muse kidd

Nice job. That decaleur is an unusual bit of kit and makes a big improvement over the factory mount for the Ortlieb handlebar bag. (I've never cared for how high they sit.) I appreciate a little custom modification on a bike... gives the bike character, as well as insight into the rider!. Thanks for the reply and photo. Cheers!

Miele Man

I don't think that I've posted these images here yet.

This is my old BIANCHI MTB back in the 1980s on a two weeks long trip on logging/mining roads near Matachewan, Ontario, Canada. Total load including food was forty pounds. I carried a Coleman Naphtha fueled single-burner stove and a small Coleman Naphtha fueled lantern. The stove fit inside my two cooking pots one of which worked as a top for the stove when stored. A section of blue sleeping pad foam was placed around the inside of the opts and the stove rested in that and was well protected. Fuel was carried in alloy bottles that were kept in the rear pockets of the rear panniers when the fuel wasn't needed.



This is the a GOOD surface section of a road. LOL


Cheers

Miele Man

is that an extremely tall stem? How much of it is inside the steerer tube?

I tried a swan stem like that on a drop-bar Bianchi MTB that I was using to tour logging/mining roads in Northern Ontario, Canada but found that the flex in the tall stem made control of the loaded bike quite difficult at any fast speed on those unpaved roads. I'm glad that the setup is working for you.

Cheers

Charles Lathe

That is a Nitto Pearl stem. There is a mark on the stem and everything below that should be buried in the steerer tube. Nitto makes stems that are much taller than the Pearl. Anyway I am very happy with the bike and have been for more than thirteen years.

str

Imaginos

Full mock-up with new bike.Ready to go for a night or two if I can get reasonable weather.

fks

Roughest dirt road I have ever cycled

djb

that's quite a cool setup, rohlof and extracycle. Carrying a crapload of extra water and food and backup stuff for the situation. How wide are those tires-2.3- Smart Sams, Moto-X ? The widest Ive ridden on a "regular" bike is 2.5inches, but have a fatbike with 3.5-4in tires and ride on a lot of really soft rand ough surfaces with that, which is a really neat experience. I can really see how using a fatbike, or at least starting in the 3" range + would open up where you ride on without being killed by jolts--but you're always going to be slower.

On rough roads, if you tend to have any hand issues that those or wider tires can't help with, have you ever considered using bars like Jones bars or whatever that have a sweeping back angle? I sometimes ride on a set of Jones riser H bars and really find them to work pretty darn well on rough stuff, the wider stance is useful in slow sloggy situations, the angle back really agress with my wrists, and being able to move my hands all over the place gives a surprisingly good set of options for hand/back/neck change ups, and also for headwinds.

anyway, cool setup. Ive never done such remote touring, but it looks like you have a good setup for the conditions.
what frame is that?
cheers

fks

Hi DJB
The Frame is a custom frame from BOBO Cycles, Tyres are Schwalbe Marathon 26 x 2.125, I have tried the Jones Bars,(had them on the bike for 2 years) but they were not for me. I have Ergon Grips on the bars and they were excellent for wrist support as are the bar-ends, old school I know but it works for me., I was carrying about 20 litres of water in the photo, most of it in the extrawheel along with 4 days of food.

djb

oh, I thought they look wider than 2.1's. I've not toured on the Jones bars yet, but I can see how a slightly less angle than their 45 or whatever they are could be good too. If you tried them for 2 years, heck thats ample of a tryout. I too have some ergon grips like yours, with bar ends, have them on my winter bike, and like them--but then again, I rode with old school bar ends going back 20 years or so and really like the hand position change they give.
wow, 20 litres, that's nothing to sneeze at, 20kgs extra.
Don't know how wide tires your Bobo can take, but wider can certainly be better for some conditions, and fatbikes are a real larf to ride. It still makes me laugh at what I can ride over sometimes, but mostly use it on snow in our Canadian winter.
cheers

M1T

SOMA Saga DC. DC stands for Disc or Cantilever brakes. I have cantilever up front, and disc in the back mainly due to the fact I already owned the non-disc version of a SON hub generator wheel. The cantilever seem like they're more for looks than for stopping though.

M1T

Bike Packing rig... Pivot Les Fat (Les as in Less, one of the designers, vs. "Lay" / french pronunciation). This is one versatile

bike. Light enough without all the extras needed for touring to be a mountain bike. Very nimble, but over built for touring where it needs to be.

M1T

Adding... the seat post is one of the neat / positive buys for this rig... Kinekt is a spring loaded seat post that actually does work. It takes a couple little adjustments to dial it in for your weight, etc., but it takes most of the vibration and small bumps out of the picture. I want to say it was from the makers / inventors of the Al-Soft (spelling is likely off) bike. Anyway, it works and I don't notice the slight amount of extra weight (I did notice the not-so-slight cost!).

mstateglfr 

What brand/model is your front rack? And bag too.

thanks

str

The bag is from Cordel Cycling in Madrid. 33cm wide, 23cm height. (its not the bag you see in the rack picture) https://www.cordelcycling.com


The rack is titanium and done by Wheeldan Berlin, https://www.wheeldan.de/fahraeder

djb

is it custom made, as the angle of the rod with the threaded part that goes into the fork crown would be different for different bikes no?

beautiful rack though, I'm sure it isnt cheap.

str

yes, it was made for this bike, but I don't remember now why ) also I don't remember why we added the threads on the fork arms. maybe I found out about the advantages of only front load use.
compared to the today costs of a Nitto M18 the custom work was not so expensive ) 250€. today I guess it would be double? the bike was more like a road touring bike.

djb

Thanks.
I'm sure you appreciate these lower gearing of the other bike.

fdimike

Here'a photo of my loaded Surly on a recent 3 week trip around NE Thailand.

fdimike

WE covered about 850kms during those 3 weeks. Great cycling!!

str

M1T

A friend of mine from Cambridge, UK pulled up stakes and moved to Thailand 5 or so years ago. He does a lot of brevets (think thats the correct term) and cycles all over SE Asia. Before he moved there permanently, he flew from the UK to Hanoi, bought a cheap Schwinn bike on the street, fixed some panniers to it somehow (wasn't a touring bike per se) and rode to Malaysia, solo. Geoff Jones (late 60's now) if you ever run across a Brit on some quiet backroad... He loves it there and I doubt he's ever move back.

afrowheels

In Colombia:

Tourist in MSN

From the photo I can't tell if you buckeled them the way Ortlieb suggests.

I owned my Backrollers and Rack Pack for a decade before I learned from that video that I had been doing it all wrong.

afrowheels

Thanks, yes I did: but only because I saw the video first. I am using the carrier strap for the duffle bag to help keep that in place, and added the bungee cord as an extra measure. The large saddle bag does require having the duffle a little further back than I would otherwise.