limonaia

Yep, the racks seem to be the trickiest thing to sort out properly on a MTB touring conversion for off-road touring. Even though the Old Man Mountain racks are extremely sturdy and I didn't ever feel like they were going to fail structurally, they still had problems with side-to-side shimmy when heavily loaded (especially the front rack) and ridden off road where you do a lot of quick steering to avoid rocks and roots and such. I think a _little_ flex is actually good when you're pounding the bike on rough terrain - it keeps the bags from jarring so hard and lessens the stress on rack bolts and pannier clips. But too much flex with a heavy load creates a nasty feedback resonance in the steering and makes the bike hard to steer precisely. It gets a bit of a mind of its own and the faster you are going the scarier that is... For example, you steer quickly to the left to avoid a rock, the wheel turns while the rack flexes and then the bags follow the wheel shortly thereafter and then resonate back and forth while your straightening out the wheel again... I much prefer the rigid feel of the tubus tara and cargo rack on my traditional IF touring/commuting bike - much more control and much less wobble with heavy loads. But the regular touring bike can't easily handle the rough terrain, mud and sand that the MTB can so maybe it's time to try a BOB Ibex trailer and preserve the handling of the MTB.

2WheelMotion

My brother did 800 miles up the Northwest coast on an old steel MTB, pulling an older BOB trailer. They did some single track in Marin county, and also around Santa Cruz. He says it was "epic!" and handled very well on single-track and dirt roads. He also did some gardening stuff, pulling the trailer loaded with plants and shovels on a dirt road.

todd6559

Here's my RANS Rocket ready for touring with Arkel RT-60s, and a RANS tailpack.

John00

Here's my bike. Haven't been on a tour with it yet, but have a few trial runs with 50lb. of water as ballast. This picture was taken in my back yard about 1/2 an hour ago. You can see it's a beautiful day, so as long as I have it set up I'm going to have to go for a ride
Well I'm back after a great ride 40 mile, where I decided right away to remove the areo bars, I didn't feel the bike with the trailer was stable enough to use them.

limonaia

Beautiful bike - looks very comfy, too! Does the rear tire take more of a beating or get more flats than on traditional touring bike where you can absord some of the shock with your knees? How does it handle on gravel or back roads?

best,

richard

xilios

First loaded 100km test ride with my Gazelle Playa. Training for my ride from The Netherlands to Greece in about 8 weeks.
https://www.geocities.com/xilios/index.html

hillyman

I haven't tested my new Trek with much more than a couple of panniers with raingear and a lunchbox for work.
Here I'm out for a spin on my dayoff today and I spotted this tank.

Neil Anderson

Halfway through a cross-USA ride. By this time we had pared down quite well.

TomM

Errr, do you have a before picture?

Neil Anderson

Thought you'd never ask! This custom-made BOB may be a tad sluggish on the uphills, but that couch sure is comfy around the old campfire after a hard day's ride.

hillyman

Neil Anderson

Thank you. Just spreading merriment and good cheer wherever I go ...

todd6559

Hey, thanks for the compliment! Yeah, back tire takes a beating. 7 flats in first 1000 miles. Then I upgraded to Primo Comet's touring tire with the added Kevlar belt, and have had only one flat in 2500 miles. I use GP Continental for road riding when not touring.

Bike does fine on back roads, but gets pretty twitchy on gravel.

amaferanga

Bigmikepowell

Come on admit it you have a chevy small block in there somewhere.

Neil Anderson

Heck, no. When bicycle touring, we like to load up just the barest essentials. Can’t say we really rough it, though.

12steven

sweden, 2 days ago, strong headwind turned this into a very slow moving bicycle so jumped the train (which I believe was a Pendalino)

OneTinSloth

here's my new bike:

trek 620f frame
brooks B-15
salsa delgadoX rims with XT hubs, 32h, 9 speed cassette, 11-32T
avid shorty 4 front brakes
dia-compe "frogleg" rear brakes
cook bros. E-type cranks (interchangable chainring spider) 22-32-42
XT rear derailleur
old school Deore FD
old sugino seatpost
nitto moustache bars
Interloc threadless stem
shimano ultegra-ish 8 speed shifters, set to friction
zeus touring pedals

for now, it's just my heavy duty commuter, but sooner or later, i'll get some racks and bags, switch the handlebars, load 'er up and head out. i also have two more yellow bottle cages that'll go on when the bike gets pressed into long distance service. for now i'm just working out the kinks and getting used to it.

biodiesel

new bike (why it's so clean) and a Rivendell 'Adam' that i got on sale.
in the bag, running shoes, clean shirt, cycling shorts, ipod, paperback, rainjacket, cheetoes, bike pump and bike kit, odds and ends (not a big tour list yet, but it's a new bike...)

https://us.f305.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Sho...ort=date&pos=0

biodiesel

how do i post a pic?

spanky4x4

your login has expired!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! come on fix the links to the bike porn!please?
(I'm ok really!!! I just like lookin at 'em too!)


edit:sorry to beg.i didnt see you are trying to fix it.
at the top of the post window(?)underneith where it says "font""size""window" there is a little yellow box for inserting images. I think there is anouther way as well but this is how I have always done it.

biodiesel

no luck with pics,
i've got some on yahoo but the links arn't working here, trying to drop from I-photo, and the little box just opens an IMG...
help an ape?

gendasza

Here's the grand finale of last year's Seattle to San Francisco epic with a Jamis Cross Bike ("Jam-O") and a Rodriguez Stellar ("Stella"). They served us well!

Phatman

nice. If it were mine, though, I'd ditch those mustache bars and swap front brakes for rear brakes. the froglegs are much more powerful then shorties (from what I've heard)

biodiesel

finally! pic of my new Felt!
F65 and a Baggins "Adam' on the back


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