I'm only looking for the best stove for my purposes. I want to show you my stoves and tell how and why i got it. I'm a biker and because of that i'm doing camping and of course cooking with gasoline, cause that i have always with me in the tank. It started about 1980 i bought my first stove, a replica of an Optimus 99 made in Taiwan? I didn't know anything about stoves and that was the one i could afford. That stove got completely under fire , so i had to kick it in the middle of the campside and all surrounding campers came rushing to look what dangerous happened. That was in the Netherlands together with some friends. We left the stove burning until the gasoline was gone. The rest of the weekend went with only bread and butter. Now i know that the savetyvalve opened, in this years i didn't now anything and threw it away ( not really, i still have it, but i didn`t use it anymore) and bought another. A Coleman peak 1 400-499. I liked that stove, so easy to handle, the only problem was that with the gasoline from the gasstation it got soon problems and after changing the generator several times, that allways solved the problem, even changing the generator doesn`t do anything to the missfunktion, a friend had the same problems with his peak 1, so that stove had to go. After that i spend a bit more money and bought ,what they called a expedition stove in the campstore, an Optimus Hiker. Always had trouble with this stove, with the jets, the cleaningneedle, a new jet out of the box, failed, i argued with the shop, because i thought that is not expedition quality what i payed for. A friend had shut down the stove, by turning the spindle to the left, so over night all the gas went out in the case, and all the colour said bye bye. What a poor quality, a gasolinestove coloured with not gasolineresistent colour. I made a case of aluminium and when it was running i was quite happy with it. When it startet leaking at the welding of the pumpzylinder i had enough. A friend offered me an Enders 9061, but i found it too heavy. So the next stove was a Phobeus 625. With this i was very happy ,always running good ,with no problems. The only thing i had to repair was the regulatingspindle that cracked at the slit . This stove had to leave for another, cause the center of gravity was to high and i often thruw down the pot. So i got an Enders 9061 BW and with this stove i`m happy till now. But this is not the end of the story, there is some more to come, i swear that it is much more. To be continued Greets from Friedhelm, Cologne, Germany
I hate to tell you this but you have had more stoves than some others here. Welcome to the land of stovies
Hello PC-15 and welcome, very interesting story about the stove that you have used in a timeline. I would love to read more about your adventures or misadventures with the stoves. Except for the first stove or let me rephrase that, all those stoves would have served you well. Like any piece of machinery or equipment, they, at one time or another require maintenance and in your case these stoves you use more than most of us here do. Now that you are here in this forum, try to read up on articles and topics for each of your stove models and you will see how, with little "elbow grease" will keep most stoves in tip top shape. You will also get tons of suggestions on which stove or what stoves to get which is not a peculiarity when someone asks what stove is best. Enough said - Welkomen und guten tag. Ron
Welcome to CCS, PC-15! Thanks for an interesting story, that shows in vivid colors how "survival of the fittest" works for stoves. Trial and error eventually led you to the most rugged, high power military stove that was designed from the start to use automotive gasoline rather than white gas. Still, all of your past stoves are good ones, and with some maintenance can serve you for many more years. I'm looking forward to hearing "part 2" of your story. Yonadav
Hallo PC-15, welcome on board! What bikes have you used with your stoves? My first "motorcycle" was an old Zundapp, bought in 1976 (it had a 100cc engine) Freundliche grüsse, Wim
Mobilette50cc BSA bantam D7 Triumph Tiger 750 Ducati Darmah Indian Enfield 350 Bullet 2X XS 750 Yamahas Ducati 900SS Imola [Tax man got this one ] I now have a FJ1100 Hardly ever gets used! How many other Stovies are Closet bikers or is it the other way round? Nick
Suzuki 50cc, Yamaha RD350B, Yamaha TX650, Benelli Tornado 650 S2 Motobi, Yamaha XS 650 Special(s) x 3 and a BMW R80. I wish that I had kept the Benelli - Blue printed racer and rare as hens teeth, which I didn't know until I had sold it. Now I am looking for a Ducati 450 Desmo single to ride until I die from old age. John
PC-15, welcome! I observe that you have owned some of the best stoves made and none of them worked well for you. I also read that you have used plain gasoline to fuel them. The instructions for the stoves recommend you use Naptha, panel wipe, Aspen, or good old Coleman fuel. The pump gasoline contains addatives that will play havoc with your stove generator or vaporizer. As has been mentioned, the stoves need a modest amount of care and maintenance to give the most reliable performance. As for my bike, it was a Schwinn but I sold it years ago.
