thumpism 

@dgodave suggested this when such things began appearing in a different thread. I'll have to go find some of my pix but here goes:

*later*

I said I had to go find my pix. You folks need to have a little more trust and patience, and you can add your own damn pix, too, you know. Here's one of my massive pix I recall having, but more may turn up.

I spotted this one in front of the old Nova Cycles location on King Street in Arlington VA. Did not speak with the rider. I suspect this rider was not "touring" so much as "homelessing" but no such distinction is made for the thread so show what you got, the bigger the better.

indyfabz

Thread useless without pics.

I wished I had snapped a shot of a guy I came across in Jackson, MT back in 2016. He was loaded down. The crown jewel was the case of ramen noddle packs he had bungeed haphazardly on top of everything else on his rear rack. The crazy thing is that he and his friend were following ACA's TransAm route in an area where plenty of grocery sources en route for the foreseeable future.

Tourist in MSN

I especially like the photo of the polar bear in a blizzard.

thumpism 

You should have seen the rig that bear had but the weather made it tough for pix.

thumpism 

Saw this guy a year or so ago heading south on U.S. 301 in town, on his way to Florida according to the sign on his back. Not as massive as some but certainly not recommended, and not the setup I'd want for another thousand or so miles of riding.




Wish I'd gotten a pic in Colorado years ago when I saw two riders heading up the western approach to the Monarch Pass (about 11,000' elevation at the top) on U.S. 50 with large backpacks on. Backpack bicyclists be crazy.

dgodave

Excellent. I like this topic but have nothing of my own to share.

Bring on the massive rigs, people!

Dan Burkhart 

Uh, OK. My last day at work before retiring in 2015. Drove this unit from Montreal to Toronto and then hung up the keys for good.
130ft long and about 130,000 lb. Massive enough?
Nobody said it had to involve bikes.
Just glad I didn't have to move it by leg power.

saddlesores

do scooters count?

alan s 

thumpism 

I was thinking bikes and I presume @dgodave was also, this being a bike site and all.

dgodave

Yeah. Cyclists touring with tons of stuff.

DrIsotope

Guy came into the LBS last time I was in there (eating a donut, natch) and he was on a cross-country tour, had started in Utah over a month before-- which is in itself inexplicable, as this is the wrong way, and summer is almost over, but anyway.

He had no front rack, no panniers in the back. What he did have was a series of bags haphazardly lashed together, and a sorta-fitting rear rack keeping the whole affair from falling into the rear tire. There was a full-size sleeping bag and a 2-man tent in there. Easily 50lbs of stuff on that bike.

So even as a non-tourer I can ID an overloaded bike, but that wasn't the unsettling part. No, it was that he had no real route-- not even a rough one-- and no timetable of any kind. He was just kinda indirectly "heading east."

Also, didn't really do any homework, because he mentioned he was going to camp in a park in Fontana that night, and there's about a 70% chance he would have gotten killed in his sleep, so there's that. I get the allure of touring, but not the notion of "100% winging it."

Tourist in MSN

I was thinking mine haulage trucks would score the heaviest load on wheels (excluding rail), but your link was much bigger and heavier.

I assume that the vehicle that NASA used to move space shuttles to the launch pad did not count, that was tracked instead of wheels. And the big drag lines used in western coal mines are not on wheels either. They have feet on an eccentric.

My bike in the photo uses much smaller tires than the mine haulage truck behind it. That truck had a rated capacity of only 350 tons.

Happy Feet

I saw these guys in Victoria this summer:

dgodave

Nice pic, Mr Yellow Panniers.

But to rate in this thread you'll need to add a canoe and possibly an upright piano.

DrIsotope

The more I look at those pics from outside the Burger King, the more amazing they get. I can't stop looking at the bar angle on the closest bike in the 1st pic.

And the fact that the guys with trailers are still absolutely loaded down. That is... a lot of stuff.

DanBell

Biggest set up I've seen personally was a Swiss guy going north that I met in Baja. All Ortlieb, Surly racks front and back on a disc trucker. He had back rollers both front and back (which I've seen a couple times since then), but he had the Ortlieb rack top duffle bag on both the back and the front as well. And of course the Ortlieb handlebar bag to round out the package. But according to him he had been on the road for five years and had cycled north across Africa with that set up, so who am I to judge? I didn't get a picture, unfortunately.

I have been following a Japanese guy's blog through South America. Interesting dude, he fell in love with the look of a classic tourer sometime when he was younger. I'm not sure if his bike is custom but he had his panniers made to order to get the look he wanted. Anyway, he carries a spare everything, and his bike looks like Howl's moving castle.

saddlesores

6 mos NZ, 1 year OZ...

boomhauer

That's probably enough to furnish a Japanese apartment right there!

thumpism 

Those front and rear lowriders are a distinctly Japanese thing. I first saw them in Europe in '74 and found the setup very interesting. Blackburn came out with his lowriders some time after that and evidently researched all possible bag configurations to wind up suggesting front low/rear high as the most stable pannier setup.

I can see panniers + trailer if traveling with a pet or a child, but not to support just the rider. Even little ol' overloaded me can do without that much stuff.

I particularly like what appears to be a built-in carrying handle above the bottom bracket.​​​​​​​ I've needed something like that at times.

dgodave

I was wondering what that thing is. Looks like part of the frame.

(This thread is turning out great!)

DanBell

Agreed!

indyfabz

Sparwood, B.C. Largest truck ever built. Stayed there back in 2009. Liked the municipal campground on the edge of town. At home I have some photos of my 5' tall ex-gf sitting in the wheel.

indyfabz

Yes. Campee racks by Nitto, if I am not mistaken. They actually put the panniers a bit higher than lowriders. I have the modern versions sold by Rivendell under the name Nitto Big front and rear.

thumpism 

Here's a shot of our shakedown ride on the Cap Trail before our TransAm attempt a couple of years ago. I had 52 pounds on my bike and was accused of being massive by folks on this forum but there's not much I'd have wanted to leave behind.


After Jeff's pannier debacle and our relaunch I borrowed a friend's B.O.B. instead and carried the same weight in that. I rated the two different configurations in my "Map 12" thread in Touring. I will admit that 52 pounds is 52 pounds, no matter what you tell yourself.