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SCREEEEECH! With every man and his ferret on the Atkin's Diet, and every second Bike Friday purchaser asking how they can shave another quarter ounce off their Pocket Rocket Pro, 'grease' is definitely not the word (I use a teflon seed tray), 'ultralite' is.
So when Jeff Bryce popped up in my bird-cam with his home-spun ultralight camping stove, I had to share it with you.
Jeff, who was mentioned in Lynette Chiang's Mexico chronicles, extolled the virtues of ultralite camping, that is, sleeping out in the freezing cold under little more than a tarp and a pair of woolly socks. I'd prefer meditating on top of a pole myself, then again, being a bird, I do that anyway...
'This stove is made from a simple Altoids can, filled with Perlite and covered with a mesh screen,' said Jeff. 'The stove burns de-natured alcohol that can be found at any hardware store. To make a platform for your cooking pot, if there is no access to a couple of well-placed, well-balanced rocks, just cut some thick gauge fencing material and make it into a circle around the stove.'
'Perlite is an absorbent substance, made with God (or Allah) knows what. You simply soak the perlite with the denatured alcohol and light it-Voila! Fire. You just add more alcohol if you want more fire. Warning: As you know, an alcohol flame is invisible, so you gotta be careful not to burn off your body hair!'
That's about it. You light it and it's enough to boil a full pan of water.
Of course, you need the gizmos that go on top of it, like the stand for your pans, and the pans themselves, 'titanium of course'.
The salesguys at BF keep harping on that a bike for loaded touring, whether it be a folding bike or conventional bike, needs to be sturdy, so most opt for the more robust Bike Friday models, like the NWT, Pocket Rocket, Pocket Llama or Crusoe (if you happen to be a sub-140lb ultralite yourself).
But who knows, with gear like this maybe you could stuff your tarp and Altoids stove in your Vaude Hi-Tail, click it to the seatpost of your sub-17 lb Pocket Rocket Pro and pedal off into the paved sunset...
I'll be featuring more 'featherweight' items of cyclecamping interest here as they pass by my bird-cam ... feel free to submit them to fred@bikefriday.com
* STOP PRESS *
Michael Rasmussen sent along this extra dropping re PERLITE:
Etymology: French, from perle pearl: volcanic glass that has a concentric shelly structure, appears as if composed of concretions, is usually grayish and sometimes spherulitic, and when expanded by heat forms a lightweight aggregate used especially in concrete and plaster and as a medium for potting plants
From: http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=perlite&x=0&y=0