Touring - Help me make my Prophet a tour bike!

I purchased a Cannondale Prophet 1000 because I wanted a go anywhere type of bike. Since the bike is a dual suspension bike, it's far more difficult to make it into a touring bike. I'm very determined to tour offroad with this bike.

I've already started by getting a Brooks B17 saddle for comfort, and will probably add a seat cover for added comfort/protection of my saddle.

My next change is going to be to get platform pedals since I prefer those, and plan to go through mud, snow, rain, and whatever else gets in my way (any advice would be appreciated--the larger the pedal the better).

The real challange is if I should just give up and do the typical thing and get a trailer like any other dual suspension tourer would. I'd really like to see what alternatives there are. Are there rear bike racks that would offer a high capacity? The best I've seen is 25 pounds and that isn't going to cut it. Can I mount a front rack with my lefty fork?

I have a feeling there aren't going to be many options/suggestions, but I have a very opened mind, and I know I'm probably posting in just about the best place possible to get my questions answered.

I'm going to be biking in Colorado, and plan to go in snow, rain, sleet, etc. while biking offroad. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You really picked the wrong bike for off road touring. But if you're going to be stubborn about it, then yes, a trailer is really the best option. The Bob trailer with suspension would be the logical choice. It would make a lot more sense to use a hardtail mountain bike with a conventional front fork. Old Man Mountain makes a rack that will work with "normal" suspension forks but I will go out on a limb and say without any doubt at all that nobody anywhere makes a front rack for the Lefty. If I were going to tour back country Colorado (the area around Crested Butte and Aspen would be awesome for this) I would build a hardtail with Xtracycle conversion that had super tough wheels. The only positive that I can see with using the Prophet is that if you really like the bike, then once you set up camp you can unhook the trailer and go hit the trails as if you transported your bike by car.

As far as platform pedals go, any good quality BMX pedals will do the trick. Just make sure you get the right spindle size (9/16") since they come in 2 different sizes. If you want high-end platforms, check out the Crank Brothers 5050 - they look really sweet. But a pair of DMRs or Diamondbacks for $20 will do the job.

Get a trailer, BMX petals, good camping gear----- and hit the road!

Your C'dale will be fine, so stop worrying and start touring.

I use a Mt bike for touring,tho it's a hardtail...A B.O.B. trailer is the only way to go,The Ibex is the one you want (I have the yak). Up the large chainring a couple of teeth for road use (44 is a bit small,try 46-48) What wheels do you have? if you are gonna pull a BOB on the trails you are gonna beat the rear wheel hard...I use a set of Bombshell Crushers (48 spoke) and not a problem so far.The WTB Dual Dutys that I had kept breaking rear spokes.Tires...I use 2.25 x 26 Beach cruiser tires,Thick rubber,a bit of grip,as good as most about flats,take me anywhere I wanna go! (No 4 foot drops for this hippie!)I rode this setup from Boston to Kansas last year and other than a couple of flats (nothing stops a 16 penny nail) not a problem...The thin tire and lycra crowd thought i was crazy,but ask some of them to hual 100 Lbs. of stuff on a road trip and they ask "where is the van" !

For offroad touring and trailer you may also want to look at the extrawheel trailer.

http://www.extrawheel.com/index_en.php

They have some videos on there of the thing doing offroad.. seems alrightish... There was also a fellow who selected it to do an offroad tour through some pretty rough parts of Australia.

http://wildworks.co.nz/csr/route.php

I thought about ordering one a year or so ago. Not a bad price either.

this thread makes me dizzy. please dont do this. if you are gonna convert something, in the long run itd be better to do an older trek or something (with front suspension if need be) but please dont touch that prophet, i think you may regret it. id sure as hell miss it.

like this one,

http://cgi.ebay.com/Trek-830-Mountain-Bike_W0QQitemZ190064484656QQihZ009QQcategoryZ98083QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

this thread makes me dizzy. please dont do this. if you are gonna convert something, in the long run itd be better to do an older trek or something (with front suspension if need be) but please dont touch that prophet, i think you may regret it. id sure as hell miss it.

Why would it be so bad to convert my Prophet? I don't plan to do anything drastic with it.

So it looks like I'd have to get a trailer. That shouldn't be so bad. I'll go with the Ibex as that seems to be the most popular and highly regarded for mountain biking.

With respect to the tires, I am currently using the standard tires that came with the bike. Will that do?