Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

I bought it in "bulk" from this mob

https://www.vikingtapes.co.uk/collections/3m-8671hs-polyurethane-protective-tape-bike-tape

It's done a couple of bikes. I probably should take the electrical tape off the Mason and finish the heli taping job on that...

Tried my Carradice Nelson on the bar mounted bagman carrier, but it’s too wide even with very wide bars, and a bit of a faff to be honest.

Just mounted this rack and Restrap Rando courtesy of Gideonparanoid on here.

Is the bolt setup dodgy?

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You're putting a strap between the headtube and rack right? Right?! 😬

Why would I need one? It’s a steel rack, it’s an m6 stainless bolt. Feels bomber to me?

You just asked:

Is the bolt setup dodgy?

Yes it is. M6 bolts when used properly are very strong, but you are trusting a lot to one sub-optimally assembled bolt here. There have been a few recalls involving and warnings about front racks unbolting and causing the rider to go OTB and cause serious injury.

That brass(?) sleeve may compress over time causing the bolt to lose tension, the bolt may fatigue under the head where it is bending... Then again if you're only using it occasionally for overnighter and just putting sleep kit in it, you'll probably never have an issue.

I'm no engineer, but it seems like there'll be some flex in the bolt and I doubt bolts are designed to tolerate that. It either snaps or flexes enough times to unwind the nut a touch or wear the brass spacer, loosening things off and flexing more and then snapping.

Maybe I'm over cautious as I've had a bodge-free rack fail there before and go into the wheel. It wasn't fun.

A toe strap or few loops of paracord won't prevent failure but should give you enough time to respond in the even of failure.

Looks like the length of bolt can be shortened a bit? Snug it up as much as possible.

Yeah maybe, it’s never going to be seriously laden. I’m convinced it’s fine, lol.

It’s not threaded along its whole length, hence the sleeve.
I’ll source a proper length bolt at some stage.

Having some difficulty with a Tailfin through axle...

When installing the Universal Through Axle, I followed these instructions through to Step 3 "Attach Correct Thread Section”. When I do this, the drive side section threaded onto the non-drive side section fine, but when I stopped at 5nm there was still a substantial section of treaded section still visible on the NDS section. From the images in Step 6 (no step 5?), it looks like the DS section should thread all the way onto the NDS section to form a flush join. I therefore unscrewed the two parts a couple of turns and retightened. This time, the DS section screwed a little bit further onto the NDS section, but again when I stopped at 5nm there was a substantial gap. At this point I began to wonder if something was wrong, so went to disassemble the parts completely, however when I did so, they had become seized together. At no point did I tighten beyond my torque wrench’s 5nm setting but they now seem totally stuck. I have not tried to mount the parts in a vice to apply heavy pressure to separate them, but they are definitely seized tight to conventional hand pressure and certainly beyond the 5nm applied.

This doesn't seem right to me... the two parts of the axle should fit together flush right?

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Yeah that doesn't look right, contact Tailfin.

Tailfin sending out a replacement axle 👍

Wrote up a blog post of my 'bikepacking' trip in Dorset this weekend.

https://calumonwheels.com/2024/07/08/purbeckbimble2024/

I used the 29er but jubilee clipped two adventure cages to the cylindrical suspension fork. I was a bit nervy of clamping things to forks but because it's a stiff cylindrical aluminium lower leg I just wrapped electrical tape around the fork and then clamped down the jubilee clips as tight as I could. They held up pretty well so I put my lighter stuff in there and kept the heavier items in the alpkit airlok 20l drybag on the handlebar or the planet x giant saddlebag.

No tent for me, I had a bivvy bag and stretched a tarp over my bike and a mate's and pinned it down with tent pegs and guy lines which kept the wind and rain off us and worked very well. Once we'd properly pegged it down it wasn't flappy or noisy at all.

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Bits of the Purbeck trails have changed a lot in some of the rain in the past year. Especially around the golf course, where things like Frank's Tank - the MTB trails down the side of it - have just disintegrated into rut central. Hard enough without luggage, and highly dependent on bike handling. The regular rocky bridleways are already enough.

Gorgeous part of the world, though.

yeah it's interesting you mention that bit because I am already planning a rerouted version that skips it out in the future. It was hugely overgrown too so I expect the footfall is very very light.

I like that tarp setup!

Has this failed yet?
The attachment bracket on the rack isn't adjustable? I'd try bending the bracket so it goes to the fork, or at least closer. Then you could shorten the struts and bring the whole thing lower.
Not saying that it will fail, but front racks are for I don't care it'll be fine with this bag of concrete on it scenarios.

I did exactly that. I still need a slightly longer bolt to accommodate some washers, but I didn’t like the flexing and movement of the rack, also felt like the weight being further forward was also a bad thing.

Bent the attachment for more clearance as you say. Oh and added a safety strap.

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Nice!

I’m after a bag to hang on my handle bars like the Wizard Works Shazam or I quite like the Carradice Cambrian.
Before I spend my money is there anything else available I should look at?
I like that they expand and I could also strap a dry bag to it.

The roadrunner jammer springs to mind, but the shazam is more useful IMO

Thanks. You’re right the Shazam looks better, but £££😬

https://freshtripe.co.uk/tadah-id-djagad-bag/ My pal has one of these and really rates it, looks much neater in the flesh too

That’s a great shout, not seen it before, thank you 🙏

https://bigxtop.com/products/rando-bar-bag is a very nice piece of kit.