backO'pack

I have several ideas for how to carry extra wheels on my rigid MTB- curious if anyone has any input.

1. mount a junked fork to the rear rack

2. strap it parallel to rear wheel on rack

3. slanted 45degrees over the back rack/ wheel, secured to a fenderish type arm bracket..?


I have heard that in the old days when people would actually ride their bikes to the races, they had some mounts- I tried searching but cant find any pics..

the closest pic I have is the back of the Mavic neutral support vehicles https://www.bicyclefrenzy.com/wp-cont...motorcycle.jpg

woo!

[first post!]

Bacciagalupe

Uh. I don't see how lugging and then swapping an entire wheel ends up as "less work" than swapping tires.

Besides, if you only need to ride on pavement for 15-30 miles, you could either use cross tires or just use the knobby tires on pavement.

backO'pack

well, I like to train hard and hate mounting tires when not neccessary

besides, say I buy some wheels off craigslist: it would be nice to have a way to bring em back on the back (no car!)

Machka 

Which forum did you mean to put this post into? Did you mean it for the mtn bike forum? Or utility forum?

But if you mean that you're going to ride 15 miles to a trail, do a tour along the trail for a weekend or more, and then ride 15 miles back home ... why not just use the knobby tires you plan to use on the trail?

Metzinger

BackO'pack likely put it in Touring because he was hoping for some ingenious and helpful cargo hauling ideas.
But he won't get one from me.
My nearest dirt trails are also far away. I end up riding a long way on pathway and road to access them.
I'd say semi-slick MTB tires and a pump, to reinflate the tires after the dirt section, would be ideal.

backO'pack

it should perhaps be under cargo- I figured somebody in the 6.5x10^9 people out there must have gone touring with some spare wheels and had a clever way to do it

sure I can ride slow tires on the road- but thats not as fun as some good ol' 650cx23 gatorskins, eh?

Its more of a tow-truck idea- Im also working on a side project attaching (MIG?) a front hub to the rear rack {blackburn 3 support), in case I want to just tow a bike via QR as a hitch to the fork of bike #2-- just to give a clearer/ parallel idea of what the real goal is

Machka 

Generally speaking ... although not always ... cycletourists try to travel as lightly as possible. Mainly because it's a pain to haul too much around with us.

Metzinger

Maybe Alt Bike Culture.
Those guys are always looking for difficult ways of doing things.
Like this guy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bikeportland/3953408419/

backO'pack

Everyones got their method- I fall on the side of preparing for near-certain apocalypse
traveling light sounds more like credit card touring to me- and when you arent in a rush and have a 24x34 gear to spin just about anything here

I need to get a picture of my old fuji touring series: high& lowrider front rack, plus rear, handlebar bag, seatbag- not to mention I carry it up 3 flights of stairs to my apartment while commuting w/ books and food stuffed in the panniers- makes cx seem easy, plus switching bikes makes the other feel like a rocket ship

backO'pack

metz, you the man- how you find that goodie?

TheBrick

https://bikeportland.org/photos/photo...-wheels-6.html

Metzinger

I did this.

backO'pack

ah, the ol' LMGTFY trick- I aint biting that hooked bait

aggri1

I just strap them on to the rear rack somehow, vertically oriented. I do this for carrying home thrown-out wheels I find on the side of the road. Sometimes they're still perfectly useful. I wouldn't ride all that far with them attached the way I did (I found them when I already had the panniers with me - the panniers weren't too impressed).

Eh, have fun.

Cheers, A.

stevage

> It seems like just changing the tires would be too much work.

Oh, dude, we have such different definitions of "work". If you leave spare tubes in the tyres, they take no time at all to swap. (Checks...no, you didn't say tubular).

I once had to carry a spare wheel about 2km to the LBS. Ugh. Messed around with bungee cords a lot...guess I would have figured out something eventually. Strapped it parallel to the rear wheel, hanging off rack.

bladeswitcher

One word: trailer.

Bacciagalupe

So then, like I said, either use cross or knobby tires. Your training isn't going to change because of the tire type.

Adding the weight of two spare wheels won't impact your performance, but it will very likely degrade handling and, especially if attached to the front, will increase drag. So you might as well go for a tire that is good for the trails and acceptable for the road.

Not to mention whatever time you'd save by using the slicker tires will be lost, and then some, in the wheel swaps.

Why do something complicated and time-consuming, when a simple solution will do the job?

mev

For the original poster it is more trouble than it is worth.

I did carry a spare rear wheel across much of my trip across Canada. A second wouldn't be too difficult.

zoltani

Most ******** idea ever. Be a man and ride the knobbies the 15 freaking miles!

backO'pack

please- no more suggestions on "just ride the knobs"- that is not the point

simply: how does one carry extra wheels on a bicycle? 'nuf said

john bono

The only way practical way to do it is to buy build a trailer that uses the same wheels as the bike. A guy touring the outback on a surly pugsly adapted an extrawheel trailer to use a pugsley wheel. Since pugsleys use the same hub spacing both on the front and rear wheels, he was able to swap his both his front and rear wheels with the trailer, so he had very fault tolerant ride.

In your case, with a mtb, I would build a two wheel trailer with a rear spaced hub on one side, and front spaced on the other. carry your gear in the trailer, and in the event of a spoke breakage, swap the wheel with the busted spoke for one on the trailer.

bladeswitcher

How did you decide which one to carry? It would have been a drag to trash your front wheel and you brought a rear . . .

njkayaker

Obviously, not, because you should be carrying a complete backup bicycle!

"Traveling light" doesn't mean "credit card" touring.

==================

Anyway, if the dude wants to carry some extra wheels, who cares?

Carrying extra wheels would be overkill for most touring but he's not talking about that.

There are MTB tires that work better on the road than some others.

backO'pack

I am working on the towbike!

I need to find my camera to show the rig I whipped up at 4am-- its basically a fork laid horizontal extending off the rear rack- one QR secures to each fork dropout (like those mtb monoblade forks)

seems the rear would keep handling pretty normal

I like the pugsley-esque extra wheel trailer idea, but not quite what I want

AsanaCycles

Big Dummy