34 Day Europe Trip with Tri-Star & Co-Pilot

[monkeylady]

Oh, my. You have found your people. We are working on putting together a 12-step program. Many agree that we need one, but no one seems to want one...from a woman obsessed with all things Tom Bihn.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[jmoz]

snowbot- Thanks for your prompt and helpful reply. What you say makes total sense, and I can probably do that with my Patagonia MiniMass (until I can pull the trigger on a TB replacement for that, too, but it might be awhile).

My Tri-Star (with accessories) is due on Tuesday, and I'm (weirdly) excited about getting bags. It's a strange feeling to actually care about them....

[snowbot]

jmoz, for me, the answer is to carry the Tristar in backpack mode and to sling the copilot across body in front of me.

[jmoz]

Please pardon a dumb question (from someone new to Tom Bihn) in response to an old post, but I couldn't find information on one thing:
What's the best way to carry the Co-Pilot together with the Tri-Star? It seems like almost any way of carrying both is likely to be somewhat awkward, but I assume there's a good solution?

[snowbot]

If you want to try the minimalist running/walking shoes, but find the Vibram Five-Fingers too loud (in a fashion-sense), you might want to look at the Merrell Pace shoes. They're great for warm weather travel because they weigh almost nothing and are crushable.

[Lani]

So your laundry bag gets crammed back into whichever compartment held the cleans? Along side or on top of your clean cubes? If you have clothes in more than one compartment - such as the large and medium compartments in a Tri-Star, do you keep two laundry bags? Stuff each back into their alloted space?

No offense but you are living up to your forum name there, Curmudgeon! ;-)

Friends of mine who "traveload" (my made-up word for people who travel with a load of crap... er... stuff) have actually taken those pop-up hampers with them on their trips. That actually works OK if you're going car camping and you want to just toss your dirty hiked-in clothes into a hamper in your huge family tent, but even when those pop-up hampers are compressed, they take up more room than a Tom Bihn Side Effect bag... so as much as I've been tempted, I don't use those when I travel.

The best "hamper" for light travel is actually a really thin trash bag. I recommend the thin ones you use to line your small office or bathroom trash containers with. They are large enough that they should hold about as much clothes as you take on your entire trip, but they take up absolutely nothing in your travel bag.

Now... if you're staying in one location for your entire trip (let's say a standard hotel room), the easiest thing is to just unpack everything out of your main Tom Bihn (you know, your Aeronaut, Western Flyer or Tri-Star) and turn your room into your home for the duration... and your dirty laundry? Keep stuffing them in the trash bag, and stash the trash bag in your empty Tom Bihn travel bag. That way it's out of sight until you need to wash them. If you want to launder them at the hotel's laundry room, just take the Tom Bihn bag (with the plastic bag full of dirty clothes). Fold your clothes when you're done and stick them in your TB bag back to your room. Voila!

If you're going to be moving a lot during your travels, and maybe you're going to spend nights on trains, airports, youth hostels, what have you, then the main difference is that you won't be able to unpack everything out of your travel bag. In that case, use the plastic bag to create a compartment in your bag's main packing area. As you finishing wearing an item, move it into the plastic bag.

Now... some folks (like me) actually have a "gray area" of clothes that have been worn but are still good to wear again. Typically it's something like a cardigan, or maybe an overshirt. If I don't want to put those in the trash bag with dirty laundry, I might use an in-betweener, like say a Tom Bihn Packing Cube Shoulderbag. And if you really want it to stay smelling fresh, you can keep a small swatch of a laundry sheet in the bag, too.

[backpack]

So your laundry bag gets crammed back into whichever compartment held the cleans? Along side or on top of your clean cubes? If you have clothes in more than one compartment - such as the large and medium compartments in a Tri-Star, do you keep two laundry bags? Stuff each back into their alloted space?

Again, I apologize if this sounds stupid. Just trying to understand the tricks of the trade.

I started packing with grocery plastic bag labeled with a sharpie for different items.
I graduated to a brand name compression bag which lasted only a couple of trips before the zip closure broke, which prompted me to get zip plastic bags which worked just as well, were less expensive and easier to get.

Then I bought the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag and the Packing Cube Backpack for Aeronaute when they first came out. I used them on numerous trip with the addition of zip plastic bags.

