips. But then they take a cut of the tips. They should just pay them a living wage.”
“Yeah. And it’s also confusing for me when I travel. I was back in the ‘States, and I gave a tip to a waiter who did a really good job. My friends told me that he doesn’t actually get the money; it goes into a pot and all the waiters get a cut, and also the chef in the back. That doesn’t seem right. How do I reward good service? And if a waiter is doing badly, the other waters will want to punish them. Plus the taxes are different in every state. I feel bad if I don’t tip, but how much is right? So, I don’t know. But there’s two things I tell everyone who comes to Iceland: One, don’t tip for anything. And two, don’t buy the bottled water. The water from the tap is better. And it hasn’t been sitting in a plastic bottle on a shelf for who-the-eff-knows how long, pardon my language.”
After my chat I ordered a tasty looking slice of cake, and what I’ve decided to call an Icelandic-style mocha, which is more like an elaborate hot chocolate with coffee mixed in. I ain’t complaining — it’s delicious!
There’s that guy again… I suppose it’s time for me to hit the internet and try and figure out who he actually is.
Aha. It’s a painting of a fisherman by a German-born artist named Harry Haerendel. Apparently it’s become popular in a semi-ironic way. “You come to Iceland thinking about stoic old fisherman, yeah? Okay, here he is. The rest of us don’t fish much, but he does.”
After my pie and coffee, I went riding around in search of more substantial food, and came upon a tiny little fish and chips shop:
While I chomped my order inside and away from the wind, I read the little “about us” poster they were displaying on the wall:
Across the street I could see a situation unfolding that I’d never seen during my previous visit. A police officer pulling over a motorist.
A little more riding around town and I came upon something I never thought I’d see in Iceland: A vandalized car.
For a brief moment it was just like being back in Oakland. And not in a fun way.
But then I saw something that made me laugh out loud, as I was riding back to the hotel for a nap:
I suppose you have to be of “a certain age” now to find it funny that a shop is making an oblique reference to “Olsen twins”. (But it’s not really worth explaining, so if you don’t get it, go poke the internet!)
I crawled into my hotel bed and tried to sleep for five whole hours, but tossed and turned with my brain racing instead. “Don’t Stop Believin'” kept echoing around in my head, to my extreme annoyance. The restaurant I used to frequent back in Santa Cruz would play that song every night as they shut down, and I’d grown to dread the way the few remaining patrons would burst into song during the chorus. Now it was filling the silence of this room. Arrgh!
I had coffee but it was seven hours ago. Would it still be that strong? Was my resistance to Icelandic coffee weaker?
Me And Some Big Boxes Take A Trip
I woke up in my van, stowed my bedsheets, and re-packed my toiletries bag. It was time to set in motion that long, weird collection of gears that would move me and three big chunks of luggage nearly four thousand miles across land and ocean in less than a day.
My friend Zog had plans to drive my van while I was gone, so I gave him a brief tour and promised to write him a more thorough document later. While he helped me lug the suitcases and box with the bicycle into the van, I chatted with his relatives, and they gave me some messages to send along to the Icelandic people, as follows:
Dear Iceland,
Lawrence A. Bell says he’s sorry about Mr Trump, but he takes responsibility. Jeremy is sorry too, but does not take responsibility.
And then we were on our way to the Portland airport! Zog had to come along so he could drive the van back to his place.
We chatted about work and groovy electronics projects, and listened to some throwback 90’s-era goth electronica by Gods Of Luxury. (Sooo deliciously pretentious and cheezy and well produced!) In short order I was hugging Zog at the terminal curb, and then I was alone with my giant pile of stuff and a couple of hours to get on a plane.
A handcart was only a few feet away, so I bundled everything onto that. The little wheels that I’d roped onto the bottom of the bike box turned out to be redundant, which was great news.
This time I didn’t encounter any sarcastic resistance from airline agents who didn’t know their own luggage rules. They knew the box was legal, and they knew it could go up to 70 pounds as long as I paid the oversize fee. I was asked to haul it to a special roped area, and allowed to watch as they unbuckled the straps and poked through the equipment inside.
I appreciated that a lot because it meant I could watch them reassemble the box as well, and make sure they got everything back inside and properly tightened the straps.
With that done, all I had to do was get a few labels attached, then check my other suitcases along with the giant box and wave goodbye to the whole set.
In the trip through security, my hands tested positive for some chemical contaminant so they padded me down and then searched my backpack. No big deal; I’ve got lots of time.
