Originally Posted by
staehpj1
I rode and camped with a guy on the PCH for a while who had plywood panels bolted to his racks and really cheap backpacks bolted to the plywood. It seemed like just extra weight to me, but I guess it worked OK and it was an inexpensive solution.
When I did cheap backpack panniers, I used some very thin plywood, (scavenged from the "pallets and such we're not reusing" bin at the company I was working for at the time) and put it inside the packs. Less than a half pound each in added weight, and it worked well for carrying stuff to classes because the backpacks were already organized to keep pens, calculator, etc. readily available. I think I may even still have one or both in storage somewhere.
Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
More acronyms. I give up.
MOLLE/PALS is pretty familiar to plenty of outdoor enthusiasts due to both surplus equipment being readily available and a fair number of outdoor gear manufacturers using it for the same reasons the military does; it's a lot easier to produce a single modular system with several optional components than a long list of custom configurations. (Especially since the same guy may want 3-4 canteens for a long hot day, but one canteen and several extra mag pouches for a potentially dangerous escort the next day.)
ALICE is familiar to those of us who were buying surplus gear 20+ years ago. They're still available today, but the older, cheaper stuff tends to be uncomfortable compared to even low end modern gear.
Originally Posted by
fietsbob
Shouldn't you be working , rather than posting here? getting fired won't help your touring plans..
Already out of work for the moment; company moved all operations 150 miles away, and I can't afford to be that far from my kids. I was expecting it in about 6 more weeks, so not exactly unexpected, just sooner than I'd planned/budgeted for. For now, I'm looking for something temporary to get back on plan without the "need a week off after working there for 6-8 weeks" hassle. Plus I took a couple days before job hunting to get out and ride a bit. (In five years with the company, not counting jury duty, I'd taken a grand total of 8 days of leave, three of those for funerals and two sick days. All of them included frequent interruptions, and I even caught some flak for turning my phone off during one of the funerals because the constant texts were distracting. I was definitely overdue for a couple of "me" days, and a "me and my kids" day yesterday without interruption from them.)
Plus, check the post time stamps; I haven't worked graveyard shift in a long time.