Touring Equipment

The wheel look like it's a traditional 32 spokes one, which mean it should be more than enough to handle what you throw at it.

You should look into bikepacking, there are other method of keeping the cost down (as well as weight) without resorting to buying panniers and rack that'll make the bike feel horribly noodly.

Look at Alpkit for some selection, basically a backpack for your bike;

https://www.alpkit.com/bike-luggage

Some inspiration.

So. Much. Pannier.

Apologies, thought I was in Bikepacking thread.

Some breath taking photos and good reads there. Cheers!

Has anybody here had a try of making a frame bag?

Has anybody here had a try of making a frame bag?

yup, see the bikepacking thread for more

Last one, feel like thread hijacker. Still need to trim velcro.

Test ride in light rain all fine, another 40 min ride in heavy rain just now everything inside dry.

15 mins later once stopped water that had pooled on top of bag under top tube had drained inside, but that's good to know to shake that off after heavy rain.

Seam check later and then time to consider v2.0

Satisfied with end result even tho looks very DIY. Handwind 1950's machine lots better for this type of work.

I'm going off my fucking head with the constant job searching, rain, and nae fucking cash monies to go somewhere fun and sunny.

So instead of selling my trusty Denton I've stripped and re-built it with bar-ends and want to assemble kit for micro-touring.

Thinking, Carradice bar bag and some kind of saddle bag only, with the very basics for two/three nights camping at a time. I've got a front/rear rack already if I need it, but stupidly sold my panniers : /

What should I be packing? Apart from the saddle bag recommend I want tiny tent that can restrain midges and inevitable rain, ultra basic stove/pot, some kind of garmin recharging set up and whatever else I've definitely missed out. It also has to be very low budget...

I want to get it all together by the end next week so I can cock off into the wilds and tramp about hill and glen for a few days-I haven't really done much camping before let alone finding bike-compatible gear so if anyone has any recommends as I'm trying to sort through the previous 50 pages I'd appreciate it.

If you've not camped before you might have a bit of a shock and find it fairly miserable to start with, while you get used to things.

Anyway I recommend Trangia stoves personally because it's all one kit with the stove and pans.

Oh and which tosser's gone and bought your panniers?

haha... classic thing of having them sitting unused for ages then getting rid. I'm glad they went to a good home tho :D

Get a trangia as doppelkorn says. As for what else you may have forgotten, have you a packing list? Would make it easier to see what you might have missed out.

UG, pm me your address so I can send you some old panniers I have lying around.

ah ed, you're a gent-thanks! I'll leave a little cairn somewhere nice with a 'Thank you Ed Scoble' written on it

i has a Carradice College and SQR block you can borrow x

If anyone's interested in Trangias or other alcohol stoves, I have RUCAS: RUCAS
. It's made by some dude in his garage, and it's bloody fantastic. I have a Trangia and MSR Whisperlite too, but the RUCAS is the one I use 90% of the time - I only use the MSR when I want to cook with two pans at once, or if I need to melt snow.

Does someone know what the options are to put lowriders or a rack on carbon cyclocross forks?

The RUCAS looks ace but can't find anywhere stocking them in the UK-what do we think of this:

Tatonka Stainless Steel Alcohol Burner: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

They're made by a guy in his garage - email him, pay via paypal, and he'll post it to you.

The Tatonka seems to get some poor reviews there... most of them say that it's slow and it leaks. By comparison, my Trangia doesn't leak and has a simmer ring. The RUCAS doesn't have a screw-top but in reality this doesn't bother me - it doesn't have a simmer ring either but I only use it for rehydrating food and boiling water. It's not the most stable stove on uneven ground, but I sit it on a wooden coaster which helps. The RUCAS also burns quite a bit hotter than the Trangia, but not quite as fast as the MSR canister stove. The RUCAS is by far the lightest.

Can anyone reccomend a decent camping pillow? I'm getting fed up of the old backpack full of clothes as a pillow routine. It doesn't need to be mega light or anything because it'd mostly not be used for cycle touring. This Montbell UL gets good reviews but do I need to spend that much money to get something good?

How about sleeping bag stuff sack full of clothes? They're nice and soft and just the right size. And lighter than the Montbell one, since you're already carrying it.

That's not a bad shout! Might give that a go. Cheers.

How about sleeping bag stuff sack full of clothes? They're nice and soft and just the right size. And lighter than the Montbell one, since you're already carrying it.

That's what I do. Just put a tshirt or something on top so you don't have the plastic-y waterproof fabric on your face. Hate that.

I'm going camping in Italy/Austria in a couple of weeks and am taking my cheapo single-skinned tent. I'd like to reproof my tent before I go - does anyone have any recommendations for reproofing products?

Not specifically but outdoor shops will have decent ones.

Helpful.

Single skinned tents?
You'd be better off doing this.