I’m sure you could get locked up for building that! 8O

I was even considering that you may be using innertubes! I’ve used tubeless for that long, all I was thinking of was making the tyre airtight. :oops:

Superglue a patch on each side of it.

Have a look on the GPSies site, you can pick what length route you’re looking for. It should turn a few rides up for you.

You need a singlespeed with D/H tubeless tyres fitted…if you need gears then a Alfine/Rohloff hub. :P

p.s. I wouldn’t use any of that but sounds like you could use it.

Go to your local sign shop…have an idea of what font/colour you want and they’ll probably do them for you there and then. Last time I wanted some I think I was charged £2.50.
They were for my old race bike, I wouldn’t put them on my trail bike! Also if some one fancies your bike for themselves it will make you easier to track down, especially if your name isn’t that common.

Maxxis

Don’t Magura brakes have a five year warranty? I’ve had Magura’s in the past and while they haven’t been my favourites, they have been the most faff free brakes I’ve ever used…Formula, Avid and Shimano’s.
Saying all that, R1’s are my favourites but if you’re ham-fisted maybe they’re not for you. The torx bolts are made from gorgonzola!

Thanks s8tannorm, the link I’d posted had the ‘http’ part twice!

Maybe this will be of some use? Bear Bones Bikepacking link.

Ha, OP does a ride a couple of hours longer than usual and gets told he’s overtraining!?! 8O
Anyone wanting to get fitter in a controlled way should increase the amount of excercise they do each week by 10%, either in time or distance.
If you listened to most of the advice on here you would never get fitter, it’s like half the riders I know who haven’t progressed in years but who are going to enter that next event when they lose weight/get fitter etc. :roll:
I’m sure it’s been said before, unless you’re really unfit most folk don’t overtrain, they under-recover. Unless you’re training multiple times a week or doing Tabata sessions, it’s hard to overtrain.
If you’re training hard, plenty of sleep and extra food! You know you’re over doing it when you stop seeing any gains or start picking up injuries.

I once bought a load of old Bontrager tubes in bulk (years ago) and the valve stem would rip off when you tried to pump them up. I put it down to a bad batch but have still never bought them again.

I don’t think the OP is saying he’s getting pinch punctures on braking bumps? I thought he was talking about the valve stems coming away?

Cast Mag…anyone remember the Kirk Revolution? I think they all broke?

If the valve stems are ripping off I’d try a different brand of tubes.
I do recommend tubeless though, but you can still get snakebite punctures if you really do clatter something…sometimes the holes are too near the edge of the tyre to fix properly and it costs you a whole new tyre!!!
If you’re thinking of a 2.4 Rubber Queen’s, check them out first as they really are massive.

Do you all not think that someone with a bike that fills so many niches as the OP’s doesn’t already know a lot of this? :roll:

Look, to be quite honest I think you’re being a bit of a troll with the original post and wasn’t even going to comment. I’ve seen plenty of your posts on here and it doesn’t seem like you’re thick. So why is it that so many folk ask for advice and answers to their questions on the internet, when there is a perfectly useable search bar at the top of their screens?
Another thing, believe me I don’t say anything on a forum that I wouldn’t say to someone in real life.

Have you been sniffing glue??? Most of the things you think you can’t get, you can!
Also why would anyone want steel bike components? If you want steel one’s buy a ‘supermarket special’ bike.
Have you thought that the reason most things are made from what they are is because it might be the best materials for the job? :roll:

The bikepacking forums I use are:

MTBR – Bikepacking and bike expedition[/url]
Bear Bones Bikepacking
Bike and Bivi
Bikepacking.net[/url]

All have loads of info. For routes, Bear Bones and Bike and Bivi will be best as they’re UK based.
If you’re looking for a 3-5 day route, look into the Woodcock off-road coast to coast. It isn’t one you want to do when first getting into bikepacking though. Start off with one nighters until you’re comfortable with your kit.

Munqe-chick – Member

d45 mountain bike kerala was not 3-4k

D45yth
If I was to go somewhere in the near future, I think it would be with Mountain Bike Kerala. They do some amazing looking trips and for a reasonable price too. I can’t afford to take off on 3-4 grand holidays these days.

I know the Kerala trips are not 3-4k. That’s what I was saying…Peru, Guatemala and other trips to the USA I’ve looked at would’ve cost that though. Sorry if I didn’t word it clearly.
Nice pics btw!

thepits – Member

Do you need to reduce the travel? is it a case of preventing the wheel from hitting the frame.

Dave

You need to fit a 20mm spacer to stop the tyre from hitting the crown! It would be quite nasty to find this out while riding!

What time of day would you be going? Some of the places posted on here are cafes and would be closed if you were looking for an evening meal!

