my planning is 2 fold so to speak...................
1. i hope to do the GDMBT (Great Divide Mountain Bike Trail) next summer ..in fact i was going to take several months to do the trail........
2. when they take your drivers licenses away from you when you get older ............and they can do that.................they cannot take away your bicycle..............that way i can disappear on my bicycle and just go......when i get too old and too crabby.....
now i got that out of the way.............
i have been looking at a handle bar bag that will hold my sleeping bag and hennesey hammock and my fly rod caddy(24 inches long x 1.5 inches in dia.) (which i can tie down on the outside of the handle bar pack.....i figure the caddy for my fly rod will also work for carrying a couple of collapsible tent poles in case i might need them) i am leaning toward
carousel design works handle bar pack system ........
a frame pack that will hold my whisper lite international stove and space for other items
such as food etc..(since i have a serious food allergy i cannot have anything with gluten i need to cook my own meals)..what is nice about the whisper lite international stove it will burn either white gas or kerosene........again carousel designs works product
a gas tank bag for daily items ... etc.....again carousel design works
and the largest saddle bag for clothing and what ever .........here it is a toss up between
carousel and epic still have not made up my mind which way to go......
i am going to pick up some kind of water purifying kit.......probably the katadyn hiker pro
and this really neat item made by brunton a foldable solar charger ......so that it will charge my cell phone,my dinotte helmet light and my little grundig am/fm/sw radio........this way during the day as i am moving along i have my little solar panel strapped down to my handle bar pack doing its thing .with the battery charge in my gas tank pack. doing its natural born thing....
from what i can figure my bicycle a Trek Fuel weights in at 28.2 lbs and my equipment that i am taking with me should be another 15 to 20 lbs tops with food......so my total weight should be in the neighborhood of 43 to 48 lbs.......as long as i do not go over a total combine weight of (50 lbs) bicycle and equipment i should be fine........
since i have a full suspension bicycle.............i have read horror stories from others how their racks that they bought that were suppose to work with full suspension bicycle bust apart......and i donot want to be at a point along the trail having to abandoning equipment i need because of a busted rear or front rack.........and i remember back in the dark ages that walking with a bicycle with rear panniers can be a bummer.............
on the water situation i am planning to fabricate some caddy's to mount on my front shock forks.........so that the lower caddy that sits near my crank can carry my stove fuel bottle.......
i can probably fabricate two more water bottle mounts back along side my rear tire frame......
and one water bottle up on my handle bars for easy access........
in a perfect world i am trying to keep from carrying anything on my back.......
i can remember what it was like bicycling with a ruck sack .....how your shoulders would ache after a whole day peddling away.......but i will cross that bridge when the time comes by doing some trial test runs as time gets closer for my departure.........
since i go out bicycling about 4 days out of the week doing around 50 miles in 5.5 to 6 hrs
which is not bad for being 58..............i have experimented with my handle bars and comfort so that spot that is between your shoulder blades don't start talking to you .........i had a extender mounted on my stem to raise my handle bars 3.5 inches..............and that has made a world of difference in comfort........also on my handle bar ends i mounted the vertical uprights that make your handle bars look like bull horns...
that has helped in comfort.......but i also took 2 tennis balls and drilled holes through them
and slipped them on ........so that i can change the position on my hands.......
this has made comfort city big time................also taking another pair of hand grips and slipping them over the original hand grips on my handle bars made a difference for my hand grip comfort
so as you can see this whole thing is a work in progress............
i did pick up a copy of Michael Mc Coy`s "Cycling The Great Divide this i plan to take with me.............
and you have to understand i lived for the longest time out side of columbia falls, mt. , jackson, wy. and truckee, ca. so i have some what of an idea of being in the high country...........
but if you have ideas ..............want to shoot down any idea i have feel free too......
i am all ears............this is a learning process that i am going through...........and i have found it help full from my experience in asking others around you that have some knowledge in what you are planning to tackle
hope to hear from you
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