The problem with packing with zip plastic bags is that it takes a day to pack anything in it, I mean 24 hours of nothing but air compressing. It gets old fast and it is impossible on a short notice trip.

On our last trip, I took my Brain Bag with 2 Packing Cube Shoulder Bags in one compartment and the Packing Cube Backpack for Aeronaute on top of a big plastic bag in the other.
We had run out of zip plastic bags and the trip was short notice.

I included 1 or 2 empty plastic grocery bags and one for our snacks.

The one or both of the empty grocery bag are used for dirty laundry, it depends if we had time to do laundry, depending on the length of the trip.

They are closed securely and placed at the bottom of the bag.


Clean clothes always stay in the Packing Cubes so there is no fear of cross contamination.

[backpack]

On packing low profile running shoes, "barefoot running" in shoes like Vibram Five Fingers offer extremely low profile running shoes. I don't/can't run anymore, but my Smartwool Classics are a wonderful, comfortable 2nd shoe for trips. Soft Star Shoes also offer running moccasins in their Adult shoes with vibram soles. My children wore Soft Star Shoes almost exclusively for their first 2 years of walking. I love their USA made custom products.

Thank You Dorayme for the Soft Star Shoes link!

[jannilee]

I use Eagle creek double sided packing cubes. one side has a mesh front (for clean clothes) and the other side is plastic lined (for dirty ones) The middle divider is designed so that the volume of the cube can be split however you like with no loss of volume - all mesh side, all plastic side or part and part. Easy peasy!

[dorayme]

My classics monochromatic and darker colored so unless people are staring at my feet, they kind of pass off as regular shoes. . . at least they do in my mind. o.O

[Lani]

On packing low profile running shoes, "barefoot running" in shoes like Vibram Five Fingers offer extremely low profile running shoes. I don't/can't run anymore, but my Smartwool Classics are a wonderful, comfortable 2nd shoe for trips. Soft Star Shoes also offer running moccasins in their Adult shoes with vibram soles. My children wore Soft Star Shoes almost exclusively for their first 2 years of walking. I love their USA made custom products.

I wish I were so brave. Every time I see those "toe shoes" I wind up giggling--they look so goofy!

A second vote for Smartwool socks. I like their really thin ones because they keep your toes really comfy warm, but aren't bulky.

[Frank II]

First, my clothes are not so dirty--I don't roll around in mud--that they are going to have such an impact on clean clothes.

I usually use the same type of laundry bag you find in most hotels where you can send your laundry out. In fact, that's where I usually get them. And sometimes I replenish during my trip.

I don't care if my clothes are "crammed" back in because they aren't going to be worn until they are washed. As to where they are crammed, it depends on the bag and where there is room. In some bags, there may be a mesh pocket in the lid and I sometimes put the bag there. If not, I find a spot for them. It doesn't matter which compartment they go in when using a multi-pocket bag because they don't go into the cubes until clean. I stick to one laundry bag because I never need more than that.

It's not that complicated. Dirty clothes go into dirty clothes bag which goes into carry-on bag wherever it fits. Nice and simple. Any more and you're over thinking.

[Curmudgeon]

When I travel, I have a separate laundry bag to hold my dirty clothes. This isn't very big as I tend to wash my clothes every couple of days. No mixing of clean and dirty. I also travel with clothes that dry overnight and are wrinkle resistant.

So your laundry bag gets crammed back into whichever compartment held the cleans? Along side or on top of your clean cubes? If you have clothes in more than one compartment - such as the large and medium compartments in a Tri-Star, do you keep two laundry bags? Stuff each back into their alloted space?

Again, I apologize if this sounds stupid. Just trying to understand the tricks of the trade.

[dorayme]

On packing low profile running shoes, "barefoot running" in shoes like Vibram Five Fingers offer extremely low profile running shoes. I don't/can't run anymore, but my Smartwool Classics are a wonderful, comfortable 2nd shoe for trips. Soft Star Shoes also offer running moccasins in their Adult shoes with vibram soles. My children wore Soft Star Shoes almost exclusively for their first 2 years of walking. I love their USA made custom products.

[Frank II]

When I travel, I have a separate laundry bag to hold my dirty clothes. This isn't very big as I tend to wash my clothes every couple of days. No mixing of clean and dirty. I also travel with clothes that dry overnight and are wrinkle resistant.