Thank you all for responding!! Appreciate you taking the time! :-))) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes of course, shielding always helps. I've found the likes of MSR Windburner etc. to perform well regardless but difficult to find something similar liquid stove wise. I'll have a look, from what I can see the Coleman looks rather bulky and heavy? I'm travelling on an offroad/dual-sport bike so keeping weight and bulk to a minimum is important. I don't mind a bit of busy work with maintenance, as long as it keeps working I'm happy haha. What other fuels are recommended to use with this for what can usually be available even in places like central Asia? I can imagine white spirit etc. should be available in most big cities in most places around the world, so possible to run that and only rely on petrol when really necessary, might help with keeping it clean too I reckon Yea, the ability so simmer "easily" is quite important to me, the trip will be on a very low budget so having something I can half decently cook on is of importance haha. I'm sure jet fuel is available in many places, generally, though it does also add another layer of pain of having to look for it just to power the stove. Big advantages of petrol for me is - spare bit of petrol for the tank and vice verse should either run out. Interesting, what sort of issues have you had with them? I've got a bunch of MSR kit from tents to stoves to tons of other bits and to date I've not had a single issue. Re the Coleman, how heavy / bulky is this? I don't seem to be able to find dimensions for any of the Coleman kit mentioned anywhere.
The Coleman stoves mentioned (Peak1 dual fuel, 502, 533) are relatively bulky but stable and include the fuel tank. Of these the 400 series Peak1 stoves are almost compact. Almost. All bar the 533 are well out of production. The Dragonfly will burn anything related to a light or volatile oil. But the most useful to you will be petrol and kerosene (or JetA1). Anything that can be put in a vehicle that drives or flies can be burned in a Dragonfly. But the more additives the fuel has, the more cleaning you need to do. Avoid alcohol in the fuel if possible. I can't speak in direct answer, but the MSR stoves are deliberately what I think of as Type 2 Reliable. Things go wrong, but you can fix them. But for that to be true, they are more fiddly to work with. That said, a Dragonfly or X-GK can be stripped to parts and rebuilt, using the tool provided. If you like fiddling, they are excellent. If you don't, they are a complete pain. My avatar to the left is an early 1980s X-GK fitted in a Trangia windshield. The 40 year old stove is completely reliable. A modern Dragonfly is essentially the same stove in an extremely functional folding tripod, with real simmer control. My Dragonfly (an older one) burns pretty much anything through the G (gasoline/petrol) jet cleaner than the old X-GK does through the K (kerosine/paraffin) jet. Three have been mentioned. The 502 is large for a single burner, the Peak1 small(ish). I doubt you will meet a new one of any of these. If packing tight is important, the MSR stoves are designed to fit inside a saucepan. The Coleman stoves are larger than any saucepan you might consider- with the possible exception of the 400 series. That one should fit into a US Army Mountain Cookset. That set is intended to cook for 4 to 6, so quite a bit bigger than what a motorcyclist would carry.
Don't overthink this. No reason to use kerosene that I can think of, since the bike runs on petrol, that's a no brainer. Any of the single burners are reasonably compact and will give good service. Have a great trip!
I've recently become a fan of the Optimus 111T. It should burn any fuel you throw at it (with attachments) and has good simmer control.
I have been using a shmell 1 for one yead and a half using only gas station perol, often the one with 10% methanol in it, never clogged,.Same stove sinked with my river boat and stayed below water for 6 months before rescue. Only damage was the aluminium case, with alot of tiny holes by galvanic corrosion. Stove perfectly working. Only issue is the piston oring, but you will find a mod in this site that allow the use of regular orings.
My vote would be for a white gas stove that uses a burner plate as opposed to a generator tube. Logic here is that you can burn pump petrol without having to worry about all the additives building up on the insides of the tube that you can't get at. I'm told that when the Svea 123 came out in the 50's, folks would routinely run unleaded in it for years without any issue. I would advise you stay upwind if you do so, however - modern pump gas has lots of additives that will give you quite a headache if burned in a stove.
May I recommend a Chinese iWalker 43G? I know, crazy right? It's a stainless steel svea 123r-like stove with a silent burner, larger fuel tank, and no cotton wick to burn out. Instead it has a stainless steel fuel pick up tube going to a brass mesh/fiberglass filter. The stove requires a very small amount of alcohol for priming too and it simmers better than the svea. Crap fuel cap though. Or of course, a reliable svea 123r, this stove has absolutely zero issues with gasoline. Also a Soviet shmel-2 is definitely worth a look into. I am a firm believer in using automotive gasoline in my stoves. My shmel-4 is 87-unleaded only and I've run at least 5 gallons of gas through it without a single clog of the jet or any maintenance to it either. Even my three Coleman 502's are run on gasoline. I need to clean the generator after like 4-5 tanks but that's no problem for me. It's just a straight tube, a very easy clean. People seem to forget that the additives in gasoline are flammable hydrocarbons that are destroyed during combustion. If you have an odorless blue flame, you should be okay cooking on it every once and a while. It's the yellow sooty flames that are toxic and dangerous.