They also said my second camera lens – the 50mm f1.2 – was a strange object and they asked me to take it out of the bag and show them. The woman looking it over said, “holy mackerel, that’s a serious lens!”
“Yeah it’s nice, but my arm just about falls off after using it for a while,” I joked.
Bumped my head on the overhead bins.
I swear I should just wear my bike helmet all the time. Even if it does make me look like a dangerous lunatic. Actually perhaps that’s an advantage.
Cool clouds on the plane. Learned about clouds on my materials audiobook.
As we went north, the ice turned into a loose blanket. It didn’t look solid enough to walk on, but it was definitely enough to endanger any ship without a specialized hull.
In time, the patches dispersed a little, and I could look down and see the forbidding coastline of the Nunavut territory of Canada.
Somewhere around here, I did my best to take a nap. I would be losing most of a day upon landing in Iceland, and getting through the next one would be challenging.
As I dozed I imagined the freezing air streaming all around the plane, and the churning ocean far below, and how utterly impossible it would be for me to make this journey if I had to deal with the surface.
How many paths was I crossing over, from thousands of forgotten explorers in the near and distant past, who endured loneliness and desolation beyond anything I’ve felt, as they searched for a place to live?
I bet the Inuit people have some amazing history to share that has been almost entirely hidden from me by language and cultural barriers. If I was down there, perhaps I would encounter it organically. Plane travel is miraculous, but every time I use it, I am struck by how much I am missing from the spaces in between.
The chance to see those in-between places is why I love bicycle touring so much. Ironic that I’d start out a tour with a plane flight, yeah? If I had the time, I’d cycle all the way to the eastern-most chunk of the Canadian archipelago instead, then look for some way to cross the ocean.
Barring that, I’d go to the eastern-most airport. I already figured out where that is, of course, being the obsessive planner I am. It’s St. John’s International Airport on the Avalon Peninsula. At some point perhaps I’ll close this link by cycling across North America and ending up there. But not this time.
Iceland Round 2 Gear And Bike Setup
For my own reference, here is the overwhelming amount of gear I packed for my second Iceland tour, and how I arranged it.
This is what everything looks like packed on the bike. It’s basically the same as my 2019 trip:
Here are the bags without the bicycle:
In the back: Two Ortlieb sport packer plus bags, each with an add-on net pocket and an add-on large roll-top pocket.
In the middle: Two ortlieb recumbent bags. The one on the left has three net bags attached to its underside in a row. The one on the right has a net bag, and then two small roll-top bags attached below, since it hangs over the drivetrain of the bike.
In the foreground: A Kelty Redwing backpack. On the loaded bike, this is placed sideways on top of the recumbent bags, where it fits nicely behind the seat, and is held down with two bungee cords.
This is everything that’s packed onto the bike, including the bags shown above. As with the 2019 trip, the majority of the weight and space is claimed by the sleeping bag and the tent, shown on the far left.
In The Large Bags
These items went into the recumbent-style bags on the rear rack, or into the attached pockets:
- Big Agnes Summit Park 15 (600 DownTek) Sleeping Bag
- Big Agnes Synthetic Sleeping Bag Liner
- Exped DownMat XP 9 Insulted Sleeping Pad
- Heimplanet Inflatable Fistral Tent
- Heimplanet Inflatable Fistral Tent Ground Sheet
- Heimplanet Mini Tent Pump
- Rivendell Bicycle Works Squeezable Water Bottle (For peeing in at night! Eew!)
- The Hat Depot 300N Unisex 100% Cotton Packable Summer Travel Bucket Hat
- My Custom Sun-Blocking Touring Bandana
- Dexshell Ds634 Waterproof Socks
- Gore Bike Wear Men’s Ultra IV Pants, Black, Large
- New Balance Men’s 623v3 Training Shoes (Size 13 4E.)
