tmac100

I cannot find an answer in archives so ...

I am getting my Greenspeed GTO ready for a cross-Australia trip next year and have heard of folks putting some gear under the seat - in addition to using the rack and panniers. Sounds good, as using a BOB trailer won't work on the GS GTO due to the SRAM internally-geared hub and it's shifting cable.

Does anyone have a link or pics showing such a "platform" or "box" for extra gear? I'd think plywood would work fine, but am open to ideas. Info on gear haulage with any trike would give me ideas for the GTO. Thanks in advance.

adamrice 

I'd be inclined to fabricate a flat pouch out of ripstop nylon and attach that using webbing and buckles to the seat frame. If you had a velcro opening on the side, it would still be pretty accessible.

tmac100

Engineers state that EVERY machine will fail - they just don't know when. The same is true of life..

That said. I don't want to trust "ripstop" or anything else hanging for 6+ weeks between Perth and Sydney. I shudder to think about the bag "disembowling" 75 km west of Border Village WA, or even 80 km east of Norseman..

Hence the idea of a "platform" or box..

Been there, done that. Hence, I await another answer ... Thank you for the suggestion and it would be useful in places where a "rip" can be repaired - but not on the Perth-Sydney trip. God only knows what would happen if a wheel gets tacoed in a collision - probably the end of the trip foir that year (June-August, 2011). Thanks again ... :-)

just4tehhalibut

I'd made up a bag to fit along the maintube, between that and the seat. This was primarily a battery compartment made out of folded aluminium sheet but with wings. On the driveside the chain passed unhindered under one wing, on the non-driveside a large pocket hung and this was zippered. Most of the goodies that I needed to reach for as I rode went there and it was positioned where the hand would fall naturally. Above the wings and battery compartment was basically a broad shelf and this was the larger compartment (also zippered), anything went here. I made the bag as a one piece designed to slip on or off the aluminium sheet. The top of the bag was contoured to fit under the seat taking as much room in the breadth as well as angle of the seat however I found that I had to leave a 1" gap from the sloping top of the bag to the underside of the seat as this otherwise interfered with air circulation; very noticable in the heat of a Perth summer!

I've used this bag for years, including trips down south to Margaret River, even had shown it to Ian Simms in Canberra. The only hassle is that every once in a while I'd have to check the two bidon-mount bolts on the maintube where I'd clamped the aluminium sheet to, these did work loose every few months or so. But well worth having.