lsingsaas

That bike was fantastic. I still mourn its disappearance. I still have the helmet. I just started riding again (my sister's 20-year old Diamond Back Mountian Bike) about 1 month ago, after a 21 year dry spell, and ordered some maps from Adventure Cycling in Missoula, Montana. The Colorado trip, which I took, in 1979 was sponsored by Adventure Cycling's predecessor, Bikecentennial. The maps should take me from San Diego through Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming then Montana. I don't know when it is going to happen, how long it's going to take, or exactly how it is going to place, but it is going to happen.

balindamood

Fresh back from a brief (long weekend) shake-down ride is my '84 Lotus Odyssey. I have been working on this for a while, and short of lighting, I am pretty much finished. This will give me a chance to put the '83 Expedition through a complete re-build. I intentionally took way too much stuff just to see how it handled, and it handled wonderfully. The bike has low trail (opposite of the Expedition). I was a bit nervous becuase it is fairly squirlly unladen, but with loaded back-rollers on the front, it sails right along.

djb

well, whatever rides you do, short long whatever, do get a modern helmet. When I had my first helmet around 20 odd years ago, it was way ahead of the old Bells for ventilation. Nowadays, very affordable ones (like $20) offer waaaaaaay better ventilation than my first one. I have a med priced one, about $50-60 and even in hot hot weather it is just fantastic, plus the visors on helmets really help with sun also.
Getting back into biking is great, take it easy and regular rides of even short lengths will be fine for getting back into biking shape.

all the best

djb

balinda--very purdy bike.

Although both Thomas and Percy would be saying "don't cross chain"....

aceofspaids

That is a great looking bike! What size chain rings are you running on that crank, do you have any problems with that large of a jump?

djb

its certainly a classic half step looking setup isnt it? (I presume there is a middle chainring in there somewhere). Half steps started petering out in the 90s as 7 and 8 speeds became the norm. My 90 tourer didnt have it, 50/50/28.

Is that crank a 48/44/28 or 24?

balindamood

48-45-24. It came with 50-45-28, but I switched to a 7-speed freewheel and needed the extra low end. No problem with the chianring jump, though there is not enough RD chain wrap to use the bottom three gears of the freewheel with the granny gear...not a buig deal. I have found that the 80's Suntour Mountech front derailuers will take almost anything and seem to be pretty bullet prorf (the Mounjtech rear derailleurs are not so hot). I do not normally cross chain, but flipped it into low when I pulled into the driveway and did not notice which chainring I was in (the glories of half-step)

djb

re:cross chaining comment, just razzing you...

but wow, the 21 tooth jump, quite a jump. Im used to the 16 jump from my 24 to 40 and even that is quite a finger ballet of up two or three gears at teh back with one finger and down to the granny with the other. My bike too was/is a seven speed and I too needed to bring the gearing down, hence the 24 (its about a 21 or 22 gear inch with the 30 tooth rear)

Its interesting to realize how "antiquated" our bikes are gearing wise, and its great how modern derailleurs, 9 speeds and the many available cassettes with good teeth ranges make both climbing, flat riding and shifting more convienent. Yes, these bikes work and I had a gas doing trips on my bike, but will gladly take tighter gearing, non-downtube shifting and all that. Its all for the better, and normal, stuff improves.

cheers

lsingsaas

My brother and sister-in-law bought me a great, new helmet for my birthday with blinking rear, red lights no less. It's a Bell Arella (and your absolutely right about the visor). I did a 41 mile, "hill"ish ride the other day and felt completely recovered the day after, although I take the hills real slow and in the lowest gear.

djb

Those red flashies really do the trick. At night, as a car driver I am always amazed from how far away you see them blinking. Im sure they have saved loads of lives, and you can find good quality ones at a very reasonable price so they are on both front and back of all the bikes in the family. 60k, 40 mi ride , glad it went well (hill-ish and not hell-ish) and yup, listening to your legs and using the low gears is the trick. You just keep on trucking along and over the weeks and months, you end up using higher and higher gears and still feel fine.

jan191976

Soma Double Cross I just finished get built, I really like it some far. Using it for commuting right now but have plans for touring in the future.