- Heavy Duty Outdoor Anti Hydraulic Shear Mountain Bike Folding Lock with Holder and Keys
In The Small Bags
These items went directly into the sport packer bags below the seat, or into the attached pockets:
- Canon EOS R5
- Canon RF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Lens
- Canon RF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM Lens
- Sony 256GB CF-Express Type B ‘Tough’ Memory Card
- 13 Inch Intel MacBook Pro, 2TB, 32GB
- Comfyable Laptop Sleeve for 13 Inch MacBook Pro
- Philips Rich Bass Neckband Headphones SHS5200/28
- En-Route Travel Leg Wallet
- Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD 45W with 60W PD Charger
- Apple AirPods Pro
- Anker PowerCore II 10000mAh 18W Portable USB Battery
- Source Outdoors Widepack Hydration Reservoir System (3-Litres)
- TriLite Folding Camp Stool, Regular Size
- Alite Stonefly Folding Chair
The following mesh bags and their contents went into the sport packer bags as well:
- FiiO uBTR Black HiFi Bleutooth Wireless Receiver with aptX/AAC Support
- Apple Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter x2
- Wasserstein 8-Inch Micro USB Cable (6) x6 (Hard to find. For some reason all the 8-inch cables these days are braided-jacket crap.)
- 8Bitdo Zero 2 Bluetooth Gamepad
- MaedHawk Wireless 3.5mm Bluetooth 5.0 Transmitter
- JSAUX USB C to Male Micro USB Adapter
- Micro USB to Apple iPod 30-pin adapter
- Apple Lightning to Micro USB Adapter x2 (Tried some others. They all got uncomfortably hot.)
- YubiKey 5 (For work!)
- K&ZZ 32GB USB 2.0 Metal Thumb Drive
- Apple USBC to USB Adapter (Tried others. All unreliable in different ways.)
- Charging cable for my LED candle night-light.
- Outman Multipurpose Nylon Mesh Cosmetic Bag (Love these!)
- iPod Shuffle
- ZIYUETEK USB 3.1 CFexpress Card Reader
- Anker 2-in-1 USBC SD and Micro SD Card Reader
- Samsung (MB-ME512GA/AM) 512GB 100MB/s MicroSDXC Card x2
- Sabrent Rocket Nano 2TB USB 3.2 SSD (For backups.)
- Crucial X6 4TB Portable SSD (Not very fast, but extremely light.)
- CableCreation Short USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 Cable with Power Delivery x2
- SD Card Organizer
- Lexar Professional 633X 512GB SDXC UHS-I Card x4
- Ablet Lightning Stereo Audio Adapter for Iphone 7 / 7 Plus, Right Angle, With Microphone (Long since discontinued, sadly.)
The biggest change here is, I left out any kind of multi-port USBC hub doodad. I have wasted money on so many of them, and they all have problems. Some get very hot. Some of them have misshapen connectors. Most of them can’t read from an SD card and a Micro SD card at the same time. And almost all of them have annoying power problems and fail to reliably charge or stay connected to more than one USB device at once.
A pox on the lot of them!
- Generic lens-cleaning wipes (For cleaning laptop and camera.)
- Microfiber cloth (For cleaning/drying lenses.)
- Extra microfiber cloth (In case the big one is soiled.)
- Cosmos Electronic Accessories Travel Mesh Storage Bag
- Anker 65W 4 Port GaN USB-C Fast Charger
- Apple Thunderbolt 3 0.8m Cable
- EZOPower 5-Piece International AC Travel Plug Converter Adapter Set (Only packed the one for Europe.)
This charger has one fewer USB ports than the one I took in 2019, but it’s a good amount lighter. Like the old one it allows me to charge the laptop and my other doodads at the same time, from one outlet — which in turn means I need only one international plug adapter when I’m traveling.
- iHome iHM79BC Rechargeable Mini Speakers (Adapted to attach to bike handlebars.)
- 6th Generation iPod Nano (Smallest iTunes-compatible iPod that doesn’t auto-repeat.)
I use the iPod Nano to play bedtime music. An iPod shuffle is not suitable for this purpose since it has no ability to stop playing! It will always repeat the current playlist forever or until it runs out of power! How silly.
Not that it matters, since all iPods have been discontinued and will soon die out, and we will all be locked into digital subscription services and completely abandon the whole idea of controlling what we listen to without it being mediated from one minute to the next by a jealous corporate overlord in the sky. (I’m not bitter.)
- Hermitshell Travel Case (When bent into the shape I need, the microphone no longer fits in the case it comes with.)
- Antlion Audio ModMic 5 Modular Attachable Boom Microphone
- Kingtop 3.5mm Combo Audio Adapter Cable (2 x 3.5mm female TRS to 1 x 3.5mm male TRRS.)
The above items attach to my headphones. The resulting setup works with the laptop and the iPhone lightning adapter, there’s no flaky Bluetooth involved, and it sounds far better than anything else I’ve tried. The strangest place I’ve used this so far is by the side of the road next to a geothermal power plant in the middle of Iceland.
