Sleeping mat
What keeps you warm once you stop moving. The two items here work as a pair.
What a plan says about it
The planner writes this from the ride you describe, so there is no version of it that is true for everybody. Here it is worked against one ride, named below, with a single answer changed at a time to show what moves.
2 nights · wild camping · cold but not freezing (8 °C) · gravel and tracks · towns daily
Insulation from the ground, not padding. Even in mild weather the ground is colder than the air by morning.
On that ride the planner marks it essential.
Change one answer
The same requirement, reasoned again from a different answer. One answer moves at a time, so what each one adds is attributable to it and to nothing else.
- Night low · Below freezing
Below freezing means the ground is the thing that will take your heat, not the air. A three-season mat is not enough here, and no sleeping bag rating makes up for the mat underneath it.
- Night low · Near freezing
Near freezing — the ground takes more heat out of you than the air does. The mat's R-value matters more than the bag's rating at this point, and it is the mistake people make first.
The figure to hit
- The ride above
- R-value 2 or above
- Night low · Below freezing
- R-value 4.5 or above
- Night low · Near freezing
- R-value 3 or above
Ways to satisfy it
One object doing one job, so this is a choice between them rather than a shopping list. Every one carries what it costs you as well as what it gets you.
Inflatable
The most warmth and comfort for the packed size, by a distance.
but A puncture ends it. Carry the patch kit that came with it.
A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.
Find one ↗Closed-cell foam
Cannot fail. Straps outside the bags and costs little.
but Bulky, and both colder and harder than air for the same weight.
A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.
Find one ↗Self-inflating
Tougher than a pure air mat and simpler to set up.
but Heavier than either for the warmth it gives.
A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.
Find one ↗
Where to look
We hold measured dimensions for bags and for nothing else, so this hands the requirement to a search rather than picking something for you. Nothing on this page has a price, a weight or a maker attached to it, because none of those were measured.
A plain web search. We earn nothing from it.
Search for Sleeping mat ↗Which one do I need?
That depends on the ride, and this page does not know it. The interview does, and it is the only thing here that can answer the question — no account, and every line it gives you names the answer that produced it.