Sparky all you said is right, but it is also the reason, why the coleman was nothing for me. When i`m travelling i burn lots of gasoline and have always some litres of pump gasoline with me, so why taking a bottle of white gas with me? getting this for example on Sicily whould be a laught, not for me, for the guys that i ask for white gas. I wanted a stove that runs with gas from my biketank, that stands stable on the ground, (cause i never have a plain table or something) ,thats not to big and heavy, the phoebus was near, only the lack of stability the uncommon dimensions for storing it in the bike cases. The Optimus could have been it, i know now, but when i bought it , i was pissed off, it was very expensive and the guys in the shop were very uncooperative, getting rid of my problems, they didn't know nothing about that stove , i´m sure now, they only could do gut advertising, "the big expedition stove we took with us on several expeditions" blablabla, that`s all they could talk. Okay, i had more stoves than bikes, in the 80ties, i was travelling with a Vespa PX 200, in the 90ties with a Sanglas 500S spanish monocylinder, since the end of the 90ties till now it`s a Moto Guzzi 850GT Eldorado and a Honda XBR 500 (PC15) for the town and short trips in the hills surrounding Cologne and to the Nürburgring region. I knew that many of you have bikes too,bikes and gasolinestoves are a good combination. Burning gasoline, at the campsites i tell all the astonished people, that think it's dangerous, that even for the music (i always have with me), i burn gasoline. I have a thing that i call musicmachine, ore walkman with me, made of an old miletary radio ,now with an MP3 player inside, previous with cassetts. The battery inside is charged on my bike, so indirectly it runs by burning gasoline. I'm preparing the second part of the story, it will last a bit, last year i had a brainbleeding and since that i have some problems writing even in german, loosing some letters , interchanging letters etc, so it needs lots of time , writing these things ,mostly correct i hope, also that i can't use my photos that i have on a server, they are cropped down to a size that i can use in all forums, but here it has to be a bit smaller, so i have to crop down every photo again, so it needs some time. Bye bye Friedhelm
Really interesting and I hope you have many more excellent trips. I'll pray for your medical condition. I've had a couple of very small hemmorrages too. With good doctors and God's help no problems for 4 years.
I have nothing to complain, i was very lucky compaired with what i've seen at the hospital, where it could end with such a thing. But posting in a forum in a foreign language is quite a challange , and i have seen that since that brain bleeding, i post very few things in english speaking and italian forums, cause it's real work for me. I only wanted to know you that. It isn't as easy as it was before and is for the most of you. There are some forums i post only once a year now. I hope making a big trip to the south of Italy with the Guzzi in fall this year. We will see, my girl friend and my father will get mad when they hear about that. keep on rolling Friedhelm
Well enough of this lets go on with stoves Okay, i think i didn't finish the first part, I had a stove beneeth the others, i don't know at what time exatctly, i bought a Borde stove, not for replacing another stove, as a addition, i can remember I bought it in little shop for bike and car travellers here in Cologne, and they didn't want to sell it. They didn't know me , i only had bought before some aluminiumcases in this place. They told me that it is a bad stove and very expensive. It was expensive but i bought it nevertheless, this stove was facenating to me. The windshield and kettlesupport i made on my own, i had to make it on my own, cause in the shop the only had the naked Borde burner. As addition to my mainstove i liked it, i nearly burned down a campsite but i liked it. It must have been at the mid 80ties i was in middle Italy, i had put a pot of water on the stove and went to the toilet. When i came back the gras in front of my tent was burning, tapping around and a blanket solved that problem, but the borde was so hot that i couldn`t turn the flame down, it`s a bit tricky at this stove. So i pushed it on sandy ground til the gasoline was burned to the end. I never left this stove alone again since this time. So this is the end of the first part, i reached at the Enders 9061 with which i was very contended, it runs always, needed few maintainence, is quite handy, packing it in the cases, but it`s also quite heavy. I got a second ,the civil version. So that could have been the story. Ciao , arrividerci, Auf Wiedersehn. I have some good friends in nothern Italy, a motorcycle gang, they all were amazed by this stove and wanted one, so till now about 20 Enders 9061 went through my hands. Many of them were in a really bad condition when i bought it. But i must say, all of them i got running easyly. Main problem the leathercone from the pump, at some also the pumpvalve, and that was it, cleaning, put some paint, ready to go.I could repair all stoves with the repairing kit that some of the stoves still had. As i had found my stove now, i decided to sell all my old stoves. With a friend i always went several times in a year on markets for used motorcycleparts, mostly for buying parts but sometimes we went there selling parts that we don't need anymore, that must have been at the middle -end of the 90ties. So i wanted to sell all my stoves, that i didn`t need anymore, cause i had my Enders. But i found out, that nobody wanted to give some money that was worth it. For one or two beers i wouldn't give away one of my stoves. The only stove i could sell was the Optimus hiker for the amount of, i think, about a case of beer, not much, but that was the most someone wanted to give for any of my stoves. I get cracy about that, cause some weeks ago i bought a Optimus Hiker in very bad condition for nearly exactly the same what my first had cost new. Thinking about for what little amount i gave away my old one. Okay thats past and i only had troubles with my first Optimus. So at that point i decided that i won't give away any of this stoves and start a collection with it. So when going at a market for used motorcycleparts i always bought stoves that i could get for very few money. Okay with this we start the second part of the story, and for sure there is a third part I will post the stoves in the gallery when i have finished here. ciao ciao Friedhelm
Just wanted to say that i am lurking here. Excited to know more about what stoves you got after the 9061.
