Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

The strapdeck might work with some adhesive or something on a tapered fork leg. I've had one on the downtube for a year with four very big zipties.

That bag is pretty cool. Looking at this, Hippy's beer belly would have been a good name too.

Bit 'crushy crushy' on carbon forks though? Having crashed a few though, they're probably fine on non-WW stuff.

Ah, that would've been a good name. I first suggested 'gooch' because of where the bag goes but we moved to "down under" because it was more PG-rated for her site.

I need to do some test packing - because it's possible I'll need to move to using a rack anyway to carry the new (and much bigger) tent. So if I end up moving to rack + pannier (mmm paneer) then I'll just through everything in those and wheelie everywhere :)

I used the Topeak Versacage with the mounts that come with it on Badlands. 1L of water on each fork leg, held up well. I protected the frame with heli tape and inner tubes under the mounts, not a mark on them afterwards.
Carbon fork that does have bosses, but some of the inserts had come loose. The bosses may have helped them from not sliding down the tapered fork, not sure.

They sound pretty tough. Will keep them in mind. Ta

Could just get a different fork? This one clears 2.25" so your hoard of 2.0" tyres will easily fit

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/ragley-trig-carbon-gravel-bike-fork/rp-prod202218

Or the Carbonda CFO606 for £100 (Brother are charging £275 for it! Cheeky!)

Or the Fairlight Cempa which is no cheaper but very nice

Yeah, I'd posted the newer Kinesis fork but not looked at any others.

Never heard of Ragley. I was about to question the strength of the mounts but this review said they're not just rivnuts:

"I was looking for a bikepacking fork with dynamo routing for my Tripster and couldn't find a fork with all the features it has at a reasonable price. This is the one you want if you want a robust fork that accommodates big carry load and big tyres. The inserts to put anything cages are embedded threaded inserts in the carbon which is very strong comparing to rivnuts.
For max tyres width I run 45mm and there is still plenty of space left. Another reviewer says his fork has a rattling piece of carbon but I don't have any in mine."

£200 cheaper than the Kinesis option and based on the review I presume they'd fit. I wonder if they're much different handling-wise. They look very similar to the grrl's Spesh forks.

I think @cjr had Carbonda fork and his nuts fell off. Keen to avoid that. :)

Cempa is more than the Kinesis fork and not available.

Yes, I'm deciding whether to tighten them up myself (brother has a rivnut setting tool) or cut the fork in half and get a replacement. Carbonda will not send me a replacement until I have shown that I have destroyed them!

I have a friend who had the same thing on a Bombtrack with carbon forks. Bombtrack sent him a how-to of how top re set them himself.

Anyone else looking at Jack the Rack - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milesgibbons/jack-the-bike-rack - and thinking it could provide a solid platform for carrying camera gear?

Do you want a solid platform for camera gear? I prefer mine on my body so it's not vibrated to fuckery.

See some chat upthread. I tested it for them (Miles is a friend) and I really rate it. I would agree with Hippy that the vibration up front is not ideal, but there is a level of suspension with JACK because of the design and the fabric base.

Didn't @photoben have issues with rigid forks and expensive camera lenses?

Well yes I did, on my Panasonic (vibrations fucked two of my big lens, shook some of the elements loose). So I build the SNB with fat tires, suss forks, and rack mounted with elastomers to mount the rack, sorted.

That Jack rack looks good, but I also found that fork mounted racks under the weight of my gear made the handling shite. So I went for a frame mounted rack, it’s SO much better.

@photoben I saw your bike by the globe the other day, did look for you to say hi, but i assumed you were working

weird to say 'hi' to a bike spotter

i assumed you were working

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWfQD72nNB8

I was working, yeah you should have called! Was shooting that Walk With Amal live theatre thing. Was pretty mad.

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Oooh Nikon F2? My favourite camera. One day I’ll own one of those.

Mine isn’t cheap at all but can say resisted a lot of shaaait during the last 2 long-trips.
Internal routing for everything, mudguards and side holes for cages.
I have very abused of it.

Ah, it’s a Rodeo spork 1.2 and had since 2019 (so was less shitty brexit and pandemic times then)

I was in contact with Rodeo Labs back in 2018, trying to get hold of one of those forks. I never ended up with one (something like the EU distributors didn't have any and it would take too long to get one from the US) and then the project moved on to something else anyway. I did like them. I wonder what they cost to import to the PooK now.

Bear in mind I'm riding a used £700 RRP frameset, so putting £400 fork on it ain't gonna happen.

Had a look at the email - distributor was in Italy.

With the size of our new tent I might end up with a rack/pannier setup anyway.

Back then costed me about 650$ (and I had shipped to Spain initially for paint). In 2019 I haven’t found any EU dealer so I bought from US

Their cosmetic B stock is ~$300 now.

https://www.rodeo-europe.com/ was the distrib with "onebeer" as their email. If I'd noticed that back then I'd have bought one :)

Oh yes me too ;()

Like this? https://www.tubus.com/en/products/accessories-front-carriers/tubus-product/lm-1-mounting-set-for-forks-without-eyelets

I have used with success on an off-road tour.

RE: the gorrilla cage clip, you can easy attach a 'normal' cage to it so you dont have to use their system if you dont want too