We tent when possible and will do a long ride soon. My body's not what it was_...
Buying new air mattresses. Looking at Big Agnes q something... Any experience to share, thanks... Would I need to carry pump? Decided I need more. Omfort than my old tbermarest can give. 3.5 in thick sounds like the ticket, smaller pack size is nice, internal pump? All bean has one...
Thanks for sharing.

Hello euclidpb,
I currently use a Big Agnes insulated 2.5" , I am getting older too and am a serious creature of comfort so I went with a 25" wide one. I paired it with the Big Agnes bag that has "no bottom" just a pocket for the mattress. Used it over the last 2 years for 300+ nights. Not small or light but I do not regret it a bit. In my opinion almost nothing is too big/heavy to carry along if it makes you feel great morning after morning.

Exped is another Mattress , they put in a pump in one of the Air mat tubes ..

I have a Stevenson's triple bag with a Down filled air mattress , they use a stuff sack, included, as their pump ..

4" thick ..

So far so good with my Neoair trekker but that's the only one i've tried. The expeds are highly regarded as are the neoairs. I am fairly conscious about my gear weight but went with a 25 inch pad for comfort. I don't know how people do it on a 20 inch pad. I am thin but a side sleeper and I just need the extra width.

I didn't think blowing up the pad would be such a big deal but since mine is wider and longer than most I do find it to be a drag day after day so I'll probably be getting a 2 oz. pump bag. This can double as a stuff sack. See video below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ecMAIfkts

I have a Big Agnes sleeping pad. It's pretty comfy, but not much that more than my thermarest. It does pack smaller and weighs less than my thermarest. I have no issues blowing it up by mouth, but many recommend using a pump to keep the down feathers inside from becoming damp.

A friend of mine tried a lot of different pads until he decided he needed to use a huge Thermarest Camprest to get a good nights sleep. The was thing huge and heavy, but very comfortable. The closest pad Themarest sells now-a-days is this one.

My Exped is chipped foam plug filled , so It's self inflating ( a bit heavy but cheaper on discontinued stock)

Have a Marmot CBS (component Bag system ) It takes a 72x20 rectangular Pad , OK when bike trailer camping ..

the Exped folks also do a Polargard fill and a down fill air mat too ,,

Thanks mtnbud. Dig the Big Thermarest, but cant see myself toting it cross country. Spose I'll have to decide on the sweet spot between weight/ size, and comfort.
I guess I assumed the Agnes 3.5' thickness would trump the thermarest 2.5 ' that I currently use. Is there a small light pump anyone could recommend?

I'm not getting any younger either and in preparation for getting back into bike touring this summer I was looking to replace my Thermarest Ultralight self-inflating pad. It is just too thin for me now. I chose the REI Flash (REI Flash Insulated Air Sleeping Pad - Free Shipping at REI.com). It is thicker, lighter, packs down much smaller, and while not self-inflating is very easy to inflate / deflate. The price was right, too.

I have not yet headed on the road with it, but I have camped out in the back yard 3 nights and slept well, especially the 3rd night. A new tent and pad took some getting used to. Considering it is relatively narrow, I am surprised how well the raised edges do indeed keep me on the pad.

Good luck!

My Big agnes pads are very comfortable, but I have never had luck with them staying inflated. Reading about bicycle365's 300 nights on one makes me seethe with jealousy. Returned one, they tested it and sent me another, it went flat faster than the first. They sent me another, that stays inflated about six hours before my but hits the ground. A friend bought me one, and it goes down about the same. All of them are the Aircore.

One thing I can say, they are pretty durable. I have been using the first one they sent me that goes flat quickly to lay on working on a car. It does not stay inflated very long, but scooting it around on the dirt and gravel has not made it much worse.

Just my experience with the aircore, I love it, but keep having to back to my super old Thermarest.

Good information, thanks for your response and I might check into that rei pad.