PhotoWhit

So this is what my Loaded Rig looked like when I started out a days ride to Key West, feb 13th 1999.


And after wandering much of the east coast, Columbus Ga, Outer Banks, North to Maine, Not being allowed into Canada(my Fl DL had a PO box, I had tools of my trade, cameras, and no destination, I just wanted to go down hill!),Down the St Lawrence Seaway, then a quick photo at a covered bridge in Eastern Ohio, perhaps 5000mi into my 7000mi trip and still(?) smiling!


Lots of fun! at one point I figured I was consuming 7000+ calories and loosing weight!

Gorilla camped the whole way, while going around NYC I was in a pretty metropolitan area and it was getting late, a teen age girl said I was welcome to camp where I was looking down a one lane gravel road, so I found an out of the way place along the road and pitched my tent, got up at dawn and road on down the road past the tennis courts(2) and covered pool befor riding past the mansion! glad security didn't catch me!

Along the St Lawrence Seaway I road up and parked my bike by the road and walked down to a marina for supplies, when I got back there was another bike with BOB trailer pointing at mine. Just a fellow traveler going to a Rainbow gathering. I bought one of his bracelets, and gave him one of my magnets(from photos something I was doing to make a dollar or 2).

After visiting my brother in Cincy I went up as far as Mukeegan(?) Mich when I heard the ferry to Green Bay would charge me car rates for a car and trailer, I went down and around Chy town and up to the Twin City's, Minniapolis/St Paul, back to Red Wing and straight shot south down 63 to Columbus (actually Jeff City and back to Columbus) where I hoped to work for the winter and head out in the spring...

I did make it back home to Tallahassee Fl in 2003 for my Dad's 80th birthday, with the BOB again, but it was just a visit and I headed back to Missouri, almost befor the snow flew. I choose a Giant mountain bike and had a more comfortable ride, if a bit slower.

That made 4 trips of over 1000 miles, Ooops did I forget the trip from Tallahassee to Natchez, the Natchez trace across Tenn to the Blue ridge Pkwy and Sky Line drive (yes I met the cookie Lady!, even went to church with her! My photos in her book a day behind the cancer surviver doing the Blue ridge with his dog who rode in a trailer down the hills and helped pull the bike and trailer up the hills) and a nice ride from Front Royal right into DC, I think there was only 1 light with all the bike paths! Very Cool! Visited my Aunt and Uncle and then off to Maryland shore and the Maritime Museum ( a neat place) and a bit more wandering... Yes I was an animal then, but no BOB, lots of fun, gotta have front panniers in the hills adds tons of stability!

Figure with shorter trips I've got 14-15K of loaded touring, at 51(52 shortly) I don't know if I'll finish my goal of 20K of loaded touring, haven't done much but look at my bike in the last 4 years, but it's been fun!!!

"All who wander are not lost"
-Whit

PhotoWhit

I guess I should mention the bike is an early "Crack 'n fail" Cannondale, and I had no problem with the frame, I had replaced the bottom bracket with a phil wood after haveing 2 fail during the Natchez and BlueRidge Pkwy trip.

I rebuilt the 40 spoke Sansun(?) wheels when i got back to Tallahassee ( I wandered the state a bit), I had hit a curb or rock or something and had 2 pull through with the rim cracking, No broken spokes though! The rebuild lasted until I was in Ill, so @ 5000 miles with a few broken spokes, but nothing too bad, I had to rebuild the rear again with what I could find, the tensions were all over the place and I had some spokes stripping out, I pulled the rear and spent a moring replacing and evening the tennsion and it made the rest of the trip.

