The bike touring / bikepacking thread

I could put together a scenic 600km route on Van Isle with a remote and killer camp spot every night.

:banana:

nice vid and like the choice of music

can you ride rail grade all the way to Grand Forks now?

You can ride rail grade all the way from Castelgar to Grand forks. And aside from a fenced off portion by greenwood you can go all the way to Penticton. I haven't ridden the part from Penticton to Princeton but Princeton to Brookmere is also good.

:banana:

Vikb's route also looks cool

I haven't ridden the part from Penticton to Princeton but Princeton to Brookmere is also good.

Actually there is (as of last July) a huge section of the trail that washed out between Tulameen and Princeton.

From Trails BC: http://trailsbc.ca/closures/tct-closed-nanaimo-regional-district

Originally posted March 27, 2015 - No update as of Nov 2015 - It has been reported that there is a major debris slide over the trail and into the Tulameen River at one end of a bridge half way between Princeton and Coalmont. Hopefully, a bike and pedestrian track will be put in place as an interim measure but a safety assessment needs to be made first. In the meantime, it is not possible to cross this slide and the detour route is the road between these two towns (about 25 km).

What trail that does remain was in rough shape, so rutted and/or sandy that we ended up getting off the trail near Otter Lake and just taking the road.

Lots of traffic on the Kettle Valley Railway. by letsridebikes.ca, on Flickr

Looking down at the KVR, near Princeton. by letsridebikes.ca, on Flickr

Bummer. I really enjoyed it a couple of years ago

We're still cycling around Mexico, with a flight out of Panama at the end of July to Brasil.

Just weighed my gear and the bike is 23kg and cargo is 36kg.

No recent gear changes really except the addition of a boogie board for surfing the Pacific coast waves. I've been tempted to swap it for a surfboard but I'm just not good enough for a short-board and not crazy enough to tote around a longboard.

For those of you who are more into "bike-packing" (as defined by North Americans) you might get some ideas from this thread.

So spring is sprunging..Who's got plans to go where?

Don't want to derail this thread but what would be a good trailer to haul a med sized dog around? Not sure a child-trailer or a modified BOB is the answer. Thinking of 60-80km days.

Don't want to derail this thread but what would be a good trailer to haul a med sized dog around? Not sure a child-trailer or a modified BOB is the answer. Thinking of 60-80km days.

i have an exgf who took our 80 lb shepherd/rottweiler cross on a long but pretty flat trip. they used an older kid trailer they modified, said it worked great

i've ridden my dog around on the bob and though he's not a fan of it, the setup works okay. but 1. he's really well behaved, 2. shifting weight is much easier to balance with two wheels and 3. the bob is not super stable unless in motion - so i wouldn't recommend it for a dog on a tour

and of course there are dog-specific trailers now, for your precious wittle poodly woodly whose needs and delicate sensibilities simply can't be overimagined

https://cyclinggypsies.wordpress.com/dogs-on-bikes/

These two guys took a kids trailer, added PVC pipe on the bottom to carry dog food, and changed the roof to clear PVC. It worked for them through the Rockies, from Alaska to Washington.

Paul, Jayme and Echo cycling in Banff Nat[HTML_REMOVED]#x27;l Park. by letsridebikes.ca, on Flickr

Echo and his chaffeur Jayme. by letsridebikes.ca, on Flickr

Hey, I'm thinking of taking my 12 year old son on a multiday KVR bike tour to get our toes wet and see if we want to pursue more adventurous trips (either touring or bike packing) in the future.

He has a fairly new 27.5 wheeled Norco hardtail and I have Chromag 29er. Both overkill perhaps for the KVR but it's what we have to work with. I am wondering what others' experiences are with the BOB trailers vrs Rack/Panniers vs the frame bags/handlebar bags/seat bags. I imagine I could use just about anything for the KVR but going on bigger adventures in the future (say Mt Hood in Oregon) would we be best in investing in some of those frame bags that you see for bikepacking on mountain bikes and fat bikes?

Bikes are fine, I would go as far as saying their perfect. With a kid, the best in my opinion, is a trailer. You can carry everything and all he has to do is carry a small pack and have fun. That's what I do with mine, never did a bike trip yet (this summer hopefully) but when we back country camp I carry everything and my kid has a small light pack. Dont forget the candy!!

A trailer is probably the easiest and cheapest route to go. If you want to travel "light" and find yourself doing a lot more single track. then consider investing in the frame bags. You can fit a LOT more in the trailer of course..

If I go trailer, should I go with the BOB with the suspension (Ibex?) To me, I imagine it's a smoother system once off road, even on gravel. That said I'm on a hardtail so maybe the extra weight isn't worth it.

One other thing I am wondering is if it's worth removing the dropper post and my regular chromag trailmaster saddle for a rigid post and one of those modern Brooks saddles. I forget the name but they're not leather and technically they come broken in. The reason I wonder is after a few hours in the trailmaster (or any other seat I've ever had) even with the chamois there's some pain going on. Of course I've got to think about my son too so he would for sure have chamois and maybe I will get him a cushier seat too.

If I go trailer, should I go with the BOB with the suspension (Ibex?) To me, I imagine it's a smoother system once off road, even on gravel. That said I'm on a hardtail so maybe the extra weight isn't worth it.

One other thing I am wondering is if it's worth removing the dropper post and my regular chromag trailmaster saddle for a rigid post and one of those modern Brooks saddles. I forget the name but they're not leather and technically they come broken in. The reason I wonder is after a few hours in the trailmaster (or any other seat I've ever had) even with the chamois there's some pain going on. Of course I've got to think about my son too so he would for sure have chamois and maybe I will get him a cushier seat too.

Any trailer'll do for your first time out…try something and if you like it then invest/upgrade. I loaned my BOB Yak to a friend who used it on the SSC (Hwy 101, 102, 103) without any issues.

Brooks saddles can take a few hundred KM to break in…so just run what you brung and only ride for a few hours at a time?

Spending a lot of time and money on gear on something you know you already like might be better than spending it beforehand and then trying to get rid of it after. You could end up just using a seat post mount rack system with a backpack strapped to the back.