Gear — Getting Out There

Planning my next small tour

Sun, 11 Oct 2020 18:00:51 +1100

With the completion of my bachelor’s degree only a few weeks away (exciting!) I want to celebrate the past five years’ hard work with a multi-day bike tour. There is a lot going on in the meantime, however, both in my own life and in the broader world:

With all that in mind, and given my deep love for the Murray River, I’m planning on a trip between Swan Hill and Echuca — towns on the Murray River, which forms the border between Victoria and New South Wales. As such I will have to keep to the “Victorian” side of the river¹ to not run afoul of COVID-19 regulations². I will catch a train from Melbourne to Swan Hill, ride along the Victorian side of the Murray to Echuca, then another train back to Melbourne.

Mapping out the route

Online mapping services

There are lots of mapping applications and services available these days, and there are an equal amount of listicles detailing all their respective merits, so I’m not going to do that. I used the RideWithGPS Web Route Planner as it suited my way of doing it for this ride. Sometimes I use Google Maps. Other times I use OpenCycleMaps. I tend to jump around from service to service on a ride-by-ride basis.

The most difficult aspect of online mapping services in my experience is the routing along roads. Despite some good efforts on the part of services like RideWithGPS, Komoot, and others, there are still serious limitations to the AI behind routing along cycle paths and anything “non-car”. Especially along routes such as this one — riding along the Murray River, bush tracks and gravel roads and farm fencing to dodge — the limitations of the routing engines start to really show. I’d love to see a “let me explore” option on some of these services: something that lets you say, “your navigation isn’t suiting me/is inaccurate/road’s blocked/etc, I want to venture off the planned track, but let me know if I get x kilometres too far from the plotted route”…

Offline paper maps

Due to the nature of the Australian landscape, limitations of battery-powered devices, and some bad experiences in the past with ‘broken’ directions from online maps, I always carry a paper map. Sometimes, like with my trip to Adelaide last year, this involves carrying many maps to cover a long route. Not only does this present storage problems, but paper maps are increasingly disappearing from print/being discontinued in favour of electronic GPS. This time I got lucky and am using Hayman’s Cohuna–Echuca–Gunbower Forest Activities Map [Cohuna–Echuca–Gunbower Forest Activities Map (Hayman's Maps, 2014): Cohuna – Echuca – Gunbower Forest Activities MapHayman's Maps This map follows the Murray River from Barmah in the south to Murrabit in the north, has a separate map of Werai State Forest and has an overview map of the region.], a 1∶50,000 scaled camping and touring map that covers the route from Murrabit to Echuca, and shows all the riverside tracks and dirt paths in the various state forests along the way.

Gear and equipment

Accommodation

With a key focus on weight, I’ve travelled before with my very lightweight and compact DD Jungle Hammock. Unfortunately river red gums — although incredibly beautiful and perhaps my favourite tree — are notorious for dropping branches, especially in the humidity of springtime and summer. Therefore hanging a hammock under a red gum is probably not the best idea.

Dilemma: I have plenty of tents/swags but they are not light or compact, so it seems I’m in the market for yet another tent to add to my sizeable range. This has caused a little consternation from the better half, and I find myself stuck between wanting a budget option to keep Danielle happy that we didn’t spend a bundle; or rather opting for a solid, dependable and durable quality tent so I only have to weather the argument once. ?

In the end, I chose to pay once and get something good, and I’ve read good reviews of the Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL2 Bikepack (Big Agnes, 2020) [Big Agnes, 2020: Copper Spur HV UL2 Bikepacking Tent - Big AgnesBig Agnes Ultralight Bikepacking Tent, built for two-wheeled travel: the Copper Spur UL2 and UL3 Bikepack are fully freestanding with a shortened Shortstik pole set that packs onto handlebars, frames, or …] tent, which seems to be the same as their Copper Spur HV UL 2 but with a shorter pole-set and a handlebar-suitable carry sack. The guys at Backpacking Light in Lt. Bourke Street Melbourne sorted me out over the phone, and reassured me that if I wasn’t happy with the tent — I’m a bit nervous buying a tent sight unseen — I could return for a refund no worries. Now I’m just waiting on the mailman…

Scheduling

Tour length

I can only fit in 5–6 days, mid-week, so as not to neglect family obligations. The planned route is about 200 kilometres, so I figure on riding an average of 50km a day for 4 days’ riding, plus travelling there and back (a few hours each way on the train). I have two camping preferences before I go: near Torrumbarry in a place I always camp at with some mates each year, and near Bailleau Lagoon (at the end of Young’s Road near Echuca) where I often camp with Danielle. Of course, the best part of the Murray is the abundance of camping everywhere, so I’m happy to be a bit flexible as well. 50 kilometres per day is nice easy riding, so I can stop often, enjoy the ride and have plenty of down time at camp.