KE Adventure do a lot of trips to places like Nepal, Ladakh and Bhutan. I looked into going to Peru with Skedaddle but the problem is that the best biking is near the coast. If I went over there, I’d want to go to Macchu Picchu which is miles away. There’s good biking in that area but I wouldn’t want to compromise when paying thousands.
If I was going on the kind of holiday I think you’re looking for, I think I’d choose Guatemala. Amazing scenery, better than Peru I think. Have a look for some pics of Lake Atitlan, it’s like something from the land of the dinosaurs, with smoking volcanoes and what not. KE do trips there and you spend a night in ‘Casa del Mundo’, this is a hotel built into the a cliff face on the edge of the lake and can only be accessed by boat!
Wherever you choose I’m sure you’ll have an amazing time due to the kind of place you’re wanting to go…they’re more of an adventure than a normal holiday. The closest I have come to it (on a much lower budget) was travelling across the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. We were staying in gites along the way and the facilities were very basic to say the least. That’s what made it though as the holiday came to be about more than just the biking. I met a great bunch of like-minded people, with who I now go away with on biking weekends.
If I was to go somewhere in the near future, I think it would be with Mountain Bike Kerala. They do some amazing looking trips and for a reasonable price too. I can’t afford to take off on 3-4 grand holidays these days.

Depending on how often you plan to take your bike abroad, you may be better hiring one out there.
Unless you want to stick your bike in a cardboard bike box a decent bikebag can cost £80-£300! You’ll probably have to pay to take the bike on the plane too.
I have an Evoc bike bag and even though it wasn’t cheap, it has been on a few trips. It’s looking none the worse for it either and my bike has always arrived without damage. Each time I’ve been away it’s cost me £40-50 each way.
The thing to watch out for if you go for a hire bike is that the brake levers will be the ‘wrong’ way round, although they would maybe swap them round for you?

edit – sorry, there’s been a few replies as I wrote the above.

I don’t know if it was a trip that KE Adventure or Saddle Skedaddle did, but there’s a trip where you’re riding something different everyday. I think you’re in the woods one day, a bike park the next, bike through a mine and into the mountains another. You get the idea. I remember when I read about it as it just sounded like a good holiday and nothing to with the fact that it was in Slovenia.

I would say the biggest thing would be to decide on what kind of bags you want for carrying the gear. I sold a perfectly good full-sus frame to buy a hardtail for bikepacking…turned out there was a 3 month wait for the frame-bag I wanted! I ended up buying a saddle-bag and bar-bag which would have fitted on the frame I sold. :oops: Saying that I now have a small, non-custom frame bag and 2 water bottles fitted inside the frame.

I could comfortably carry everything I would need for three days with this setup…except water. I could soon buy a filter of some sort if I’m going to be away from civilisation though.

Bar-bar: Tent, sleeping mat and sleeping bag.
Frame bag: Mealtime food and a few snacks.
Saddle-bag: Spare/off the bike clothing, stove and a square of bubblewrap for sitting on and for padding the bag out.
Backpack: 3l water, muesli bars, jacket, AA Charger for GPS, phone, small camera, toolkit and a tube (running tubeless though).
1.5l of water on the frame for cooking with. I think a travel tap would suit me instead as I never need more than 500ml at a time.

Here’s a link to lots of different bike setups over on MTBR.

Polar bear liver?

I have a patch of it on my elbow…the only way in which it bothers me is that I have to keep it covered up when the sun is shining. I could use strong sunblock but it’s not worth getting it burnt. I’ve never been much of a sunbather anyway. I always wear 3/4 length tops for biking, then I don’t have to worry about it.
Like mentioned above, it can respond to light therapy but it’s not guaranteed. I think you can go to Switzerland and get pigment injections but these often don’t work either and they’re not cheap. Anyone who is self-concious about theirs can get cover up makeup on the NHS I think? It’s a few years since I looked into my options, maybe things have moved on?

The frames are the last things the thieves want! Why try and sell a stolen frame and risk getting caught with it when you can sell all the other parts as second hand?

They make better anchors? :P

Ask the same question on Bearbones Bikepacking.

Batteries AA’s. meh. Edge rechargeable lasts well enough.

AA’s, that’s why they’re good! Especially when away somewhere or on a multi-dayer!
If the eTrex had a built in bike computer like an Edge, it would be perfect for me.

Ahh, I see. I wished I’d managed to get some pics of the descents…we were enjoying them that much, we never stopped on them!

Maybe because some folk haven’t got issue 74 yet? I’m a subscriber too but haven’t received mine.
If it’s the Torridon article you’re talking about though, here’s a few pics I took the other weekend: MTBR Thread.

My Lake District bikepacking jaunts too.

For those of you saying lock-on’s aren’t grippy enough…ODI Xtreme’s are where it’s at!

Not sure on bike hire but the ‘Bikefax – Mountain Bike Southern Spain’ has the main rides around there in it.
I stayed in Lanjaron the last time I was there…we couldn’t do the rides that went over the passes due to the snow (Jan). You shouldn’t have a problem with that.

ir_bandito could have saved a bit of money if he’d shopped about…you can buy the same bags through ebay, off Bike Wagon, with much cheaper postage!

Me too!

Near Torridon, Scottish Highlands.

One thing to watch out for with Talas is how much it lowers your BB when in the low setting. I find I only use it on really steep but quite smooth terrain…anything technical and I catch my pedals. Of course this only a problem on bikes with already low B/B’s anyway but I think the Evo’s is low? I now end up using mine with full travel most of the time and my technique has improved to the point where I can just about ride up most of what I used to do with the fork lowered.
IMHO I think the older 3 postion Talas design was better than the new 2 position one.

Yeah, it was a ride near Torridon. We stayed in the youth hostel but there is a free campsite too. Weather was great…I wouldn’t fancy doing it when it’s bleak though.

A few more: