fdimike

Hi All. I'm new to the forum but thought I would add a few thoughts re: panniers. I've been touring in SEA (I live in Thailand) for about 10 years now on my Surly LHT. I'm using some vintage Cannondale panniers on the rear and Taiga Mountain panniers on the front. The Cannondales are great because they have 3 external pockets along with an elasticized pocket for storing small gear. They're also easy to organize because of this feature. They're waterproof to a degree but i always pack my clothes in large ziplock plastic bags. The front panniers (1 external pocket) are also waterproof to a degree. Ziplock bags here as well as an extra precaution especially since I carry my 10" ASUS notebook there . The front panniers are affected more by heavy rain than the rear ones. This year I bought some Axion rain covers for all 4 just to be on the safe side. My Topeak barbag has its own rain cover as does my Topeak trunk bag. We get lots of rain in this part of the world.


Not sure yet how to add some pics.

fdimike

Can someone lend an old guy a hand because I just don't have a clue as how to load a photo.

Thanks

lax

Planned on a 4 day tour, but I ended it early since the weather was not cooperating.

lurch0038

Fun shakeout run on my local trails.

Andrew R Stewart 

fdimike- Go to the forum opening page. Scroll down to "News and Suggestions" and open that. Scroll down to "Forum Suggestions and User Assistance" open it. The 4th sticky is about posting photos.

There is a provisional period of a number of posts before you can attach photos directly. Many will instead link to a photo sharing service, I use Flicker. IIRC there is also a min. number of posts before you can add direct links too. Many will spell out the "at" in a link address to get around this. Andy

mplsbiker

antmaster5000

Just finished a two month tour from Seattle to San Jose Del Cabo. We did the Olympic Peninsula before heading South, which was a total treat. Pretty proud of my setup, as it was lighter than almost every other tourist I encountered on the road. If I were to do the ride again I would have opted for tires with more puncture resistance, as I probably had 10 flats on Baja alone with my panaracer pasela protites. My buddy with schwalbe marathons had 3 for the whole trip. Larger tires would have been nice too (I rocked 27x1.25) but my road tires weren't too bad.

Baja was hot as hell during the summer, but all in all the trip was amazing

Meowriano

Jonathan Hanson 

This is my Thorn Nomad (one of the last British-made models) on a trip I did the length of Israel. The total distance was less than 500 miles, but Israelis seem to have zero concept of bicycle touring, so I was a celebrity whenever people found out where I'd started from (Lebanon border) and where I was headed (Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba).

Speedway2

This is a great thread! So many nice bikes and adventures.
I don't have a Touring bike (so no pic to share) but I've been inspired to make some changes to my old MTB eg. fenders, racks, etc and see how serious I get.
Actually, Google refers to 26"(wheel) "touring bikes" as "Expeditions"....interesting.

indyfabz

When I shipped my bike to Missoula last year for a two-week loop tour the piece of red tape I had on my seatpost came off. I had to guesstimate seat height. Got it wrong and ended up hurting my knee after the second day. Fortunately, it was one of those injuries that only hurt when I walked. Next time I ship I will apply fresh tape.

willoughby1

I use a sharpie

djb

for packing my bike up, I am able to just push the seatpost all the way down into the frame for packing, with the seat height low enough to be able to put some cardboard on it and to close the box lid.
Tape wont work in this case, and my seatpost is black, so my marks with marker or greasepencil tend to get messed up, so I too have had to mess around getting the seat height back to the proper height, knee feeling funny until I do.

finally scratched a line in the spot with a screwdriver, same on my wifes bike, to hopefully avoid the frustrating situation again.

str

tcs

On a different board, a rider reported their seat post snapped off at the exact spot of a scratch line that had been put on years earlier for saddle height adjustment. Yeah, no way, right? But how do you explain... Anyhoo, another poster made the suggestion of marking the insertion point with a center punch dimple rather than a scratch line.

djb

was it a cf seatpost, and was the man named Bruce Banner, and was he kinda peeved at the time?

metal seatpost, black paint, scratch off a bit of paint to make a line.
I won't loose sleep over this one, and anyway, its not my bike so it wont affect me ;-)

mstateglfr 

I was going thru this thread tonight and realized I hadn't responded to this post earlier. Swear I did, but nope clearly I didn't.

that hotel(I know the one) is close to the worst way to judge this metro- rough that you happened to stay there! I wouldn't send my enemies there to sleep.

I know the Beaverdale Bikes owner, Ed, from around in the cycling community. Small niche store, but certainly a segment that isnt heavily served elsewhere, so it definitely serves a purpose and has value.
he built a frame a couple years ago in the same class I took last winter when I built my road bike frame. Not sure if he mentioned having built a frame(I'm guessing so, if you mentioned you build frames).

mstateglfr 

love the old school 80s mtb repurposed for touring. Rocking some period correct friction thumbies and original style moto levers too!

love it.

mstateglfr 

to each their own- options allow for all of us to tour how we like.
quite the tail sticking out off the saddle. Does it wag a lot when riding out of saddle up hills? I havent rmtried such a setup with the weight so high and unsuppprted, Amy drawbacks or is it pretty normal feeling after a few minutes?

mstateglfr 

I like the mix of old and new. Iconic Centurion pro tour with the wonky short lived 2 bottle mounts both on the downtube, traditional front rack and bags, then a modern bikepacking bag in back.

very purpose chosen and individual. Neat.

Andrew R Stewart 

Thanks for the reply, not that I was asking for one. Better late then never. I was rather focused on getting out to CO when I drove through Des Moines. The bad motel just further made the choice to drive on easier. Otherwise I thought DM was a nice town. Andy

antmaster5000

I appreciate that! I've always wondered about the two bottle cages for a supposedly top of the line tourer. I actually only had two cages for about half of my tour until I realized how much water I'd be drinking the farther South I got. Found a nice shop in San Fran that could throw on p-clamps and a matching stainless steel bottle cage for me. Also had a two liter bladder in one of my front panniers as a back-up for Baja.

SEAJAYBIKE

MSTATEGLFR. Yes I was a bit concerned about that too. The short story. It wasn't a problem.
Details.

• The bag is actually pretty well supported. Arkel has a nice rack the bag is attached to which helps reduce sway to a minimum. I chose it for this reason. There was a change in the way the bike handled when out of the saddle climbing but I got used to it quickly. I just made my transitions from right to left pedal/bar pull a bit smoother. I saw plenty of 35-38mph "brakes on" descents and as long as I kept my knees on the top tube it was stable. Knees off over 30mph....not so much. I'm not sure if it was a rear bag issue or something else.
• My all up weight with bike was only 54 lbs. At max capacity, under 8 of that was in the tail bag. So it looks worse than it is.
• The bag was all clothing. That pic was taken assuming I was wearing the absolute minimum clothing. My biggest fear on the trip was being cold. I over packed to stay warm. I needed to be sure it would hold everything if I saw hot days. (I had two days riding it stuffed like this. (Day one and two)

Overall I was very happy with the performance of the bike for the trip.

jostan1

Very Nice

jostan1

What panniers are those?