Folding Bikes - Folding bikes, inflatable kayaks

Took a great ride this weekend. Three Swift folders and three inflatable kayaks, up the Herbert River trail to the Herbert Glacier, across the glacial moraine to the river and down the river to the beach at saltwater. Back to the car by Swift and a quick repack before heading home. About five hours total, lining two minor sections of river we didn’t want to risk running with the bikes on the bow. Bikes and boats performed flawlessly.

The next morning we were fortunate to be offered a helicopter flight, which landed on the glacier, so we experienced the Herbert from the source to the sea. It was altogether an awesome trip.

Nice, it's on my wishlist. :thumb:

Wow.

Whoa, two of my own favorite things, IK's and Swift folding bikes, tho I never thought of combining them like that! What are those boats, Sevylor Tahitis?

Awesome! Portable transportation on water and ground. Combine that with skydiving, and you have conquered the elements. Inspirational pics too :)

I've been trying to get one of my many American bands to bring me a cayak back from USA as they are much cheaper there.
I want to bungy strap an axle with small wheels onto it & tow it as a trailer to the nearest canal, then fold my bike and take it with me. On return to my bus, fold bike, deflate cayak & stash in my small lockers.

I have to say that the Swift is probably not the most suitable for this as it's ungainly fold means it has to be stowed too high. I am sure it would work better with my folders.

Looked a fantastic trip! Congrats! :thumb:

Bop, you beat me to it, I've been scheming to do that for a while!

How did you strap the kayaks to the bike for the ride back to the car?

How long does one of those bigboys take to inflate?

How long does one of those bigboys take to inflate?

Mine came with a foot pump, and it only took a few minutes, less than ten anyway, to pump it up. Very little effort.

Awesome! Portable transportation on water and ground. Combine that with skydiving, and you have conquered the elements. Inspirational pics too :)

And when the bikes fall overboard, you could immerse yourself in another element while trying to fish them out.

EEK!!

What a bummer that would be.

Yep, look like Sevylor Tahitis. Have you ever seen this guys setup?

http://www.geocities.com/amfoldarover/red_rover.html

Yep, look like Sevylor Tahitis. Have you ever seen this guys setup?


No, hadn't seen it. That is really cool!

Yep, look like Sevylor Tahitis. Have you ever seen this guys setup?

http://www.geocities.com/amfoldarover/red_rover.html

Nice! Innova kayaks are some of the best inflatables around!

The trip looks like it was a great adventure. Thanks for posting your pictures for us all to see.

We have both Folders and Tahiti Kayaks - and a Zodiac Mark II, also - but we've never thought about combining them. We do take our bikes with us when traveling and camping with our folding Aframe trailer.


(Below: Newport Beach, CA 3/08 - right next to the Back Bay Loop bike path)

What no bicycle riding on the glacier allowed? ;) That would be a trick...

Wow, that's a pretty cool trip--thanks for sharing! I'm an avid ocean kayaker myself (I ride an Ocean Kayak Prowler 13) but I've never had the opportunity to mix biking and kayaking. I might have to look into one of those inflatables.

Took a great ride this weekend. Three Swift folders and three inflatable kayaks, up the Herbert River trail to the Herbert Glacier, across the glacial moraine to the river and down the river to the beach at saltwater. Back to the car by Swift and a quick repack before heading home. About five hours total, lining two minor sections of river we didn’t want to risk running with the bikes on the bow. Bikes and boats performed flawlessly.

The next morning we were fortunate to be offered a helicopter flight, which landed on the glacier, so we experienced the Herbert from the source to the sea. It was altogether an awesome trip.

Very nice.. How do you keep the sharp points on the bicycle from puncturing the kayaks? How heavy was that Hayak and are you running a single speed?

Very nice.. How do you keep the sharp points on the bicycle from puncturing the kayaks? How heavy was that Hayak and are you running a single speed?

