How can folks escape further into the trails and woods if using a mountain bike with racks &/or a trailer ?? Any ideas? Used to be a bicycle-trailer for off-roading called a BOB that was the cat's meow, has anything newer and better been designed since? Any decent rack and pannier setup to be used on a modern, dual-suspensioned bicycle?
Tents How and What to Pack if Bugging Out on Bicycle?
- Thread starter LONEWOLF
- Start date
Freeholder
This too shall pass.
It would depend if you plan to ride the bikes, or use them as pack 'animals' and push them the way the Montagnards (sp!!) did in the mountains in Vietnam. I read that they could carry 300 lbs. on their bikes, pushing them.
Kathleen
Kathleen
Well, their use to be a company by the name of Cannondale that made bicycle bags and racks.
For other camp gear like tents you should be looking at the Eureka Timberline back packing and they make an outfitter 2 & 4 man and hold up much better & longer life. Eureka also makes a 6 man Timberline Outfitter, very roomy for three or four people. The A-Frame tents shed rain well because of their steep sides and the same said for snow and many of the dome tents will collapse under snow load or fold in high winds.
Heres a good place to by much of the camp gear and they have been around awhile and I have bought stuff from they my self.
http://WWW.campmor.com
For other camp gear like tents you should be looking at the Eureka Timberline back packing and they make an outfitter 2 & 4 man and hold up much better & longer life. Eureka also makes a 6 man Timberline Outfitter, very roomy for three or four people. The A-Frame tents shed rain well because of their steep sides and the same said for snow and many of the dome tents will collapse under snow load or fold in high winds.
Heres a good place to by much of the camp gear and they have been around awhile and I have bought stuff from they my self.
http://WWW.campmor.com
Bicycle Junkie
Resident dissident and troll
I have toured over 5000 miles on long cross-country bicycle trips, over deserts, high mountains and through all sorts of remote areas, not necessarily friendly towards bicyclists. I have been shot at three times (they missed). You must be ready for any contingency, mechanical or otherwise, or you will be at the mercy of strangers.
Use front and rear panniers and a handlebar bag to evenly distribute the load.
Carry spare spokes and a spare rear axle. Also have spare chain links, a spare tire or two, extra inner tubes and a patch kit. Bring tools for everything on the bike and know how to use them. If you don't know how to use a spoke wrench and how to replace spokes, learn, otherwise you can quickly ruin a wheel. Those who travel large distances on bicycles with camping equipment need to be expert bicycle mechanics.
When you pull off the road to camp for the night, make sure no cars are coming and no one sees where you went into the woods.
Learn to take a bath with a pint of water. Use a water bottle bidet to keep your crotch clean.
Stop at convenience stores where you can see your bike outside. Lock your bike and disable it. Carry freeze-dried food and supplement it from convenience stores. Occasionally stay at state parks where there are showers. Take your bike into the bathroom. Once in a while splurge on a cheap motel, and decent restaurant food.
Always have enough water for the next 50 miles, and fill all water containers before you camp for the night.
Attach a good rear-view mirror to your helmet. Always wear your helmet when riding.
Use cycling shoes with cleats and have alternate shoes that you can also ride in or use for walking. Have surf shoes for wading in rivers and lakes.
Carry neosporin ointment, rubbing alcohol and a small "surgical" kit with a razor, needle and tweezers.
Bring biodegradable soap to wash your clothes in streams.
Use a gasoline camp stove which will run on unleaded gasoline from gas stations, and keep gas in a nalgene bottle. The gas station attendants will get a kick out of you pulling up to their pumps and getting a quarter's worth of gas.
Use front and rear panniers and a handlebar bag to evenly distribute the load.
Carry spare spokes and a spare rear axle. Also have spare chain links, a spare tire or two, extra inner tubes and a patch kit. Bring tools for everything on the bike and know how to use them. If you don't know how to use a spoke wrench and how to replace spokes, learn, otherwise you can quickly ruin a wheel. Those who travel large distances on bicycles with camping equipment need to be expert bicycle mechanics.
