Anyone here bike with a hammock?

**funbun** · 04-08-2007, 20:25

Originally Posted by btourer

. . .I took some 1/8 x 1 aluminum and made some hooks and used webbing strap to cinch the bags to the rack. The webbing is held tight to the bottom of the bag by a plastic strip. It's a lot more solid and I took 1 1/2 lbs off the bike.

Cool, got any pics?

**btourer** · 04-09-2007, 18:27

The brackets aren't hard to do. The material can be had at Lowe's. Use a big washer on the inside of the bag to keep it from pulling through the plastic. Now hopefully this image will come up, I'm new to this forum stuff!

**bikenque** · 04-10-2007, 08:31

I got to the hammock forums through the bike touring forums and the bikelist.org groups. A tremendous resource for anyone interested in bike touring.

I've got a bunch of bike camping trips coming up around the Southeast this summer. I was looking to cut some weight and went to tarp camping which led to hammock camping.

I've got my gear close to a 10 lbs base weight. One of the nice things about bike touring is that you can schedule town stops every day, if need be. That allows me to cut my food weight down to two days and stop regularly to refill in small quantities. I don't mind because I'm not after a wilderness experience on the bike, I'm usually out looking at small rural towns and buying food is a great way to explore them.

**Oms** · 04-10-2007, 17:36

It sounds really nice. I have a trail and a road bike. I can see a touring bike in the future. After a good long ride the hammock would be nice. Now if I can only talk my wife into it

**btourer** · 04-10-2007, 18:18

Good luck on that wife thing. My wife's idea of roughing it is just taking one credit card.

**Just Jeff** · 04-10-2007, 19:07

Bump...back to hammocks, pls.

**funbun** · 04-11-2007, 10:02

Okay, how do you store your hammock while riding? Do you stuff it in a pannier or throw it in with your quilt and strap in on top of your rack? Or do you pitch it onto you handlebar and use it as a sail while riding in strong tailwinds?

**btourer** · 04-11-2007, 17:59

The right front pannier is all shelter system. Hammock, hex fly, 11x10 diamond fly, straps, stakes and ground cloth. After hanging the hammock and fly the bike gets moved to the foot end so I can use it as a chest of drawers. The JRB's are in the rear right along with my long johns. I put down the small ground cloth (the patio) between the bike and the bottom of the hammock. That gives me a clean place to stand and change clothes and also keeps me from dragging leaf litter into the hammock on my socks.

**bikenque** · 04-12-2007, 08:56

Originally Posted by funbun

Okay, how do you store your hammock while riding? Do you stuff it in a pannier or throw it in with your quilt and strap in on top of your rack?

btourer's got the right ideas. The key to good bike touring is prioritizing your panniers, (saddlebag in my case). Just like with backpacking, you want the weight low and towards the middle. And like with backpacking, put the necessities/emergency stuff on top easy to get to and the camp stuff low and out of the way.

With bicycling you need to balance between sides of the bikes and keep the weight as close to the axles of the wheels as possible, preferably with a 40/60% weight in the front/back respectively.

I have a big saddlebag and handlebar bag, each sitting on small racks. Soft stuff on the back -- quilt, hammock, clothes, dry food, toiletries. Tools & fuel in one side pocket, emergency weather gear in the other. Cook kit, remaining food, tarp, camera, binoculars, gloves in the handlebar bag. This is where the hammock really works for me -- no tent poles to manage.

**Coffee** · 04-12-2007, 09:51

I'll have to keep all of these ideas in mind. Next summer I am going to try to get into motorcycle trips. A little different, but the concept is the same.