The sport packer bags also hold two SenReal Mesh Makeup Organizer Pouches that contain camera-related gadgets:
- SmilePowo LED Display USB Dual Battery Charger for Canon LP-E6, LP-E6N, LC-E6
- Joby GP1 GorillaPod Flexible Tripod
- Annex Quad Lock Tripod Adaptor
In The Backpack
These items went into the Kelty Redwing backpack:
- Titanium 3 Piece Cutlery Set
- Foxelli USB Rechargeable Headlamp Flashlight
- Kroop’s Triple-Slot Goggles
- Nitrogen Polarized Mens Classic Oval Plastic Warp Sport Sunglasses
- ENCHEN Electric Hair Clippers for Men
- Heimdall Safety Whistle With Lanyard
- Injinji 2.0 Outdoor Original Weight Crew Nuwool Socks
- Prettycare 3D Sleep Mask
- Kate Beaton Velocipede Shirt (Medium)
- Infinity MPG shirt (Premium, men’s medium)
- Cotton Bark Cloth Hawaiian Shirt (Try Etsy, eBay, etc.)
- Aran Crafts Fisherman’s Rib Half-Zip Sweater
- My wallet and passport
- Four pairs of underwear
- Express Rocco Slim Fit Jeans, W34 L32
- A cloth face-mask because THERE’S A PANDEMIC ON, PEOPLE
- Medium-bristle toothbrush
- Dental floss
- Coghlan’s Featherweight Mirror
- Q-Tips
- Razor
- Spare blades wrapped in tape
In Other Bags Or Directly Attached
The following items were attached directly to the bike:
- Garmin Edge 130 Plus GPS Cycling/Bike Computer
- Quad Lock Handlebar Mount x4
- Michelin Avenir Elastic Bicycle Rack Straps
- Da Brim Rezzo Helmet Visor (White)
- uxcell Metal Buckle Luggage Suitcase Adjustable Belt Strap 2M x 38mm (For anchoring the bags.)
- Rivendell Big Reflecto Triangle
- Exustar E-SS503 Bike Sandals, Black, 47/48 Euro or 12.5-13.5 US
- A snap-on strap to keep my pants out of the chain, from Walt’s Cyclery
These items went into the Allnice 1L PVC Bicycle Pouch just behind the seat:
- Park Tool GP-2 Patch Kit x2
- Park Tool TL-1.2 Tire Lever Set (Only 2 of the 3 levers.)
- One spare 26×1.5in tube
- One spare 20×1.5in tube
These items went into the FastBack NorBack Frame Pack between the seat and the front wheel:
- Topeak Road Morph G Bike Pump with Gauge
- Two medium-sized zipties
- Phil Wood Tenacious Oil Squeeze, 4oz
- FiberFix Emergency Spoke Replacement Kit
Also in the NorBack pack, my toolkit:
- Victorinox Handyman
- Drixet SAE-Inch & Metric Hex Socket Wrench Set (With several wrenches removed.)
- Channellock 804 4-Inch Adjustable Wrench
- Steel Needle Nose Wire Cutter Pliers 13cm
- Fix It Sticks Chain Breaker
- Kool Stop BB7 Disc Brake Pad
- Miscellaneous extra screws, a few wedges of rubber, some zip-ties, and some extra chain links.
Replaced or Removed
These are items I brought in 2019 but have replaced with newer items for this trip:
- Anker Premium 60W 5-Port USB C Wall Charger With 1 PD Port
- Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Full Frame Digital SLR
- Canon E-72 II Lens Cap
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS II USM Lens
- Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM Lens
These are items I brought in 2019 but decided to leave out entirely for this trip, with no replacements for them. They were just not useful enough.
- Goal Zero Nomad 7 Plus Solar Panel Recharger
- Canon ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter for Canon 580EX II, 430EX, 430EX II
- Flextailgear Max Pump 2
- Garmin VIRB 360 Camera
- Canon EF 2.0X III Telephoto Lens Extender
- Canon Tripod Mount Ring A-2 for 70-200mm
- The CamRanger Mini
- Sirui T-024X 54″ Carbon Fiber Tripod with C-10X Ball Head & Case
- DJI Mavic Air
- DJI Mavic Air Battery
- DJI Charging Brick For Mavic Air
- JSER IEC 320 Figure 8 C8 Male to 3X Female C7 Splitter
- USB C 3.1 Adapter Hub for MacBook & MacBook Pro with 3 USB ports and SD/Micro SD reader