Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

+1 for insect protection, the midges were a nightmare... particularly trying to pack up first thing in the morning pre-coffee....

From the other photos you posted it looks like you had a pretty good weekend! I was a bit bummed out last night as more and more people were posting awesome photos and getting a whole bunch of texts/message about how amazing the whole weekend was (you bastards!)

On the plus side, I took delivery of a tarp, some ti-pegs, a tick remover and something-treated headnet as a precaution for the Lakes. Played around with various luggage set ups on the Karate Monkey and got round to fitting a completely new, and hopefully bombproof, drivechain (still singlespeed!). Think I've got everything planned out. Just need to stitch up a couple of bags to keep tent pegs and other pointy things from rubbing through anything.