With the drive side up, there are no sharp points. The cranks were aligned such that the pedal fell in the center of the opening, suspended above the floor. The Tahiti kayaks are right about 25 pounds, the bikes about the same. We just tied them on with mid-sized line, using truckers' hitch knots so we could tighten or remove them quickly. Nobody's came loose, even in the rough sections. There was no discernible negative effect on kayak handling.
My Swift is a single speed. One of the others has a Redline 8 speed. The third has a SRAM dual-drive.

...or if you don't have an inflatable...

http://www.bikefriday.com/gallery?imageId=2011

I too would like to be able to carry a watercraft of some description along with my bike.

It seems as with bicycles, low weight is hard & or expensive to achieve, although the Geocities link is interesting, thanks. 25 lbs isn't much heavier than my bike.

Like Chop!, canals are the our interest as we're not too far from quite a long one.

I've found a few links to bike mod's to convert bikes for watergoing, & I'd be interested to see more, if any of you have any pointers.

These water bikes shown in the attached pic's are from a brochure several years old, but I've never actually seen one.

Bop, do you have any more pic's highlighting the bikes in the craft please?

Alpacka rafts are 4-5 lbs, but are pricey, squirrely on flat water and would need a skeg added.

Your excellent story reminds me of my own efforts to do this long ago. In 1988 I bought a Moulton ATB with the plan of using it with my Feathercraft folding kayak.

The dream was squashed by an 84 year old driver hitting me head on and destroying the Moulton and leaving me with a greatly reduced number of knee parts.

The AlPacka rafts also look like an interesting option with a low weight factor. Anyone tried one with a bike- folding or otherwise?

Salt water spray can't be doing the bikes any good, though. I'd think about tarping them.

When I lived back east I was into infalatable kayaking (IK's). I started with the Sevylor and then got the Sea Eagle Explorer 380SX. No bike, but what I used to do was backpack the boat - pack it into a big ol frame pack with a tump line and hike in through the woods and over the hills to nice lakes. I also kayaked on Long Island Sound, South Bay, off Brooklyn and Long Island, rivers, lakes, and ponds. I love it, it and canoing.

As for pumps, best investment is a good foot pump. I had a German model.

The new inflatables are better - but quite expensive.

Alpacka rafts are 4-5 lbs, but are pricey, squirrely on flat water and would need a skeg added.

That weight's more like it, thanks for the link :-)

See what you mean about "pricey"!

Looks like I can't get away from folding bike steering, even on water ;-)

Any pictures you know of with a skeg added please?

arctos,
sorry to read about your experience there. Can you still cycle pretty much ok?

cyclistjohn, nobody I know of has added a skeg. It would be a mod, but not a hard one if it's done like the innova boats.

http://www.alpackaraft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=73

bikerafting thread

cyclistjohn, nobody I know of has added a skeg. It would be a mod, but not a hard one if it's done like the innova boats.

Ah, I see. Thanks for that BikeLite, & for the forum link.

Bop, do you have any more pic's highlighting the bikes in the craft please?

Not really. We didn't take many photos. If you are familiar with the Swift's fold, you can imagine simply laying it on its side, chain-side up, top bar and handlebars toward the bow and wheels toward the paddler. The Sevylors have a small triangular spraydeck which gave us a flat surface to work with. With the crank arms at 6 and 12 o'clock, the pedal pointed down in the open area between the sides. We just tied the bikes on and had no problems. As far as saltwater getting on the bikes, there was none to speak of. The boundary between the glacier water and the underlying saltwater is at about 6' to 8' of depth, so what little splashing there was, it was all fresh water, even in the tidal zone where we took out.

This was a pretty casual affair, dreamed up the day before. Certainly if one was going to do this weekly, a higher grade of boat might be in order, as would a more reliable mounting system. But in defense of the Sevylors, I have used these boats on several Alaskan and Yukon rivers, surfed launched them in Mexico and Costa Rica and generally messed around in them for going on two decades. For the money, they are hard to beat.