Search found 470 matches
- 17 Dec 2016, 8:38pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: High centre of gravity for touring
- Replies: 36
- Views: 5795
Re: High centre of gravity for touring
As I see it, if you try to balance a pool cue upright in the palm of your hand, it's much harder with the thick end at the bottom. Balance is maintained by moving the base point around, same with cycling. I carried a big bag of clothes on my crossbar once, was struck by the stability when moving (not so great when stationary!).
- 10 Dec 2016, 2:27am
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: where to go 2017
- Replies: 36
- Views: 4710
Re: where to go 2017
Maybe the top of Scotland, Sutherland, via a sleeper north, then over to Orkney for a visit.
But if I lived in south I'd be tempted to grab a ferry, pedal south, fly back from Nice after a month of cakes and quiet roads and a few big name mountains taken at a leisurely pace. Maybe you've done that too often or have other UK-favouring reasons but I can't imagine having too many of the gateaux and that brexit is around the corner, nice to get the most of the place before the paperwork increases.
Went to Wales this year. Nice in some aspects, but too few road options - busy A/B roads or little steep hedged lanes with tractors and sheepdogs and still nippy cars. France is just so handy from Kent too!
But if I lived in south I'd be tempted to grab a ferry, pedal south, fly back from Nice after a month of cakes and quiet roads and a few big name mountains taken at a leisurely pace. Maybe you've done that too often or have other UK-favouring reasons but I can't imagine having too many of the gateaux and that brexit is around the corner, nice to get the most of the place before the paperwork increases.
Went to Wales this year. Nice in some aspects, but too few road options - busy A/B roads or little steep hedged lanes with tractors and sheepdogs and still nippy cars. France is just so handy from Kent too!
- 12 Sep 2016, 7:41pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Lightweight rack options.......
- Replies: 16
- Views: 2889
Re: Lightweight rack options.......
Haha, well spotted! That explains the familiarity of it. We should do this again in a few years!meic wrote:Doing a quick search, I see that we have had this conversation a few times before..
- 12 Sep 2016, 12:48pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Lightweight rack options.......
- Replies: 16
- Views: 2889
Re: Lightweight rack options.......
SJS lists Carry Ti as 350g (w/o mounting set), 470g incl fittings, nice and clear(ish). They are equally clear on other racks that are light or sold as being light.foxyrider wrote:Bit like the Carry Ti - you can weigh the rack on its own at @ 250g but add in your fixings and it could reach 400g easily!
I ended up using Ti bolts and dumping the heavy stainless fixings for Tubus' own al blocks which had an added benefit of making it easier to fit on my bikes!
The Tortec Ultralight figure was included in the original Tortec website listing, which has since been changed. Wiggle (or Evans?) kept the Tortec pr wording but fixed the number so it's now got this incongruous "Weighing a remarkable 560g", which makes me smile.
Yes, I think I recall your rack fixings description, from a few years back, a great upgrade. The yellow packable bike, isn't it? That was a light bike!
- 12 Sep 2016, 12:53am
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Lightweight rack options.......
- Replies: 16
- Views: 2889
Re: Lightweight rack options.......
Did you buy at sjs by any chance? It's a fine rack but Wiggle and evans both fixed that 400g "typo" a few years back. Real weight is 560g, I think.meic wrote:Tortec ultralights... They only weigh 400g ish.
I feel a bit sheepish mentioning this - I'm not sure there's great honour in knowing the weight of racks I don't even own!
- 1 Sep 2016, 10:52pm
- Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
- Topic: trangia copy, £12.49
- Replies: 52
- Views: 5264
Re: trangia copy, £12.49
I wonder if it is possible the relevant copyrights / patents have expired.willem jongman wrote:This is a shameless copyright infringement of the Trangia original
- 29 Aug 2016, 4:38pm
- Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
- Topic: Painful hip when camping
- Replies: 32
- Views: 5495
Re: Painful hip when camping
Just for those talking about blowing up tube mats - I recommend the £35 thermarest air pump, terrific. 60g or so, reduces my puffs from 16 puffs per inflate to just the one topper-upper.
