Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

I have a rack.

Do moobs count?

Of course there is. A carradice.

I think so. The applause from my last drag show are still ringing in my ears.

Is there any safe way to mount bottle cages on the carbon fork without any mounting points? I don't want to damage the fiber with some metal clamps etc.

I can make you a rack for your paneer

SKS anywhere mounts should do it.

Agreed, couldn’t be without mine now!

Do they require covering the fork with a foil to avoid damage to carbon?

v

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inner tube and zip ties

I need this bike in my life! Any idea where the cranks are from?

Joseph Kuosac

Any reasons why this wouldn’t be a good touring/bikepacking option for the other half?

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/marin-four-corners-adventue-road-bike-2019/rp-prod186802

I would avoid due to bad spelling.

Aesthetics, mainly.

Just looking at options - do they do custom for MTBs? Have a very acute wedge to fill, and want to do it as efficiently as possible.

Looks decent enough to me. If the hubs are cheap open bearing (which I’m assuming they are) would recommend packing with a load of fresh/quality grease to begin with.

Depending on the fitness level of you GF you might want to consider the weight of the bike.
My GF is rather small and thus struggled to get on with heavier bikes, especially carrying luggage.

Would be interested to hear more about what solutions/mitigations you have used to make it more enjoyable?

First of all, we got rid of the horrible old gas pibe mtb that she had been riding and got her a lighter weight mixte and put on a mtb crank with 38-26 chainrings to lower the gearing.
And when we're riding I carry most of the heavy stuff while she's carrying the lighter stuff in two small front panniers.

And recently we've started looking for a tandem - she's always wanted one and it's a great fitness equalizer. Plus it makes it so much easier to talk while riding. I realize that a tandem is not for everyone tho.

Cool, do you have a snap of the set-up? Is it lighter steel or alu/carbon?

Trying to solve similar problems currently, and also have a tandem in the works subject to storage. Cheers!

Anyone using an anything cage or similar to carr spares and tools for on a full sus MTB. Looking to ditch the backpack if possible

Spec has a cool little mount that will mount in any of their saddles, it gives you 3 possible sets of water bottle spaced mounting holes. I mounted one with salsa anything cage and bag to carry some spares and tools for 6 riders. I’m sure you could do something similar with a tri water bottle mount.

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They don't currently do custom bags. The ones done for me were in part looking at how it would work, but I'm not sure it will be coming any time soon.

Sad times