loaded touring.

[jags]

so besides all the bike talk,what about the stuff you carry on them ,when you go on tour .
lets hear it. panniers, tents, cooking gear ,and anything else you care to mention
how do you arrange your panniers .

[john28july]

so besides all the bike talk,what about the stuff you carry on them ,when you go on tour .
lets hear it. panniers, tents, cooking gear ,and anything else you care to mention
how do you arrange your panniers .

Great stuff-here goes..
Carradice panniers, Carradice saddlebag, Tent Hilleberg Akto (Summer) Vaude Hogan (Winter) some overlap of Seasons of course, Stoves used are Trangis Mini, Trangia Standard, MSR Whisperlite or Dragonfly multi fuel, Thermarest mat, North Face or Mountain Equipment down sleeping bags, MSR Titanium spoon/fork with MSR Titanium cookset if not using Trangia stoves, Maglite torch or Petzl headtorch, plus numerous other little items including Sony radio when required.
Bike? Well its the Thorn Sherpa.
John.
www.pbase.com/john28july

[julk]

For touring in the UK.

Carradice super C panniers & stuff sack, 3 drink bottles, lights and map case.
Front panniers loaded with tools, bike spares, Trangia with gas burner and canister(s), matches, eating kit, emergency foods, maps, headtorch, rope, tent pegs, first aid etc.
Rear panniers loaded with Alpkit sleeping bag, silk liner, Thermarest pillow, spare clothing, washkit, toiletries, flipflops, rainwear, food, Platypus water carrier, money, Sony camera, Eton radio.
Stuffsack loaded with Hilleberg tent (1 of Nallo, Stalon or Nammatj as suits), Thermarest prolite 3 or Exped downmat 7 and Haglofs camp chair.

The amount of food and drink carried is proportional to how far away the next 'shop' is.
I try to split the weight 40/60 front/back.
The typical load is 22-25 kilos.

[jags]

fantastic  what a list of quality gear,i have a long way to go .
im thinking of going with a lot of the gear you both have
hilleberg akto,exped down mat,i think the carradice panniers look a lot better than ortlieb
but do they preform better when the weather gets wet.
im hopeing to tour as light as possible,so im thinking rear panniers and bar bag.

[bobs]

Have to agree with the Akto and trangia, went for Ortlieb panniers because they are waterproof and simple to use.

[julk]

Jags,

The Carradice panniers are better than the Ortlieb for me in that they have an external pocket as standard and lots of straps and attachment points to fix odd things without opening the main pannier.

Performance in the rain is different in that the cotton duck gets wet, but still keeps the water out. Rain just runs off the welded material types.

Very definitely a personal choice thing.

As to the extensive list of quality gear, mine has been acquired since I retired, prior to that I had a much more restricted budget for cycling. I rode my first ever tour from Merseyside round the Lake District and back, almost 50 years ago, on a Raleigh Trent Tourist - a basic straight handlebar 3 speed hub gear bike with a large saddlebag. In those days there were enough YHA hostels open. I still remember overtaking a car on the way down the Kirkstone Pass!

[jags]

thank's julk,yes a friend has the ortlieb ,i just dont like the look of them i think they look like big mail bags but they say there the best you can get.(think ill go with carradice).
i havent toured yet hopefully this summer on the new sherpa,i like this bike a lot i dont find it heavy when rideing (strange)super smooth  i have a great groopset xt sjs built the wheels great job so all in all great bike  so next part of the plan is all the camping gear and all that goes with it.

[stutho]

My kit when touring with the wife:
Terra-Nova Ultra Quasar Tent, Coleman Muti fuel (petrol) stove + fuel, stainless pan set, Mountain Equipment down sleeping bag + silk liner, Karrimat 5*, bike tools & spares, water, Petzl headtorch, map and case, compass, paclite cycling jacket and some clothes.

My wife carries her sleeping bag and mat, all the food, water, gps, another Petzl, first aid, her Goretex.

My kit is carried in Carradice super C limpets in the front and an old set of Karrimor on the back (I want to get a set of super C for the back when funds allow. I would also like to get some Ti pots but that for next Christmas – I hope.)   

[Fred A-M]

Stuart,

Is this your touring load with the RST? 

The reason I ask is that I might have the possbility of doing a tour of a lifetime this summer, but this would entail taking camping gear.   

Rather than reinvent the wheel by working out myself the feasibility of doing this on a trailerless RST, I'm interested to know if anyone else has gone with a light camping load on the RST.

Cheers

Fred 

[neil_p]

Hi,

My kit is non existent at the moment, although I have Ortlieb panniers waiting to be filled. I'm working with Alpenstock in Chesire at the moment to finalise my shopping list. When I place the order I'll let you know - current items on my list come from Hilleberg / Primus / Optima / Snugpak / Lowe Alpine / Exped.

Jags - as for barbags, I would recommend you only use them for minimal weight/absolute essentials. I've had too much weight in mine before and the handling of the bike becomes terrible. I just use mine for wallet/keys/phone/chocolate and that's it.

Neil

[bobs]

If you want to see some interesting bikes try...

              www.fullyloadedtouring.com

[jags]

neil i already bought karimor barbag from chainreaction on sale ,it's a great bag i gave it a trial run and no problem.there sure is a lot of gear to buy when you get into touring dident realize that when i started but im enjoying it anyhow thanks.
        lot of loaded bikes on that site bobs,plenty  of thorn's.

[freddered]

Ortleib BikePacker Plus for me.  Just superb.

You can cram loads in and the expandable straps allow you to sucurely attach clothing on top as well.  The mesh side pockets are usful for bit and bobs that need drying/bike locks..etc.

I nearly went for Carradice Super-C because of how nice they look but I don't want damp panniers in my tent and I don't like leaving cotton Duck on wet ground overnight.  The Ortleibs live under my flysheet but outside my inner tent and it doesn;t matter too much if the ground is soaking.

I carry my 1-man tent inside a pannier with cooking stuff and all my dry stuff in the other pannier.  My sleeping-bag is in a dry-bag between the panners but I could swap the sleeping bag and tent around if the tent got absolutely soaking.

[jags]

freddered thank's ,yourself and your buddy look's like you had a great tour.
your setup barbag and rear panniers, did you carry all you needed with just rear pannier's,
good point about pannier's emm still cant make my mind up.
buy the way check out crazyguyonabike.com an african adventure by dave mc loughlin i think you will enjoy this.

[freddered]

I have to admit it was only a 3 day camping trip but I'm sure I wouldn't have needed much more to stay away much longer (just a few more clothes I think).

My Self-Inflating mat is inside one pannier as well as the tent so one pannier is full of very lightweight, but bulky, stuff that a normal person would stack on the rack.  This really means I have 3/4 of a pannier spare.

The more space I have the more stuff I carry so I'm reluctant to get front panniers in case I end up taking way too much stuff.

It's worth noting that you can get a very lightweight rucksack adapter for the Ortleibs.  That sounds really useful.

I spent a year reading touring reports before I bought Ortleibs.  It was clear to me that it was either Carradice or Ortleibs and in the end I like the fact that my gear can be left overnight in the rain if need be.  My Carradice Barley Saddlebag (which I love dearly and is a superb piece of Audax kit) does get very wet to the touch, whilst remaining waterproof, and stays damp for a long time.  I can live with this in a Saddlebag but not in 2 huge panniers inside a tiny tent.