Here’s my review on the Czech Bed Roll. Mine was an un-issued one.
Dimensions rolled out:
– 195 cm long x 70 cm wide
Dimensions packed:
– 70 cm long x 30 cm wide x 15 cm high
Materials:
– Bivy bag, waterproof bottom, water repellent nylon top
– Blanket, some people claim it’s wool, I think it is a mixture. Not sure about this
– Hygienic liner from linen
Weight:
– 3.2 kg
So what is this all about ?
This is what you get when you buy it, all rolled up.
With a simple but effective strap you put it together. The other to side straps on the above picture, no idea what it was for.
When rolled up in the ‘head’ section, you can use these 2 buttons to keep it together as well as using the strap.
Rolled out and closed.
The zipper doesn’t feel comfortable and gives a weak / old feeling, but till so far, it is working fine for me.
The way it is all put together is quite smart, so far i never got anything between the zipper as it sometimes happens with a jacket or sleeping bag for example.
Opened up.
On the zipper side is a think sturdy edge to prevent any draft or rain coming through the zipper.
The linen liner can be buttoned up to the blanket to prevent it from separating while sleeping.
And then you can button it up to the bivy bag, something i only found out after owning / using this bedroll for half a year 🙂
This is a great feature as it prevents it from moving around and getting cold feet.
The bivy bag is made from sturdy materials, the bottom is fully waterproof, the top is from nylon and named as water repellent.
However, after using it many times, I can say with big confidence that it is waterproof as well.
The ‘head’ section you can stuff with leaves or clothes to have a pillow, or use the second zipper to close it all.
The review:
At the moment of writing this, I have this bag over a year now, and used it on a few simple day hikes, many times to some competitions where we would sleep inside the gym hall, and about 17x in the garden. Lowest temperatures where + 2 celcius.
Never I was cold, always very comfortable. In the gym hall it was too warm and I used only the linen liner to cover me., and the bag zipped open.
A good tip is to button everything up at home before you go. When you arrive at your destination / campsite, all you need to do is open the 2 buttons and strap, and roll it out, stuff the ‘pillow’ and you are good to go.
The materials are strong, and after 1 year of use as mentioned above, I can not see any usage marks on it.
And for the price of just a few Euro’s, you can’t go wrong.
Only real dis-advantage is the weight.
Trying to reduce it, I replaced the original hygienic liner with a silk one, which is much smaller and lighter.
The original one weighs 920 grams.
The silk one weighs 120 grams.
Here is how it looks like together, saving 800 gram.
I like the set, and for road trips by car or bike it’s simply perfect.
Best period of the year would be spring and autumn.
Perhaps with an additional wool blanket it will be fine in winter to, depending what kind of winter it is 🙂