When you pull off the road to camp for the night, make sure no cars are coming and no one sees where you went into the woods.
Learn to take a bath with a pint of water. Use a water bottle bidet to keep your crotch clean.
Stop at convenience stores where you can see your bike outside. Lock your bike and disable it. Carry freeze-dried food and supplement it from convenience stores. Occasionally stay at state parks where there are showers. Take your bike into the bathroom. Once in a while splurge on a cheap motel, and decent restaurant food.
Always have enough water for the next 50 miles, and fill all water containers before you camp for the night.
Attach a good rear-view mirror to your helmet. Always wear your helmet when riding.
Use cycling shoes with cleats and have alternate shoes that you can also ride in or use for walking. Have surf shoes for wading in rivers and lakes.
Carry neosporin ointment, rubbing alcohol and a small "surgical" kit with a razor, needle and tweezers.
Bring biodegradable soap to wash your clothes in streams.
Use a gasoline camp stove which will run on unleaded gasoline from gas stations, and keep gas in a nalgene bottle. The gas station attendants will get a kick out of you pulling up to their pumps and getting a quarter's worth of gas.
Smoke
Veteran Member
As far as trailers go, they did come out with a BOB that has suspension, I think it is called the IBEX, the YAK doesn't have suspension, I have a BOB YAK and it tracks nice. I also picked up a kids trailer as I would rather have more weight over a different axle than the rear wheel...I too thought about bugging out with a bike and trailer...It would let you haul more gear than just a backpack...there are other trailers out there and I've seen a bunch of different trailes made for hauling a lot of different things...it is amazing what people think of..
Bicycle Junkie
Resident dissident and troll
On my first cross-country trip which was from San Diego to Jacksonville, Florida in January 1975, I used a Cannondale "Bugger" trailer. I rode a racing bicycle with sew-up tires, and brought a dozen extra tires and two spare rims lashed to the trailer. I had a special trailer hitch welded to the seatpost. A day out of San Diego in the coastal mountains I jackknifed the trailer on a winding road. The plastic and nylon trailer hitch snapped in two. Fortunately I had a spare hitch.
I had never been in a desert before. While crossing the Southwestern deserts I learned about "goathead" thorns and left a trail of destroyed tires along the road when I couldn't patch them anymore. When I got to New Orleans I laced on clincher rims for the rest of the trip.
When I got to El Paso the spare hitch was developing stress cracks, so I had to hole up in a motel for five days while I had spares shipped to me.
On subsequent cross country trips I used panniers instead of a trailer, and heavy clincher tires, with thornproof tubes in the deserts.
I had never been in a desert before. While crossing the Southwestern deserts I learned about "goathead" thorns and left a trail of destroyed tires along the road when I couldn't patch them anymore. When I got to New Orleans I laced on clincher rims for the rest of the trip.
When I got to El Paso the spare hitch was developing stress cracks, so I had to hole up in a motel for five days while I had spares shipped to me.
On subsequent cross country trips I used panniers instead of a trailer, and heavy clincher tires, with thornproof tubes in the deserts.
L.A.B.
Goodness before greatness.
LONEWOLF- Here ya go.
http://www.cycletote.com/
This trailer blows away everthing else. It connects off of your (measured diameter in mm) of the bicycle seat post.
Various models support 175 lbs. of gear, and can be had with 70mm drum brake hubs. The brakes are activated by the inertia the rider creates as he applies his bicycles brakes.
The trailer hitch is a spring loaded shaft/frame/plunger that activates the drum brakes on the trailer automatically. Test by cycletote.com show a rider traveling at (forgot the speed) stops with his bicycle in 86 feet. With the loaded trailer this distance increased by less than 10% more. Without brakes (distance was??) <--- sorry forgot, but substantial anyway.
Hand made in Colorado. Well worth checking out.
Google a you-tube video to a better idea of the off-road capabilities.