wassup366

Hey guys, I'm new to touring and don't have all my gear yet. I'm looking at stuff to do some self-supported touring and not sure if all these things are good or if there is more bang for my buck somewhere else. Anyways, heres the stuff I'm looking at.

Front panniers:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846
Front Rack:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...A2TE9IQP68MWQU
Handlebar tape:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=AV2NFZALGJQFX
Pump: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Brooks B17:https://www.amazon.com/Brooks-Heritag...ef=pd_sbs_sg_1

Thats all for now. Another question though, do people ever bring a full blown floor pump? And I'm also looking for a good touring computer, one with speed and cadence.
Thanks!

zeppinger

40 Liters is pretty huge for front panniers. Are you sure you need or want that much room? My front panniers are 25 Liters and I find thats plenty. I bought a Jandd Extreme front rack and hated it. The rear part of the rack came into contact with the top tube of my bike and bent itself. Also, the black power coating falls off of the rack really easily and makes it look like hell, fast.

MichaelW

The benchmark touring kit would be Tubus Tara front rack with Orleib roller top front panniers. This is what most expedition tourists would use but is probably overkill for shorter tours or someone on a more limitted budget.

LarDasse74

That's the way the man wants it to happen, brother!

indyfabz

Probably the funniest post I have read on BF. I keep hearing Sgt. Lincoln Osiris from "Tropic Thunder" in my head. Well done.

Cyclebum

Axiom Seymour(27 L) on front, Lasalle on back. Plenty of room with a rack pack. No rack pack, then Lasalles front and back. Rest of you selections look fine to me.

zeppinger

powder*

cyccommute 

I agree. 40 L is too big for the front. You should look for small fronts and larger rears. Small dense stuff...cooking stuff, food, fuel... goes in the front while large fluffy stuff goes in the rear bags. Weight split that works best is 60% front/40% rear. Uberlarge bags only encourage you to carry more stuff that you probably don't need.

For a rack, MichaelW's suggestion of Tara is spot on. I've used...and still have (unused)...front decks for touring. I've found their utility to be extremely limited. They also encourage you to carry more stuff that you don't really need.

The saddle and pump are perfect. You don't need to carry a floor pump, the Topeak will do the job just fine.

Any computer will work. Get a wired one to make life simpler. I use Sigma BC1609 which has a cadence option, although I don't use it. I tried the cadence for a while but just didn't find it all that useful.

johnr783

Great pump.

I used those panniers on the front of my bike for my first tour. lots of room but they sag on the bottom so they *MAY* scrape the ground on turns. That being said, I had a small tear on the outer pocket but it wasnt major enough to lose anything. About a half inch, at the longest.

indyfabz

Another vote for 40L being too large. I have 30L in the front and they are pretty darn big. I went that big because I carried a large amount of film camera equipment on my first tour.

Cycco's packing advice is what I employ. Nearly all my cooking stuff goes up front along with more compact, heavier items like off-bike footwear, cable and lock and tools.

Last year I helped a local couple plan a cross country trip. They started posting photos to their journal. That's when I realized they were carrying a full blown floor pump. I told them to ditch it and get the Topeak. They said they didn't trust it and were o.k. with carrying the floor pump. Yet they constantly whined about even the slightest hills and would sometimesd had to walk them. They eventually abandoned the trip.

DW99

Have the Lasalles and Road Morph and like them, those are good prices on both. Have a Brooks flyer, like it, wish I would have gotten the Imperial though.

tacomee

All of the stuff is good.... the JANDD rack isn't a bad choice, but it really helps to buy racks in person with your bike so you can see how it fits.

Chris Pringle

The Brooks bar tape, I think is really an overkill (price-wise) for touring purposes. You may want to consider the cork bar tape from Performance Bike. It's cheap and very comfortable. If you want to give your bike a vintage look, get the yellow or white tape and shellac it.

https://www.performancebike.com/bikes...4#ReviewHeader

+1 on a simple "wired" computer (forget about the cadence option - not needed for touring). I've tried many and I really like CatEye brand. You can't go wrong with either the Mity 8 or the Enduro 8. I use the Mity 8 for on-road and the Enduro 8 for off-road (MTB).

fotooutdoors

I'll third (or fourth) the Road Morph. Solid pump that can actually fill up your tires to 100 psi (or whatever you run yours at).

True, you don't need the cadence option, but please keep your cadence up for your knees' sake. Early on my tours, I check my cadence (a stop watch and some simple math works well) to make sure I'm pedaling fast enough. There are those here who may disagree, but my experience is that a higher cadence wears less on my body, though I do slow it down a bit from my commuting cadence.

BigBlueToe

I agree about the front panniers being too large.

I have the Jandd Extreme front rack and I like it a lot. I had the Tubus Tara and also loved it. The Jandd gives me the platform. I put my air mattress and Ursack on the platform. I like having them there. I already have my sleeping bag and tent bungied on the back, so it's nice not having to add to the pile by putting the two items on top. The bad thing about the Jandd is that when my front wheel swings (like when I'm stopped and the bike leans over and I don't have hold of the handlebars) the top of the rack hits the derailleur adjustment barrels on the downtube. So far nothing has broken, but it's a design flaw Jandd should consider fixing. It's not so serious that I want to try another rack, however.

The Tubus pump is wonderful. It's easy to use. I can pump my tires up over 100 psi without the tendonitis I used to get in my wrist from my Zefal HpX. It's like having a mini-floor pump. Also, the gauge is accurate enough that I can leave my shop gauge at home. It may be off by a few pounds, but that's plenty close enough for me not need another gauge.

I love my Brooks saddles. I have at least a dozen other models I've tried. (I resisted the Brooks hype at first, based on an uncomfortable Brooks that came on my 1971 Raleigh.) The Brooks is the best. On a one-day ride I don't get buttsore at all. On multi-week tours I do, but if I get off the bike every few hours (or when my butt starts to hurt) I'm good to go for another hour or two. All-in-all, Brooks makes the best saddles I've tried.

I like a cushiony, grippy handlebar tape. I"ve suffered from painful hands on tour, including numbness that didn't go away for a month after I got home. I've found lots of things to help and that is a thing of the past. One thing that really helped was re-adjusting the angle of my handlebars and where the brakes were placed. I made a nice flat spot on top that included the hoods if I slid forward. Much better. I put my bars up to where they're almost level with my saddle. That helped. I put gel pads under my tape. Another help. I've also double wrapped my bars, which worked fine. I used to use foam on the bars (the old brand was Grab-On) That seemed to help, but in hindsight I'd say it wasn't that great. It was too soft and I could still feel the metal bars. I haven't tried carbon bars due to the expense, but I have aluminum wing bars on my road bike and the design seems to offer a more comfortable resting position on top.