I've only done a couple of short trips so far, but I took my kids with me to train them up for future adventures. First bike is my Xtracycle, which is good for two kids and full camping gear- if you don't have to go too far in a single day. The second bike is my Giant TCX cross bike that I put a triple crank onto this summer. I've only toured on it with the tag-a-long attached so far, but I have some solo trips planned for the fall where I plan to go much further.

Here's one of my two touring setups... this is my Greenspeed GTO and Burley Nomad on RAGBRAI last week. I did 180 miles of RAGBRAI in three days, self-supported.

Here's my loaded rig (just back from a 5 day to Vancouver Island) the Bob trailer was excellent

great photo, i love it.

CoMo, ready to go. It all worked great, gear, bike, and Stoker.

I am wondering about the position of the back rider's head in relation to the front rider's spine, if they have their hands at the end of those bars.... does it work?

z

I have been touring around the last year just using a large Saddle Bag and a front basket. I am getting ready to do a major tour across Asia that will last several months so I upgraded to full panniers and a handlebar bag from Carradice. So far I am really impressed. I am going on my second tour across South Korea in a week and will write a full, detailed review when I get back.

These picture are from a shake down ride around Seoul the day I got the bags. Took a while to get them adjusted right but they were very secure for the ride and full of all of my actual camping gear. I have so much extra capacity I dont even know what to do with it! I will have to resist the urge to pack it to the brim now that I have that option.

That's a sweet looking ride! What model Co-Mo is it, Primera maybe?

Hi zeppinger, nice set up you have there. I love the understated earthy colour of your ride and stuffs...
Do you consider using dynamo hub? That will be perfect (at least for me)

Yes, works fine. When we want to tuck and coast, she rests her helmet on my back, which is no bother at all. CoMo's have a comparatively large stoker compartment.

I would consider it if it also charged my Ipod, AAA batteries, AA batteries, cell phone, and maybe other electronics I might consider bringing. For me, I like to keep stuff simple. Rechargeable batteries work great and are much cheaper than a dyno hub. I even made sure that my camera ran on 4 AAA batteries. If I brought extra batteries I could run my lights during the day all I wanted but I usually don't. It also ensure I always have extra batteries for my camping lights and such.

If there were a dyno that could be made to charge just about any gadget or battery then I would consider it depending on price and effectiveness. Generally my power requirements a really low so why add friction to my entire ride when I can charge once a week at a hostel or convenience store? I don't like to ride at night on tour anyways so most of my electronics are pure luxury anyways.

Lago di Vico, Italy

1985 Panasonic Touring Deluxe ready for touring/commuting this fall!

@Zeppinger: you might want to try this:

The Plug

It'll charge anything you can charge by USB, and it fits inside of your steerer tube.

Pretty neat device! Still not really my cup-o-tea but thanks for the link.

Its too expensive, I would rather upgrade my wheel set or some other more important piece of gear. Maybe a new tent...

Are there any reviews of this product? I wonder how well it actually work? I know a lot of the bicycle solar chargers are pretty useless unless in an extreme emergency.

I consider all of my electronic devices to be luxuries and not necessities. If on some very rare occasion I were to run out of battery power (away from the grid for more than two weeks) then I would be without music, a head lamp, bicycle lights, and camera. No big deal for me. If you like touring at night then I guess you might have different priorities. I actually take a small candle with me on tour for just such an occasion. Though if I were really this far away from power then I would probably also run out of food!

Zeppinger,

Thanks for posting your pics. After looking at yours, I realized I had my front Carradice panniers mounted way too far forward. I did that originally, so they would work front or rear rack without adjustment, while I waited for the rear panniers on back order. Now that the rears are here, I just took a look at the front pannier mounting and realized I could move them back about 4 cm. That might even improve my handling a bit with heavy loads.

You've got a great setup. Are those MKS touring pedals with power grips? How long have you had them? Any comments about them?

Bob

I have always felt its best to keep as much weight as possible between the front and rear hubs. I mount my front panniers towards the back and the back panniers towards the front. Like I said, I am really happy with this setup so far but will write a full review after my tour next week.

Yes, those are MKS touring pedal with power grips. I like the pedals a lot but some people complain that they are too wide. With the already low BB on the LHT I have sometimes struck the ground with the pedals. No big deal just gotta remember not to pedal in sharp turns, this is touring not the tour de france after all.

I like my power grips a lot. Though, I am going to try normal toe clips and straps in the near future. PG are great for commuting where you can use just about any show with them, though my Teva sandals seems to be one exception. They are super easy to get in and out of once adjusted right. Before I go on my 9 month trip across Asia I would like to experiment with toe clips though because of their ability to be adjusted to different shoe sizes very quickly. With power grips I basically set them to be able to be used with the largest shoes I own (hiking boots) and then when I wear smaller ones (sandals or runners) they fit a little loose. Not a big deal but on tour I would like to be able to use a variety of shoes and since getting in and out of the straps in stop and go traffic wont be much of an issue outside of major cities this could be a good combo.

Give PGs a try. They are cheap, after all.

It does not have many miles on it yet but that will eventually change. Not much touring with a 3 year old and another on the way...

I know, I know, it is just another LHT but it's my first touring bike and I like it.

... and one that is nicely fitted out. Many happy kms and miles.

Bob

Hey, that's nice bike you have.

Thank you sir!
She is my baby!

Hi there Dualfrontdiscs, how did you get on with your tour in France / Interested to know how you fuelled the trangia. Did you use Meths and what did you get when
it ran out ?

Regards,
Benvrackie

Did my first "tour" with a group this past weekend. We rode the Greenbrier River Trail near Marlinton, WV. Here is my Bianchi, Cele, loaded: And with her favie rider...... me;0**

A couple pics of my Americano, lightly loaded for some credit card touring around West Michigan a few weeks ago. These were taken on the Kal-Haven trail somewhere between Kalamazoo and South Haven.

after crossing the border from vermont to montreal at 6:45am....