Touring Equipment

I'd like to reiterate that I havent tried them and that they're not intended to be used to suspend luggage.

I understand that. Might be useful for garmin and/or light mount, but still looks quite fragile to me. Hit a cirb or pothole and...

Agreed. That's what they're supposed to be for.

I think the Nitto ones I posted up-thread would be tough enough. As would the spinachi bar extensions that were recommended although they're the wrong clamp size. Maybe I could have something custom-machined. Anyhow, sorry for clogging the thread.

Re. sleeping bags, I have a down-filled one (a Western Mountaineering one from ^^^^^ up there) and it is great, it weighs nothing and packs down to nothing as well. Of course it, like anything stuffed with down, would be shite if it got waterlogged, and it doesn't like being packed down to nothing for long periods of time (it would eventually crush the feathers and stop them lofting up again). But treated right it is excellent, and very warm. Too warm perhaps.

That's the beauty of high loft down, you can get away with something a fair bit smaller than many other bags without compromising warmth.

Get a bloody good compression/dry bag too. That'll do more than anythign else.

I got one of these, it's great.
http://www.woodland-ways.co.uk/buy-online-sea-to-summit-compression-dry-sack-medium-371.html

do this^ i bought one of them today

Wow that compression bag is amazing. Sea to Summit stuff is great.

40% off here

This is my second 'nursery' post so just throwing something out there that may be of interest. Anyone interested in MTB touring? I can thoroughly recommend it. 100% freedom, though don't expect creature comforts. Anyone else done any epic MTB tours that they could recommend?

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Did you run the fork locked out?

Nope, not a big fan of lockout, tends to put excessive pressures on the fork internals and other parts of the bike. For anything off road, I took the handlebar bag off and strapped it to my backpack. Overall the bike weighted less than 15kg packed up and the weight was quite well distributed. I can't promise I smelt particularly good for two weeks!

No issues with the bottle mounted on the crudcatcher bosses?

Nope, a few cable ties did the trick. It was actually quite a good place for the bottle as kept the weight nicely balanced. It was where I stored backup water. Note: Swiss stream water isn't as good as it tastes!

Seems a minimalist setup. What kind of touring are you planning?

That photo was from 2 years ago. We rode from Geneva to Turin. A real mixture of trails, a fair bit of climbing on roads and a fair bit of technical trail riding (Morzine was a nightmare), but this was by far the highlight (although quite scary, especially fully laden): Portail de Fully - YouTube
.

Not sure where to go next. Was thinking of another Alpine adventure in September. Would love to got to South America, but can't really afford the time or money!

Some badass touring you did there! Havent got experience with mtb touring myself but I reckon any alpine touring would be great!

By the way... That wasn't me. I doubt very much I looked so competent. My friend had a little fall which put the shits up him. He walked for a day. Alpine MTB touring is the best way to feel free...

Nice vid. There's also a "bikepacking" thread here which is probably closer theme to the mtb touring setup you show.

Mats on discount at Dutch online store. Most arent even off a tenner, so + shipping I doubt it'd do much good, but still worth a heads up. I could help out with forwarding to UK if needed.

Do some relaxed touring through Holland/Germany/Scandinavia in July and I've got a bit of a bike dilemma. Was originally thinking I'll just get some p clips and a rack for this and probably put the derailleur back up front for 2x9.

But then part of me is thinking I should just get an old, cheap, relaxed MTB with eyelets, something like this and then tarting it up a bit.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-Mirage-Mens-bike-cycle-23-large-frame-Exage-300lx-21-speed-Retro-/141300814167?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item20e62f5157

Thinking is we're not going to be going far but probably quite a lot of time in the saddle? Any thoughts? Trying to do this part as cheap as possible because I know how expensive the trip itself is going to be.

Sleeping bags...

In the end I found a mountain hardwear Lamina 45 on eBay, for sensible money. Picked it up a couple of days ago and it looks like a great bag. Should be warm enough for my needs, and it packs down super small.

^^ Cheap + efficiency = what you have.
Change handlebar if you really want to relax.

Current bike is fine, just do what you suggested - put derailleur back on.

Frame is big enough for a decent sized framebag too, no bottle cages mount?

True. Even with those wheels?

Yeah it has some on the down tube. Framebag over rack?

Ta

Yeah just go for it. Your bike seems up for the job!