Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

My plan is to do quite a long road tour in Europe late summer/autunm, only really going off-road to find secluded wild camping spots really. Then be able to use the bike when I get home for some more off-road stuff in the UK, at which point I could invest in some bikepacking stuff if necessary.

but also for some mostly road, long distance touring of several months in europe

Did you edit that bit in? Either that or I need a coffee and possibly glasses... In which case panniers make sense.

No I didn't hehe. Try coffee first.

Not frameset only and might be hard to find one second hand but this thing with rear rack, scoble style fat mudguards and less knobbly tyres?

Very pretty! Not looking for a full bike at the moment though, certainly not a new one.

Also playing with the idea of epic cycle adventures next summer so will keep an eye on this. LaMadamme will also need a new bike so a matching build comes to mind.

Haven't really looked into specifics but an Ogre geo looks versatile but weight would be boat anchor territory fully loaded.

Is weight of frame really such a concern here?

I can't find a published weight for the Fortitude, but will it be considerably lighter than the Ogre or Troll? 500g perhaps? That's a tiny proportion of the total vehicle weight fully loaded with luggage and a human.

I couldn't find a listed weight either, but I would guess frame and fork might be as much as 800g lighter based on the material, I could easily be wrong. 800g is and isn't a lot, if the functionality and price is much the same then it is quite a lot to me. I've cut weight off all my camping gear and climbing gear over the years and in the end the little savings make a big difference, in those terms 800g is huge. But as mentioned before price and functionality come first.

I will have a 20" Troll to sell soon. PM me if interested.

Pm'd

20" here as well:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genesis-Fortitude-Adventure-frameset-mountain-bike-bikepacking-touring-commuting-/291740522164?hash=item43ed1716b4:g:yk0AAOSwiYFXE-wH

Surly 24 pack, I have one I'd recommend, way more sturdy than the pizza rack.

Surly Rack. I have one on my Cross Check and it mounts to the mid-fork and fork crown eyelets.

How did you get on with your Surly rack install?

Not too bad, doesnt work amazingly with the Tubus Tara, i mean its ok but not as good as I'd like. Will take pictures this week I hope. I was impressed by how sturdy it was on my last mini tour, also I like the fact thats its shorter but wider than the Soma.

That looks great. The bits that attach to canti brake mounts, though, can they attach to a centre bolt brake? I has no canti...

No no, as aroogah, said, they attach to the mid blade eyelets

There's nothing attached to the canti mounts?

If you mean the top eyelets then yeah, I'm sure I read somewhere that you can use one centrally to the hole there, just won't be as stable.

Everything.

wow

yeah, not sure what real world practical use it has, but still, interesting thing.

I think dammit's idea of a fast bike + trailer is possibly more useful while touring and wanting a fast bike too

riding to velodrome would be my usage .. clearly the first set of lights will be a clusterfuck

I could drag my mountain bike to the trails. Want.

Close up of the mounting points of my Surly rack.

I would a caveat and say that if you are running v-brakes it does make for some tight spacing. Not impossible, just a bit of a faff to adjust brake cables.

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