If weight isn't a particular interest for you, you can use a bit of hose and a Maplin keyboard vacuum for £3 to achieve similar results apparently.
If weight isn't a particular interest for you, you can use a bit of hose and a Maplin keyboard vacuum for £3 to achieve similar results apparently.
- 13 Aug 2016, 12:59am
- Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
- Topic: Pictures of your tents.
- Replies: 698
- Views: 94538
Re: Pictures of your tents.
Great bargain, that lux mini and the hexpeak too. It's good they sell the bits separately. My old "silLite" Golite Sangri-la 3 (way back on page 2 in this thread) was £250ish, I think, with the pole and inner, with taped seams (the sil is on the outside and steeped through, I think). Not the absolute easiest tents to put up well first time, the hex ones and at its best in warm weather (big inside means cooler). But yes, assembly is outer first, and for disassembly you can pack everything up onto the bike under the fly, very good for rainy mornings.
- 1 Aug 2016, 4:33pm
- Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
- Topic: Patching up small groundsheet holes
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1875
Re: Patching up small groundsheet holes
In similar situation to the OP story before the Fabsil bit, and looking to invest as little effort as possible, I used bike puncture repair patches, the small square self-adhesive ones, not the traditional ones, stuck to outside of groundsheet. Very fast, worked fine.
- 21 Jul 2016, 11:37pm
- Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
- Topic: NatureHike Tents
- Replies: 83
- Views: 16319
Re: NatureHike Tents
I think giving weights excluding pegs is a good thing, as the pegs are easily changed but the fly and inner and poles are not. Also it sidesteps the tendency of manufacturers to issue tiny pegs with tents to improve the weight statistics. I just need to add 5g x the number of pegs required to be able to make comparisons with TN etc.
Great thread this one. Looking forward to hearing how the tent seems once pitched.
Great thread this one. Looking forward to hearing how the tent seems once pitched.
- 15 Jul 2016, 2:16pm
- Forum: Cycle Camping sub-forum
- Topic: Sub 1kilo 3 Season Sleeping Bag Recommendations.
- Replies: 21
- Views: 2532
Re: Sub 1kilo 3 Season Sleeping Bag Recommendations.
I have the alpkit pd 400, mentioned by OP. Nice bag, felt like good value. For me (thin, 45, big airy tent) it was fine in sheltered French campsites, early October, but just a bit higher up, on a clear night, I was fitfully dreaming of another 100g or 200g of down. OP mentions 1kg and £220gbp and 3 seasons, which, of the alpkit bags, sounds more like the pd600 to me.
- 6 Jul 2016, 10:23pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Numb fingers
- Replies: 6
- Views: 601
Re: Numb fingers
Consider also changes in your normal road surfaces and tyre pressure.
- 2 Jul 2016, 10:35pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: lightweight shoes for panniers
- Replies: 55
- Views: 5666
Re: lightweight shoes for panniers
As above, lightweight running shoes are a good bet, worth googling. Try also "aqua shoes". The sn706 for example is cheap and light (£30ish, claims 124g per foot, looks like a Toms slip on plimsol).
- 3 Jun 2016, 8:09pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Brittany ferries - crazy prices
- Replies: 35
- Views: 3974
Re: Brittany ferries - crazy prices
Interesting promotional email received just now from BF, tying in with the TdF being in Brittany / Normandy - suggesting I buy a bike + rider crossing at £69, to watch the tour. Intriguing thing is that it says supplements apply to the bike price if I have a trailer or it's a tandem or... if I have a child seat! A child seat! I wonder what the fee is for that.
- 3 Jun 2016, 3:42pm
- Forum: Touring & Expedition
- Topic: Transporting bike via Air: Factors to minimise damage
- Replies: 19
- Views: 1374
Re: Transporting bike via Air: Factors to minimise damage
All damage in flight I've suffered has been from my own bodged bike re-assembly (almost stripped rear mech hanger bolt thread) or from trying to stuff wheels into the box beside the rear mech (bent rear mech). I take a spare hanger these days, ready for next self-inflicted catastrophe!