spinnaker

Another thought. You can hang something on the top tube. I have a bag for small items. Not much but every once you get off of the back the better. I have also strapped my tent poles to the top tube. That was on a Trek hybrid. I used it for camping and never used a front rack though I was not carrying cooking gear or food. Which is yet another option. Camp somewhere near a resultant so you don't need to haul food or cooking gear.

spinnaker

I had a warmshowers guest that was doing the transam. He had a full sized lantern and two 64 oz botels of soda along with who knows what.

And then there was this. I am glad I was not camping near this guy.

CliffordK

I've mainly ridden road bikes, and now have a cross bike for the off-road stuff.

30 miles of dirt concerns me. I've ridden the Katy Trail in Missouri for some distance, well groomed limestone. But, generally not on trails. Especially not for long distances.

Here's the old Colnago.



Note that I try to get the load behind the seatstays if possible.

That bike is setup with an old Blackburn rack, and the Blackburn Campy rear dropout adapters, and a set of P-Clips (also Blackburn?) at the top. It holds the rack fairly stable, but I do get a little overall flex. Most noticeable when standing and pedaling. One learns to keep the bike in line when standing and pedaling.

I'm slowly working on a new touring bike build, also out of a little more modern road bike.

The Tricross has 35mm tires??? and is a bit more of a rough road bike.



But, even that is falling to a drop bar conversion of an old hybrid (Jamis Coda, double butted 520 steel).



Anyway, your old Trek should be able to handle the load (is it a steel frame?). Just get the load mostly behind the rear triangle.

However, are you comfortable riding your Trek on those 30 miles of dirt? Riding it on the dirt with a load?

Some suggestions are to distribute the weight front & rear. My next build.

I'm moving towards lightweight tents and sleeping bags. But the freezing temperatures are a concern for me. 40 to 50 degree sleeping bags?

I could probably tolerate freezing, but wouldn't really like it.

79pmooney

Yes to the gram scale! I haven't toured in decades but I do pack a bag for the week long Cycle Oregon every September. No more than 60 pounds. Yes that sounds like a lot CO isn't self-sufficiency touring. Socializing (in real clothes) is a big part of it. A much bigger tent is very nice. I weigh everything and enter it into an Excel sheet. A lot of work the first time but a joy the second trip. I have both a record of that I brought and I can make changes and know quickly what that will do to the final weight.

On most of my Cycle Oregons I have brought bike gear I pack in the bag. I rode a fix gear and brought all the cogs and changed them from day to day depending on the elevation profile (and how I was feeling). I also brought a spare "cockpit", HBs, brake levers and calipers. A quick change from standard road setup to a custom fix gear climbing setup. (A huge plus for those 5000'+ days.) Bringing that stuff meant that I had to leave other stuff home. And being a bony 60 something with many crashes over the decades, less than adequate bedding and padding would be a torture I won't go put myself through. That scale and spreadsheet paid for themselves.

Ben

Shinkers

My trek is aluminum, but I'm not too concerned since the the rack will be attached at the hub and at the brake bridge. The brake bridge should see a lot more force than my rack will provide. I also really will only have a sleeping pad and bag on it, so it won't be loaded very heavily.

As far as the dirt goes, that will be a bit of an experiment. I've ridden some gravel canal trails around here (slowly) and I think it should be doable. The dirt road that I'd be taking is very hard packed and smooth if you just dodge the embedded rocks. Sounds hard, but I'm not all that concerned about it. It'll be mostly climbing so I'm not worried about going too fast and losing traction, and it's also smack dab in the middle of the ride. If I start up and it seems like it'll be completely impossible to do, I can always just turn around with little impact on the ride distance. I figure I can take that 30 or so miles slowly and make it out in one piece. I have excellent tires and wheels.

I will definitely get the bike loaded and go cruise around. Just as soon as it warms up and dries out a bit.

Again, thanks to all for the advice.

JohnJ80

Shinkers

I also weigh about 200 lbs. and I plan to have under 20 lbs. of gear. When I can ride, I'll start looking at what I'll actually be packing and start looking at weight.

JohnJ80