Also, if you're in Asia, I'm sure that you'd have absolutely no problem finding the small butane cylinders. A butane stove in say, vietnam or whatever would be perfectly serviceable and easily refueled. In fact, if I were you, I would absolutely have a butane stove in Asia as a back up. (I like having two stoves anyways, weight be damned)
Anytime you have to take apart and put something together, parts can get lost or jammed, bent or broken - And that takes ANYTHING MSR makes off the list. Their gear is made for "gram weenies", shaving off every bit of weight they can. Bugger that if your on a cycle. I got tired of the "what color pump do you have? " and the cracking pump BS and parts foolishness. This won't fit with that, but it will with this.... Sod that. I can fire up my Coleman 502 in seconds in total darkness, blindfolded, even more so with mounted spark lighter. Dare say do that with a MSR kit. Haven't a clue what the Marines saw in the damn things. Personal opinion, I've thought MSR stood for "More shit, really". Murph
@Murph , you clearly have some dislike of the MSR stoves. I don't think losing parts is a common experience. The current pumps are solid. I have 4 MSR stoves, 2 of which I bought as parts for rebuilding. They rebuilt, they work great. I only own 1 Coleman, about the same age as most of my MSR stoves- 25 years old. I bought it new, have only run it on shellite (Coleman fuel/naphtha). It's sadly essentially non-functional. I could repair it- if I could locate the required parts. I believe they are theoretically available, just not practically available in Australia. I could buy a new one easier and cheaper. My advice for anyone about to travel the world would be to have a stove that is currently in production, and has spares available. And that has a use style that works for them.
@Murph is right, the 502 just works! It's not a powerhouse at 4500 BTU, but is totally reliable. If you can't light it, your matches are wet, you're out of fuel, or you forgot to pump it up. Now that Coleman has backed away from producing parts, a spare generator may be a little difficult to find, but the 502's straight generator is quite easy to clean. Admittedly, I don't know how long it will take for it to get to that point, but expect it can and will need cleaning if running exclusively on petrol, but I would expect that with any stove. It's the only stove I would consider in your situation.
You may find this YouTube video posted by a couple of cyclists on a round the world trip about their cooking setup (Optimus Polaris + Trangia using petrol):
@Scrambler, flippin' right I've no love of MSR stoves. Everytime you take something apart/put together, you risk losing parts,you're all but chained to the mast to using their fuel bottles and naught else. Let alone folding and unfolding the the stove and burner, The 502, is a solid workhorse, reliable as a good dog. I can use the burner dish as a preheat and run kero/paraffin in it, I'm not tied to one fuel. Decent fuel capacity in this fount, added a few things to mine, the lantern safe on the bottom for spare flints and such for the spark lighter, spare pump leather, and extra genny, attached a spark lighter to the burner bowl, and a fuel cap with a Schroeder valve, so I can pump it up with a bicycle pump if I'm a lazy sort. At 6 AM, I won't tolerate Type 2 reliable - It's Type 1 reliable, or sling your hook. I don't like "fiddly" when my ribs are rubbing together barking "Where's the grub, Bub?" It's two minutes to muster a decent flame, and another four to post the makings for a cuppa - we'll discuss eggs and bacon from there - or bangers and mash, your call. Murph
In defence of MSRs... MSR stands for Mountain Safety Research, and I think the stove was one of their first products - directly aimed at dealing with medical issues in the high mountains. They realized the need for a lightweight stove that could put out bucketloads of heat for long periods of time to melt snow. Just that - melt tons of snow to get enough water to keep hydrated and stave off altitude sickness. As neat as the small stoves like the Svea was/is, they come short on multiple counts - not enough heat, no windscreen to speak of, and too small of a fuel tank to melt a couple of gallons of water when you need it. Enter the MSR. Mates to a standard fuel bottle so you can burn for hours; has a really functional windscreen, and puts out enough BTUs to smelt pig iron. Quiet? HA! Simmering? Get serious... just melt this huge pile of snow, thank you, and be quick about it. With the success of their first series of stoves for expedition use, they turned their attention to the rest of us, and came out with the Firefly, which added a simmer valve to the main burner. The FF was my first stove, and I used it a ton for winter trips and mountain climbing. It was/is one of the first things out of the pack when setting up camp, and would literally run for hours getting enough water for everybody while lesser stoves did the actual cooking. I can't speak to their later offerings, or the other stoves folks have mentioned - the FF worked, so I stuck with it. Outside of a (probably unnecessary) pump swap sometime in the early 90's, I've had no issues.
Ive only got one MSR stove. A Dragonfly. Its great for those occasions where others sharing the hut party till 3 then you really want to get up and make a big batch of coffee and porridge at 5. Either that or not everyone else wanted to get up at 5. Its also the only liquid stove I have where you can boil a litre of water in 3 minutes then turn down till no bubbles appear on the bottom of the pan then simmer like that for 30 minutes or more. Unfortunately other people dont always like my chose of stove(especially at 5am) Result is I tended to use the Coleman 505B more despite weighing a lot more It also has a thermonuclear full blast and a reasonable simmer but at doesnt crow about its abilities. The hiking club I used to belong to had a preference for white gas stoves and if you used one on a trip to cook communal meals they replaced your fuel. When we move and changed clubs the new club had a phobia of white gas as apparently a few local huts burnt down due to cooking accidents. Everyone uses gas and cooks alone. Result is I now use a 69g gas cooker on a standard isobutane cartridge. Its close to a kilogram out of my pack. Those gas cartridges are available most places and if you are flying you leave it behind no drama and buy a new one when you get to the next place
