Currently building up a Sabbath Silk Route so looking for idea’s :-).

Also, for my lighter bike, i need a simple rack and was thinking of either a Salsa minimalist or a Tubus fly, anyone have any use of these?

cheers

I haven’t got round to going touring on my bike. It’d be more than up to the job of a lighter tour though…

Harvest Time by simondbarnes, on Flickr

The rack on there is a Tortec Velocity – maybe an option for your lighter bike?

Want to go touring again so bad. Here is Cal and I’s ‘alpine dirtbags’ set up:


And in action:



Best thing about it was you could take all the touring gubbins of and we had mountain bikes fit to take on the lifts and ride down anything. There is some more pictures here, here and here if anyone fancies a look

EDIT: apologies for oerdoing that post slightly and not being much help at all…

The tubus racks I have used are fantastic quality – far better than anything else I have used / seen – hence the cost. I have not used the Fly tho – although considering getting one.

Our bike in touring trim – totally useless to you 🙂

42 Windmills bicycle and us by TandemJeremy, on Flickr

I have a tubus fly and use it for light touring. It’s light and very sturdy. Being quite minimalist there isn’t much space to strap anything to the top and it works best with smaller front rider type panniers, but that’s ok for non-camping tours. I’m very happy with it overall.

Tubus Airy here on a Spa Audax.
Similar to the Tubus Fly and would agree with Hooter’s comments above.

Here’s me and my lovely touring machine ready to ride around Scotland for 2 weeks 🙂 That’s a Tubus fly btw. It works perfectly for me.

Ready to Go by LadyAlex mtb, on Flickr

I was going to post this thread on Monday, I have a mad itch for touring at the moment. Rode up from Cardiff on Saturday morning to meet some mates at Dolgelleau – I had to meet them at 10 so left at 2am.

Got there at 10:10, had a cake and coffee, then did an easy 60 mile training ride with them on the road, 5 points for hills! bag of chips and a few Guiness and rode back the next day.

Really want to hit a few Scottish bothies this year but the weathers starting to close in a little.

Elswick

Inbred

Both shown with Tortec Ultralite racks – really well made for little money.

Tortec Expedition on this one:

Blackburn Moutain rack on this:

Not particulary light racks. Thou I did buy a Tortec Ultralight and when I weighed it was the same as the Blackburn! (So returned it). The double rails on the Tortec Expedition are really good when you need to store stuff on top of the rack.

goes everywhere – use a tubus rack and as stated above the double rails are a big plus

On-road

Van Nicholas Amazon with a Topeak Super Tourist DX rack.

Off-road

PICT3465 by druidh_dubh, on Flickr

The Onion – with a Topeak Super Toutist DX rack.

Salsa Fargo on-road

Salsa Minimalist on front with Salsa Down-under low riders,
Tortec Supertour on the rear.

The minimalist rack is good plenty of options with it, I’ll be using it on the rear with a frame bag for an off-road tour next year.

Salsa Fargo (fantastic piece of kit):

P1010305 by markenduro, on Flickr

29er (good but fargo does it better):

P1000687 by markenduro, on Flickr

Kona sutra for more road based stuff(the orange one):

P1000528 by markenduro, on Flickr

What rear saddle bag is that Mark?

I doubt you’ll get many ideas from my bike, but this is my tourer, still to be toured on though, hopefully next year!

Surly Long Haul Trucker with Tubus racks and Ortliebs. Near Lake Powell, Utah.