Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

Nice irish route.....!
There are loads of good lanes etc....I did a load last year. Not much in the way of bridleway type routes for the off-roaders though....unless you ignore the 'PRIVATE' signs!
I'm actually on the ferry at the minute on the way back.....took my mum to see her brother...this time used my VW camper :0)

Good snaps too ;0)

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Please don't advertise the WAW, it is a secret and not to be advertised......

I go to the Atlantic a few times a year (where my relies and folks live), done some jaunts over there and the scenery is gorgeous, although I am biased as I'm a child or Eire.

What was your favourite town/village XavJ? I'm going next week for a fortnight to do some touring.

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Please don't advertise the WAW, it is a secret and not to be advertised......

After a quick search and watching [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_g1SAPNpuQ"]Ireland's
Wild Atlantic Way - YouTube[/ame]

Definitely going on the list!

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Thanks XavJ, that's awesome. I was asking (which town/village) was your fave as I've been around a few times although not on a bike.

There's a great TG4 documentary on the Ras Tailteann
, can't find it though, there are some great stories of it though.

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Finally popped my bikepacking cherry wooohaaa!

Somewhere between 6/700 miles of wild atlantic Irish west coast knocked out on this setup (9 days riding):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BtyOcJlCIAAvxOm.jpg

Taking in Mizen-Malin head (most southerly/northerly points in Ireland), with some world class roads along the way:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BtyQ5ptCEAIjmK2.jpg

Fuelled almost exclusively by the following (Hippy take note, regarding nutrition on the road thread ;-) ):

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BtyRSL8IgAAAShP.jpg

No sleep/cook items carried - purely alehouses/hostels for sleep & victuals.

Thanks to all contributors within this thread - could not have made this trip without your information, and especially the following: 1/Conti 4 seasons rubber 2/Adamo Century X saddle 3/Re-pack luggage.

Broken spokes the only major headache - off to find local workshops so I can learn how to sort out myself from now on.

Already thinking of next (Euro) adventures now...

hope this fixes your links

the ":large" at the end of your image link url was the problem I think

I'll be touring from Orange to Toulouse next week and a bit of advice would be very handy.

I have a carradice nelson longflap with the bagman2 expedition support. I've also just bought a Romin with carbon rails and the channel in the saddle has made cycling far, far more comfortable. Will the carbon rails be ok with the bag and support or should i switch back to a saddle with steel or ti rails?

I'm also aiming to pack light, with either just the nelson or with the possible addition of an Apidura/Wildcat frame bag, I weigh around 12st because im fat at the moment, would 24F/28R spokes be a bad idea? I'd like to ride the Serotta (http://www.lfgss.com/thread106694.html) as it is, but have a Mercian KOM with 32h Open sports on it that i could ride and would be slightly less worried about thieves when its locked up. I could always swap the wheels over as the cassette's should be interchangeable but the wheels on the serotta are far nicer to ride

Bit risky, can't you buy a Romin with a normal rail instead?

Would go for a frame bag, it make less of a difference than a handlebar bag on the Serotta.

TL:DR - road bike = bikepacking to keep from feeling sluggish and noodly.

Plan was to do a 1 night trip in the mountains near Madrid with my colleague. Turns out he isn't as fit as he thought he'd be, so we just did a 45km ride at an extremely slow pace. I had all my camping kit with me as we only found out that we werent gonna do the full trip during the ride. Still had a great time and seen some beautiful things around El Escorial. For some reason Flickr is fucking with me here in Spain so no photos atm.

Have just bought the Wildcat Ocelot in XL

Have only just bought the carbon railed romin Ed so dont really want to splash out on another one. Would have got steel rails in the first place but the concept only had the steel version in the wider and more padded shape. Can switch it to a concor, regal or brooks swallow if necessary but none of them have the cutout

Can switch it to a concor, regal or brooks swallow if necessary but none of them have the cutout

DIY

what could possibly go wrong?

^ said no adventurer, ever ;)

I haven't done cutouts on a Brooks, but did shave a B17 down (took the skirts off) many years ago, and it's holding up fine. I weigh less than 150 though. Looks like a poor man's Swift.
If you're going to do a cut out, get a decent punch set so that you can make properly rounded ends to prevent the cut from getting longer than intended.

Some details of Mike Hall and Ed Pickup's TransAm set up: http://roadcyclinguk.com/gear/trans-am-bikes-mike-hall-ed-pickups-pivot-vault-bikes.html

Great piece there, I'm liking the setup mucho.

Some (slightly less interesting) info about one of the Transcontinental rider's kit, as that's kicking off again in a couple of days...

https://www.alpkit.com/news/transcontinental-race

All the reading today!

A not-so-cheery Tour Divide recap and kitlist/blog

I heard a few people say “Once you get out of Montana, you’ve made it.” Total bullshit. It never gets any easier.

Edit: infact all the recap + more photos and other TD stuff is on his blog http://theskrumble.wordpress.com/

Some (slightly less interesting) info about one of the Transcontinental rider's kit, as that's kicking off again in a couple of days...

Ha, i love reading about these kind of setups, it's amazing with how little amount of stuff you can roll. Here's couple more:

https://allegaertk.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/bike-set-up-transcontinentalrace-2014/

http://www.randonneurs.fi/transcontinental-race-2014-complete-kit-list/

+1 Awesome read, bookmarked for future reference

Definitely made me rethink what I've been lugging around on day rides, let alone multi week races!