IT STILL SEEMS LOGICAL to me that valves should allow for pumping with a bike pump ( would, nt this be an efficient way to pump non-self inflating pads)?,

There is a man who invented an ultra-compact lightweight pump for the latest generation of sleeping pads; the air pads. For sleeping pads that are not self-inflating this pump is a God send. I am more of a backpacker than I am a bike tourist and I use this pump on every trip now. It works great, saves me a lot of hyper ventilating, keeps warm moist air out of my pad, and is incredibly compact and lightweight (less than 3 ounces with batteries). It'll fill a standard Thermarest air pad (like the NeoAir Trekker) in something like 3 minutes. I have no affiliation with this company, just like to promote an amazing product when I find one, especially when it's a small business. When I first found it, I thought it had to be too good to be true. It really is unbelivably small and light for an air pump. I have been using mine for a year now. I purchased the original version from Camp-Tek and use it with rechargeable AAA's.

The guy who made it is apparently an engineer who designed the product himself and had been selling it on his own for a couple years. In the last year or so he must have struck up a deal with Thermarest who is now marketing the product as their own, even including it with some mattresses.

<-- yup that's it. Small enough to fit in your hand and powerful enough to inflate an air mattress.

Here are links to the original designer's and Thermarest's sites respectively:

Camp-Tek - Outdoor Adventure Solutions

NeoAir™ MiniPump Air Mattress Inflator by Therm-a-Rest®

I highly recommend this pump to anyone who uses an air pad for camping/backpacking/cycling.
It makes using an nice thick air pad, that much more enjoyable.

You got me curious euclidpb - I found this post on crazyguyonabike. I'm going to try it myself just for kicks. (That NeoAir mini pump looks pretty slick BTW^)

So far I'm very happy with my Exped Synmat 7 Ultralight in medium and Exped Pump Pillow to inflate it.
Online reviews I've read seem to suggest a high failure rate but, fingers crossed, no issues so far.
I've completed a 3 and a half week tour of the southern coast of Western Australia and not woken up on the ground yet.

SynMat UL 7 M | USA

Neoair fan here myself. I say if you can't get a good nights sleep on the Neoair, then you can't get one on your home mattress. Combined with that snazzy battery operated pump referenced above....just about perfect.

One did delaminate, totally my fault(should you get a hard to find leak, send it to Thermarest.) It was replaced, no charge. I've used the replacement about a 50 times with no problems.

FWIW, I have the long, wide one. Tried the 20". No go, and I ain't that big.

I'll throw a bit of a wrench in.

A few years ago I was preparing for five weeks canoeing to begin a sabbatical. I had all the necessary equipment, but in my mid fifties I was wondering whether technology or ingenuity had come up with an answer to the sleeping issue. And it wasn't just the relative thinness/thickness of the mat, but also the curling your body around roots or rocks, the head downhill or uphill, sleeping on a sideways slant, etc.

I stumbled across a forum conversation on hammocks. I've paddled 3,000 miles or so, backpacked five or six hundred, winter camped fifty+ nights, toured a few thousand miles, but it had never occurred to me to sleep in a hammock, in part because I am not a back sleeper. But I read more and discovered that camping hammocks are different animals, allowing one to sleep on side, back or even stomach, and basically level (instead of in a banana shape). So I got a hammock, a warbonnet blackbird. I've never slept better. Never. I also stay dryer in a hammock than in a tent, and my gear/clothing stays dry as well. I'll never go back to the ground.

The majority of my camping is in northern MN and Canada, where there are plenty of trees, but if you bike tour someplace where trees are in abundance I highly, highly recommend considering a hammock.

My intention is not to steal the thread, but hammock camping is still relatively rare (most of the companies supporting, for example, are mom and pop companies) so it's likely there are readers of this forum who, like me, had never known it was an option.

Thanks for the Interesting option revcp. I am a side sleeper, body goes numb on my back. Goes numb o. My back... Goes nu. B on my back... I like the dryness aspect.

Bought Big Agnes pads neoair? I think. So far, very comfy.

Mine is a NeoAir and I am very happy with it. It is similar in volume and I find that it takes about 18 deep full breaths to inflate. I can easily blow it up in less than a minute. I really see no need for a pump.