Originally Posted by Uncle Dave
Thanks everyone for your responses. I've checked out all the websites and will be continuing to gather info over the next few months before my trip.
Me: 68kg (149.6 pounds) - although it was a good x-mas :-) Hopefully I'll be under 65kg (143 pounds before I leave)
Bike: 18kg (39.6 pounds)
Load I carried on my last trip was 37kg (81.4 pounds)
However, I only had about 10 litres of water. My next trip, I'll probably need another 10 as there'll be a stretch of about 350km (217.5 miles) on corrugated dirt roads with no water supplies.
The trip will be along the
Tanami Track which is about 1050km (652 miles) of mostly corrugated dirt road.
The bike is a Mongoose mountain bike.
A couple more questions which I hope aren't too silly...Is using a trailer with either front or back panniers an option? (I imagine a trailer with both front and rear would be overkill?) Which would it be better to use a trailer with; front or rear?
Thanks again,
Dave
PS: How do I upload an image of my bike from my computer?
For photos you can use photobucket.com
That's quite a load, He-Man. If you go with the Bob trailer, neither the unsuspended nor suspended version (IBEX) is rated for more than 70 pounds. I don't know how that is evaluated, but if you want to follow their rules, then you will need racks. I've used a trailer and rear racks before, but that's because I had rear ones - there was no physics problem I solved or anything. But if you are loading 80-100 pounds total, it sounds like you will need to use something additional, or another trailer I'm unfamiliar with. The Burley 2 wheel trailers can carry that weight, but 2 wheel trailers are much better on the road than the trail, especially sandy and rocky terrain.
I don't know anything about Mongoose mountain bikes. I may be wrong, but when I think "Mongoose" is terms of current production, I think: cheap Chinese frames with crappy and unreliable parts. Maybe yours is different?