Hi PC-15: I would suggest the Coleman 520 WW11 stove. It will run on car gas and (will run on almost any flammable liquid in a jam) has stable legs and will support a large cast iron pot if necessary, will light and run in any weather, does not need to be primed by a cup and it's case is the cook kit. The generator is easy to remove and clean (replacing is usually not necessary), also if you find a complete one an, extra generator comes with it. I bike camped with mine for years. Mike... P.S. (Do not buy the post war version of this stove the "530", it has no legs and will not suit your needs.) Sorry couldn't find a handy picture of the canister/cookset. ( It came in a 3 legged and 4 legged version, the 3 legged version, pictured is better for uneven surfaces)
Hi Friedhelm, the WW2 coleman is really a workhorse, but it is quite unable to simmer, and as i understand you travel often in Itaky, my country, I imagine you like good meals and it is difficult to cook real food with such a blowtorch. as a a biker myself, I love the possibility to use just the gas from my bike tank. From this point of view in my esperience the russian Optimus 8R clone is perfect. It is not monstrously powerfull, but it works great on unleaded car gas, it simmers perfecly and it is enogh low for good pot stability. My one works grat since 1985, when I bought it new, in Nairobi. When you are in Italy, please AVOID absolutely what is sold in hardware store as "benzina avio" it is a mix of white gas and dicloropropano. Is is sold only as stain remover, but if you burn it ina stove, it will destroy your stove after destroing your lungs: it puts out cloron fumes. Pesonally now I use (when kayaking or treking) an Optimus 81 trapper: it use denaìturated alcohol for fuel, and you get denaturated alcohol in any food supermarket cheaper then gas. You may use denaturated alcohol to start csmpfire, and it is not so dangerous to handle when weater is hot, as gasoline. It is as powerfull as a gas stove, it simmers perfecly and it have its own windshield: the stronger it blows, the better it burns. A Coleman 442 is an acceptable compomise, but you are right: its generator clogs. If you do not mind the exta cost, you can use Shell Vpower gasoline, both for the bike and the Coleman: it is a better kind of gasoline, less additives and more octane. when back in Italy, if you are around my town Pisa, let me know, may be I can show you some places in Tuscany you do not find advetized in tourist guides, but that are worth visiting. Have fun, and be careful. Orsoorso
Interesting story! Bikes....oh bikes....XR500, GB500 (the pretty version of the XBR) Benelli 2C (a total hoot!) Yamaha SR500, Laverda SF750, Honda CB750FZ and a whole load of trail bikes 2 and 4 stroke and probably my favorite of all, several CB100/125's (including a 125 with a sidecar, THAT was fun!) Oh yeah, and the Honda C50 I used for university. I'm sure the gas evaporated out the air hole faster than it burned it. Many, many trips, bike rallies and weekends at all times of the year in some fairly hairy places. Many happy memories. PC m'man, you need a Trangia knock off, the Ledmark cook set. Very cheap, Largely weather proof, a complete cook set that can make real food, not just re-heat stuff. Yes it runs on alcohol, but you are using it at a rate of about 50ml per 20-odd minutes at full speed which is way too hot for anything except flash frying or boiling water. A 600ml coke bottle will do 12 fills or so, enough for Jamie Oliver on a long weekend. I usually use 1 fill per cook up and I like to build my meals, curry and rice, pasta and sauce etc. Safe, quiet, very easy to use and CHEAP! Yes it is a bit of a lump, but not so heavy and you can leave everything except your coffee maker behind. There is room inside for odds and ends, forks, lighter, cloth etc in one nice neat bundle. I have the Optimus 77a, as near to identical as makes no difference to a Ledmark and the stove set I use most. Here's a short CLIP of the stove set in question. It looks like the owner has swapped out the original burner for a Trangia one, a highly recommended and straight fit conversion. Note the safe split level cooking. Your story is an interesting one of Darwinian survival. Welcome aboard
Hi PC-15: Contrary to a previous poster the WW11 520 simmers low and great. You use the cleanout lever to simmer. This is per Coleman's instructions. People say that it will harm the cleaning needle. Not true, I and others have been doing it for 30yrs. It is a wonderful stove for cooking complete meals, not just a warm up stove. Mike...
