trunk rack?

[Brandi]

We are looking to buy some for our bikes for an off road trip. 225 miles to be exact.
We wanted to know if anyone as had problems with the one's you clamp onto your seat post? As opposed to the one's with the bar's that hook onto your frame. We have one friend who has had good luck with his, but was on an off road trip with someone who had one last year and it broke. It was not the same brand as our friends. But I told my dh that maybe our friend is just having good luck with his.

[DeniseGoldberg]

You need to be very careful with the weight you are carrying with that kind of rack. I just checked some of the Topeak racks of this type, and they recommend a max of 15 pounds.

So the real question is how much are you planning to carry? Are you talking about carrying all of your gear (as in clothes, rain gear, toilet articles, off-bike shoes, food, camera, etc.)? If you are then I suspect this type of rack wouldn't be a good match. If you're just talking about snacks for the day and maybe a raincoat then I imagine you would be fine.

--- Denise

[Brandi]

It would be clothes, rain coat. I am also going to have a mule which I will carry stuff in. My husband is going to carry the tools. We won't be hauling our own food except for lunch and snacks which I will keep in my bento box or mule. But I see your point. If I need to load it up for any reason. Like if I hurt my back I won't want a back pack on. I wouldn't want to load up a rack that can only handle so much. Makes sence.

[DeniseGoldberg]

While I do use a Camelbak, I would be very unhappy touring wearing a day pack. My Camelbak is one of the basic ones - enough room for just some small stuff (like energy bars) in addition to the water.

It is individual preference of course - but I would recommend that you not plan on carrying your gear on your back. I find that it's much better letting the bike carry the extra load.

But then again if you're going on a supported tour - which I assume this is by your mention of a mule - you probably don't need to carry that much with you on your bike.

--- Denise

[SadieKate]

I think she means a Mule with a capital M. It is a model of hydration pack from, I think, Camelback. It is one of the larger models.

Editing - yes. From Camelback, 540 cu in of capacity and 100 oz bladder.

[DeniseGoldberg]

I think she means a Mule with a capital M. It is a model of hydration pack...

Ah, and here I thought she was talking about an animal! (I still wouldn't recommend carrying more than water on your back though...)

--- Denise

[Nanci]

I have the Topeak MTX Beam Rack, which they say can hold 20#. It clamps onto the seat post. I have the MTX Dual Side Frame which attaches to the rack, to use when I have a trunk rack with attached panniers. I have two Topeak Trunk Bags, the RX Trunk Bag EX (which will fit on the MTX rack, but MTX bags won't go on the EX rack) which is 170 cubic inches, with a main compartment and two zippered side pockets, which is nice for a long day/century, and the MTX Trunk Bag EXP, which is the smallest of the expandable pannier bags (the pannier bags zip up if you aren't using them) with a capacity of 1030 cubic inches. It holds _a lot_. I love both of them. I have only used them on my road bike.

***You are not supposed to use seat post racks with carbon seat posts.

http://www.topeak.com


Nanci

[Brandi]

I think she means a Mule with a capital M. It is a model of hydration pack from, I think, Camelback. It is one of the larger models.

Editing - yes. From Camelback, 540 cu in of capacity and 100 oz bladder.

Yes that is what I mean. Not the animal. lol. And what i am going to carry in it will probably be small stuff. Like my camera firstaid kit a small book deck of cards. not super heavy stuff

[SadieKate]

(I still wouldn't recommend carrying more than water on your back though...)

Mtbiking is a bit different. You have to be able to kind of "throw" the bike around underneath you. Your bike can get pretty sluggish if you put weight on it. It really changes the handling to put weight at different points on the bike.

Roadbikes - yes, put the weight on the bike. Mtbikes - weight on the body but not too much.

Nanci, do you use that setup offroad?

Brandi, have you searched over on mtbr.com or bikeforums to see what the mountainbikers are doing? You may be happier with any extra weight lower on the bike like front or rear panniers.

[Brandi]

I will check it out. The mtb site that is. And to clear one thing up. The road we are on is mainly fire roads. Not any tech riding. unless you want to. There is a side route if you are feeling adventurous. But we won't be jumping any rocks or anything like that.

[DeniseGoldberg]

Mtbiking is a bit different. You have to be able to kind of "throw" the bike around underneath you. Your bike can get pretty sluggish if you put weight on it. It really changes the handling to put weight at different points on the bike.

Thanks for the clarification - that makes a lot of sense. Sorry for any confusion I added to the issue with my own confusion! Then I suppose when you're riding a mountain bike off-road it would matter whether you were primarily doing technical mountain biking or riding on a relatively flat surface.

--- Denise

[SadieKate]

Well, I've ridden some, maybe all, of the route Brandi is doing (Telluride to Moab). Yes, it is forest service roads but . . . the year we did it there was freshly laid gravel for the logging trucks. Things got really squirrelly at times. Also, you get any storm damage you'll have a lot of ruts and/or mud to negotiate. No, I wouldn't call this a technical ride but you need to find a kind of happy medium equipment wise. You'll sit on your saddle a lot more than normal for a dirt ride but any washboarded roads can be rough and tiring and force you off your saddle. If you hit any newly graded roads, you could have a fun time also - could be good or bad. This ride is an odd mix and you don't know what you'll get. Weather and the friendly road maintenance crews could be popping up anywhere. The road report was from last week is not a guarantee.

This sounds kind of negative. It's not. This is the only non-singletrack mountainbike trip I go do again in a heartbeat. A spectacular area.

[Nanci]

I wouldn't take my set up, as is, offroad as in on trails. It has too much side-to-side sway unless you are riding very quietly. I think it'd be ok on fire roads if not loaded to capacity. I have a _big_ Camelbak that I've taken offroad, but it's not a current model, and I can't think of what it's called. I'll look when I get home.

http://home.alltel.net/nlevake/Dillbird/dill8.htm If you look at the bottom of the page, it's the blue pack that Dill is in. He's in a two quart Rubbermaid container, to give you an idea how big it is. He's actually in the helmet pouch. (Like, you rode your bike to school/work and carried your helmet in, in the Camelbak.) You can put a 100oz bladder in there, plus there is a whole huge compartment for clothes, plus mesh pockets on the sides, plus some smaller zipper pockets.

You could borrow it, Brandi, if you want. Or I think we have some BA military one we don't use. But big packs like that are quite warm, even though the part that rests on your back has some sort of support/channels for cooling.

Nanci