Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

It’s called Methyl Hydrate around here, claiming to be 99.9% pure.
Burns very clean.

It's dropped here first people, wait till it's on the radavist 😎

Seems I'm ahead of the trend for once.

https://www.pannier.cc/journal/dashed-lines-bikepacking-the-road-to-the-dolomiti-superbike-race-south-tirol/

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Nice!

annoying that my tent poles are 1cm too long to fit inside frame bag : / grrrr. probably just sit them on top of the frame bag, between bag and top tube.

need to figure out if the groundsheet etc of my wild country zephyros 1 will pack down small enough to fit in my saddle bag along with all other items... and source a sleeping bag that will fit in with it. might have a look at those decathlon forclaz numbers

Where you going?

probably just sit them on top of the frame bag, between bag and top tube.

I never regarded this as a good idea as you'd have to undo the frame bag every time you're camping

thinking about doing the faultline trail - http://www.albannach.cc/rides/

@giofox I've not tried but I assume I'll be able to undo one loop on the frame bag and slide them in and out. I will try this tonight tho. I'm more worried about damage to the frame/paint from rubbing. need to get some clear tape for underside of the toptube. alternative would be thread them through webbing on front of handlebar bag, I guess

Looks like a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Again, I'd be more concerned about damaging the tent poles and compromising the sleeping system for the trip than the bike paint ahestetic. #vibrationkills

I went through the same thought process and ended up strapping them to the underside of the handlebar bag. (Red bag in picture below)

Also, I really like using old inner tubes to ties/stabilize things on the bike, cheap, versatile and good adjustable tension.

Good luck for the ride, looks promising!

Anyone got any strong opinions on cages vs a simple anchor like the problem solvers one? I'll just be strapping a sleeping bag on one side and mat on the other, so will be low loads. I like the simplicity of the bow tie anchors and I think they'll work well for light, squishy things but if anyone has any experience, I'll gladly listen.

had cages, crashed. bent one. I crash a lot.

Have bowties now. generally used for carrying nalgene bottles. Have secured drybags with no issue although sometimes you might need to have them tighter than you would if there was a cage

what do people tend to do with their bikes when (wild) camping? do you carry a lock/cafe lock?

A spare tarp to cover it when it was white, now I just make sure i and my bike are invisible.

Have camped at chew valley lake before... in the tiny woods in the car park, and walkers came past, didn’t see me or my bike!

Just be as hidden as possible, heard of a shoelace around the bike and your biv / you before

thanks - I figure I'll lie it on its side, maybe with the front wheel lodged under the non-sleep side of the tent. would be difficult to get away without being alerted. would also camp in a discrete place to set myself up for success

another noob question - what are people's charging solutions for electronics? I'll be pretty reliant for wahoo charging on this, for route-finding

Currently I just use a pebble battery pack, I have a young kiddo so have camped out for one night since her birth and I’m not sure I enjoyed it tbh... even if it was my stag do!

More than a night or two I would use a sinewave revolution, £120, just plug onto a dynamo hub and plug in your usb, I would charge a battery pack then down charge onto a phone etc if possible

+1 for sinwave and dynamo hub. SON hubs if you can.

+2 for sinewave. Direct or via a battery. Just works and can use it inside a bag so doesn't suffer in the rain.

Don’t need to worry about the rain, fully waterproof, Works in a cup of Water!

Yeah, but the contacts corrode over time and the thing you are plugging into it is not necessarily waterproof.

I have got a B&M USB-werk which is fine as long as you're going at a reasonable speed. 25km/h along a nice flat river path=full usb power. 10km/h up a mountain=no power at all. But I expect that is the same for all devices.

any non-dynamo hub 5-7 day solutions? assuming a 10,000 mAh power pack would only give a wahoo a couple of full charges?

My Garmin 1000 is 1000mah battery I imagine wahoo is the same.

Also sure you'll eat lunch and dinner just charge then too.

It seems wahoo keep the mAh of their batteries very close to their chest.. but if we take the battery replacement kits for the Garmin 820 - which are 600 mAh - as a rough ballpark figure, a 10k battery pack should do upwards of 10 full charges.

Non-dynamo solutions are basically solar, which I’m not sure how good/viable it is or charging strategically at stops, which with a big enough battery Bank is probably do-able.

thanks, that's good intel. think I'll go with battery pack + try to maximise charging opportunities via stops. just conscious it could be taking the piss a bit to ask cafes if I can plug in this, that and the other while I scoff down my scrambled egg roll