The bags are Kirkland on the front(not very good too wide) and Cycle Smith on the rear, Love them!!! The tent on top of the BOB is waiting to be dried out at lunch and fits inside of the Cycle Smith Apex pannier, with room to spare. A Quest 5th season tent wasn't a bad choice if you spend 200+ days in a tent, during a perticularly wet year. Wish they still made quality tents.

Those funky shorts are actually Trek 2xl baggy cycling shorts, I liked them! When the outsides wore out I saved the padded insert and sewed them into other shorts. Please note the B52 water bottle holder! held a 1.5 liter water bottle. It was nice when traveling, wish they still made them.

Thulsadoom

PhotoWhit: Some How I must be lost, I thought this thread was for "LOADED RIGS"

Ah, no. You're not lost, this is the place to post your loaded bike pics.

There's been a lot of branching and side commentary and whatever, but the main trunk of this thread is pictures of loaded bikes.

Thanks for your posts!

djb

a friend of mine has a similar one on his bike, they used to sell it at MEC here in Canada but he told me it is not sold anymore. I can see it being really handy to have a big bottle on that tube, and then regular sized ones wherever you can fit them.

heck of a trip you did!

DW99

Yes, this is the place! Thanks for posting, very interesting.

degan

We started at sea level 2200 miles and 35 days ago.

ekibayno

Sabbath Silk Route Titanium with Columbus Tusk Trekking Carbon Fork



Unloaded

valygrl

Haven't been here in a while.

Degan - awesome, I totally loved that road up Tensleep canyon!
ekibayo - sweet bike
photoWhit - um, yeah, that's loaded all right! Whatcha got in there?

Lasse

Ekibayno, nice looking bike! What bottle holder is that on the first shot, holding the Trangia fuel bottle? Is it the one litre fuel bottle? Does it work well?

ekibayno

Lasse, no it's the 500ml Trangia bottle - there is not enough fender clearance for the 1 litre bottle, but a cage which mounted lower might provide clearance. The bottle is in a neoprene holder to ensure the cage grips it firmly. It works well, and 500ml is sufficient for my needs.

The small cages are Salsa stainless steel and the large one is a BBB Fuel Tank XL. It replaced the Topeak Modula XL cage with its flimsy top fastening, which broke after very little use.

apsykes

Reggie, my bike, fully laden at the Passo della Cisa in Italy about half way along the Eurovelo 5 in 2010. More details at www.eurovelo.com or read the book of the adventure: Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie.
Happy cycling
Andrew

PhotoWhit

Camera equipment, mat cutter and mat board scraps I picked up along the way, I was cutting small (think 3x4") mats and mounting photos with magnets on the back and selling them along the way. It's a great way to meet locals and chat, and provides enough if your gorrilla camping to exist, though I did spend a small amount of my own money ($12-1400) I made at least that much along the way, figured about $2K. and met lots of locals. I also bought a few cameras and shipped to a friend back home, who did camera shows, something i had done in the past.

I think if I was to do it today, I might be able to do it with a digital camera and a hand button machine and magnets, and a net book or tablet and not need the trailer for camera, mat cutter, and negatives.

It was fun though, and I got down to 265lbs eating 8000 calories aday!!! Even with the heavy rig I managed several centuries!

Just saw a top 10 best drives in the country and I've done 3 of them on my bike! Overseas Highway, Skyline Drive, Brandywine Valley on my bike! Though I would say Natchez Trace in the early spring is awsome, think carpet of flower and butterflies! I highly recomend Natchez Trace for riders of all ages, lots of places to stop and see things, lots of free camp grounds! including free campgrounds just for cyclist and hikers, though it can be hard to get information about them.

bagxlee

My girlfriend and I just did our first long-weekend tour up the coast of Northern Michigan. We didn't have a lot of extra cash to spend on light / compact gear. Also, my girlfriend was struggling with the hills so I had most of the weight on my bike.

It was... heavy.



Also this:

Gus Riley

I'll have to try carrying wood that way...I never thought of it. Dah! But I think I'll keep it down to just one night's supply at a time!