Off-road touring

[chris667]

I think rucksacks and bikes are madness if you're riding a long way. If you have wheels, carrying your luggage is just silly.
My last tour was done on this:

And very nice it was too. 50ish miles per day, long distances and very comfortable. For luggage, I had a Carradice saddlebag, and a tent duck taped in a bin liner and placed on top of my rack. I've done all kinds of tours, on dozens of different bikes, and I can honestly say an old mountain bike is the best allrounder there is.
Today, I've been building my perfect long distance offroad tourer. 26" wheels, drum brakes and 15 speed, with more racks than you could shake a stick at. I'll post photos of it in a bit.

 

[RedBike]

I think rucksacks and bikes are madness if you're riding a long way. If you have wheels, carrying your luggage is just silly.
My last tour was done on this:

And very nice it was too. 50ish miles per day, long distances and very comfortable. For luggage, I had a Carradice saddlebag, and a tent duck taped in a bin liner and placed on top of my rack. I've done all kinds of tours, on dozens of different bikes, and I can honestly say an old mountain bike is the best allrounder there is.
Today, I've been building my perfect long distance offroad tourer. 26" wheels, drum brakes and 15 speed, with more racks than you could shake a stick at. I'll post photos of it in a bit.

Yes please!
Drum brakes? My only experiance of these are the Sturmey Archer ones. If these are typical of all drum brakes I think I will be sticking to discs. The backs alright but the front was rather poor.

 

[andym]

I've tried loading my MTB up and touring a bit on that. The trouble was the handling of the bike was all over the place when loaded
http://redbikes.blogspot.com/2009/05/wet-bivvy.html

I just felt a completely rigid bike loaded equally front and rear would cope a lot better. The 29ner wheels were purely to compensate for the lack of suspension / to help out getting a heavy bike over rough terrain.

The point is I don't know what sort of bike works. Which is why i'm asking here. But I do know my present setup doesn't work.

The more I think about it the more I think the answer is probably to pack super light (Just a credit card and a spare shirt) and use a standard 26" wheeled MTB and a rucksack.

You don't need to go that far. I have an On-One 456 MTB. I highly recommend it (though your could also go for the Inbred)I've bounced down some very rocky pistes with two full-loaded panniers on the back. Plus tent and sleeping bag on the top of the rack.

Looking at the pictures on your blog I think the problem is that you have the load quite high up (actually just noticed you say the same thing). Apart from the f**k-off tent (or is it a sleeping bag?) the panniers are quite high up.

One change you could do that would probably help with the handling is to get a rack with a second lower rail. This is the Tubus Logo (but other people do the same sort of thing):

You would then have the option of putting the panniers on the lower rail. That and getting a lighter and better tent would probably help a lot.

I know that 29er wheels are supposed to go more easily over obstacles but there are disadvantages to set against that. They're probably only an advantage if you are taller because frame designers don't have to compromise as much.

If you're on a budget I think upgrading the rack and the tent should be the priority. (Though the money for an On-One frame would be money well-spent).

 

[RedBike]

Thank you, the pannier rack is excellent advice.

I've already upgraded the tent (Amongst other things). I now use a Gelert Solo. Hardly an all singing all dancing tent but the pack size is tiny and it only weighes 1.5kg. I would have to spend some serious money before I got anything significantly lighter.

I have also got rid of that rather large sleeping bag and mat. I should now be able to get everything in two good sized rear panniers (nothing on top of the rack or on the bars). Although I was planning on using front panniers as well just to spread the load about a bit.

 

[andym]

Just one thing on the panniers. Depending on the disc brakes you have you may find that you need to put spacers between the frame and the rack in order to get it to clear the brake caliper.