How much gear?!

[Gari]

So a small group of bikers are using our car park as a start/finish point for their MBL Exped assessment. They had a BoB(or its EBC equivalent) each, plus a 25/30ltr pack each too. The trailers were packed well above the "Gunwale" line, all for a 2 night trip, one of which is in a bothy( possibly both apparently), which begs the question. "What on earth are they carrying"

[voodoo_simon]

The few mountain guides I know will carry a 40L sack for day walks as they'll often carry spare gloves, clothing, group shelter, large first aid kit etc for the group, plus their personal stuff on top of that. Maybe they have to carry tents to replicate bike trips that they can't rely on bothies for shelter

[Bearbonesnorm]

A few years ago I was asked if I'd like to become involved with the MBLA Expedition Module. All their publicity pictures showed loaded trailers and backpacks and much of the suggested kit list looked like it had been borrowed from masters of carrying far too much - DoE.

Due to me having very different ideas to British Cycling as to what consitutes 'best practice' for multi-day trips, I declined the offer

[fatbikephil]

I ask this question pretty much everytime I see a cycle tourer (particularly ones from Germany) or motorcycle tourer. I think people seem to think you need tons of spare kit like spare shoes, riding kit, evening kit etc. On my travels this year plenty of folk have been amazed at my lack of kit when camping and touring or bikepacking - and I think I load up on the heavy side (tent, pillow, pj's and kindle)....

[Gari]

I actually spoke to the guy that is running the assessment a few years ago re doing my MBL, I mentioned that I was ultimately interested in the expedition element if I was going to do it at all. He told me about the last expel assessment he did and how they went into Glen Einiech, but as it was too windy they came back into the Rothiemurchus estate to camp. From my place you can cycle in and out of there in about 4 hours pretty easily. Not sure that constitutes an exped, though I may be wrong.
In answer to spare kit etc, it would be based on current/predicted conditions surely. Given that the weather is pretty settled, no rain forecast and little wind I am hard pressed to imagine that you would need to take what I estimate to be around 65-75ltr of kit even with the spares. YMMV of course.

[fatbikephil]

Hair dryer, shaving kit, bottles of beer, deck chair, radio, bbq etc....!?

[ScotRoutes]

If it's an assessment then they'll likely need to prove that they know how to use everything. Going in lightweight just because it's a nice forecast wouldn't permit that. It would be like doing your Winter Leader Training on a nice snow-free day in late November

[Richpips]

My experience of doing ML and SMBLA courses - they're trying to prepare you for worst case scenarios.

Having said that as in Gari's example, you'd be unlikely to encounter such in training as those who run them have a duty of care too.

I also found that many people doing the courses were primarily teachers needing a qualification to take kids on residentials etc, and not people with much riding or big hill experience, other than what they had to do to fill their log books.

[ZeroDarkBivi]

The British military recently adopted MTB as a recognised Adventurous Training activity, based on the self supported exped concept. Sounds promising, but sadly the implementation of this is based on outdated ideas, and a misunderstanding of the real requirements for multi day riding in the wilderness. They clearly have no idea about bikepacking and the freedom that opens up when you ditch ridiculous trailers stuffed full of kit. Another missed opportunity for the MoD...