Hi guys !! Thanks for the tips. But : I have been on the search for the best stove, for me, since 30 years, you can be sure that i found it. Over 30 years i was on the search for a the best stove to use for me , and over this search i became a collector, what i never wanted to be. So the titel of this topic is not ment really serious. @flivver i think this Coleman 520 ww11 is hard to find in Germany, i often see the 530 and these are quite expensive. What i want to know is, are these old Colemans as easy to light like the new ones or have you to preheat them like my other stoves ? @ Orsoorso At the beginnig of may, i'm in italy, but by car with a friend delivering a lorry full of things to my friends near Udine ( S.Giorgio di Nogaro) The first weekend in may we are on a bikerparty near Padova ( Tri di in moto, bikerparty del ExPirat), Sunday we go to S. Giorgio di Nogaro and live in the clubhouse of our friends, the Grup X Friul and the next weekend we go to the bikerparty from the Bintars near Udine. In September it is possible that i pass by to Pisa, cause i want to visit my friends in the Abruzzi, Calabria and Siciliy. @nzmike my XBR 500 is quite modificated, something near te GB 500, another seat another back, another taillight,nicer smaller indicatorlights, ripped off all the Plastic stuff etc etc. Well i have a Tangria, and the version from the Swedish army, i don't like them too much and there i have the same problem that i need an extra liquid to feed it. My premiss was that i can use the liquid from my biketank. I want to say that i tell the storys from 20-30 years ago, for example when i bought the Coleman, in the shop they didn`t know anything about those stoves they tell you, it runs with gasoline,what means in German gasoline from the gastation, the manual you get is written in english, and the english words for flammable liquids are, for a german, quite confusing, if you don`t have anyone who tells you what is what, you never will know only from the dictonary. After 30 years of practice i now know , what you should use, and i believe that that stove is a good stove, if you put white gas in ,and that stove is a real good stove if you put kerosene, alkohol or what ever in. But that doesn`t interest me, as i have always pumpgasoline with me, a good stove for me is only a stove that runs well with pumpgasoline. Well i'm just writing the second part, we`ll see perhaps it could finish it this night. ciao ciao Friedhelm
Well as i live in Germany of course i got mostly german stoves at the markets, many Enders of course so i start with the Enders, First the „coockiebox“ Enders Then the 9061 civil version, that was blotted over and over with some blue color, so i could get it i think for 2 Mark,that means 1 €, some pickling solution brought away the blue colour and left the oriniginal paint. I also got an Enders 9065, unbelievible for what amount of money they go away nowadays at evilbay. I'm just too anxious to take it away for camping now, Also it is in a good condition and i don't want to ruin the decals on the lid. So i'm thinking about building a two flame stove on my own,for use, the parts for it i already have. Perhaps in the future in the frettling forum.
I like very much the little detail of the Enders 9065. Nevertheless i have got an Optims 22B, but thats now also more a store of value than a stove to use i think. I always saw a stove at the catalouges of the Globetrotter shops, that was very very expensive, the Geniol Heinze stove, when i could get one at the market nearly unused for 20 or 30 bucks, that means Mark, that is about the half in €, i bought it unless it is too big and heavy for use to me. Also not to forget the British armee stove MK2 A not so common Erzet 640 nearly new. Nice and tiny. I never fired it. At last i have to mention a russian smel 4 stove, that i got new of course. And not to forget i got a second new Phoebus 625 for few money at the market. I never payed more than 20-30 Marks for a stove in the 90ties. I also got some Coleman Lamps, a coleman heater, some varius torches from Enders , Vulcano, Barthel. By the way , sunday on evilbay a Borde Stove went away for four times more , what i payed for it new, and in these old days it hadn't been cheap. Crazy world. Good that i didn't sell it in the 90ties. Enjoy the photos some more to come. Friedhelm