Tour timing

As said above, at the end of my exam period (about mid-November) to mid-December (when the kids start school holidays) is my ideal window for getting in some river-time. Other considerations are bushfire alerts, which are becoming increasingly concerning every year, but to be honest I’m not too worried about given the proximity to towns and services, and the weather. Given the family obligations it looks increasingly likely that I will need to just head out regardless of rain, hail or shine.

Bike preparation

My bike is brand new and in tip-top shape, so it’s really just tyres, some basic spares and working out how I’m going to “rig” the bike. I’ll have racks and panniers front and rear with my tent on the handlebars, and I’m hoping to squeeze on a few fun things such as a fishing rod, and strapping my solar panel to the rear rack.

I’ll then do a 30–40km dry run around Ballarat with gear attached just to make sure everything’s sweet before heading off.

Getting there and back

The plan at this stage is to catch a train from Melbourne to Swan Hill, and then from Echuca back to Melbourne, but of course I’m not sure what the COVID rules are and the info on V‑Line websites and such is not very clear. It’s easy to find out what you can and can’t do if travelling to or from Melbourne, but not via Melbourne. If I can’t manage a train journey there and back, I might have to retrace my journey back to Swan Hill and drive.

In fact, both banks of the Murray River are in New South Wales. The Victorian/New South Wales border is the top of the Victorian side of the bank. As soon as the bank dips to the water you’re in New South Wales. You don’t need to get wet. 😉 A fun little fact that gets a lot of Victorian fishermen in trouble each year when they buy Vic fishing licenses but are unwittingly fishing in New South Wales. ↩︎
Victoria has a raft of rules at the moment that differ depending on where in Victoria you are. Melbourne and its surrounds are differently restricted to regional areas. ↩︎

Adapting my Surly Rear Rack to work with Topeak MTX bags & baskets

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 18:25:40 +1000

So I bought a brand new Surly Disc Trucker in June, fitted it out with Surly front and rear racks, and now use this bike as my primary commuting bike, and when COVID-19 is past us/travel is open to us Victorians again, I hope to take her on some tours, both locally and abroad.

My previous ride is a Giant hybrid commuter that I had fitted out with a Topeak MTX Beamrack, which was fantastic for me to use with my everyday MTX EXP “trunk bag”, my TrolleyTote — I don’t make up the names for these! — which I used for groceries and other items that didn’t fit in my trunk bag, and another open wire-style basket I’d originally had first but still fit and sometimes got a run for light trips like getting bread and milk. Having invested in this little ecosystem of Topeak products I still wanted to use them on my Surly for commuting around town, as well as be able to use my Ortlieb panniers for touring.

So I grabbed a “Omnitrack Adapter”, which I had to purchase online from Frankfurt, Germany in the middle of the initial COVID cycling gear shortage as every other distributor in the world that I could find was sold out. I waited weeks and weeks for it to arrive, and lo and behold, I was foiled by something as simple as: the mounting brackets only fit to rack bars that run parallel to the bicycle, not perpendicular. I got past my first instinct (scrap the lot and just use my Ortliebs, saying goodbye to Topeak’s system forever) and jury rigged a nice little bracket that I’m quite proud of, so I thought I’d post it up in case anybody else ever got some use out of it.

How I adapted my adapter

Step 1: Adapt mounting brackets

The Omnitrack Adapter comes with two mounting bracks bolted beneath it, in optional forward/back mounting places (two each respectively). The mounting bracket itself can be adjusted to grip onto narrow or wider racks, but only horizontally/parallel to the wheel. They don’t turn or pivot for perpendicular bars such as the Surly Rear Rack features, nor do they extend wide enough to grip the parallel bars.

I noticed with close inspection that there is a rubber “foot” at each end of the mounting bracket, ostensibly to protect the rack it’s gripping and provide some cushioning between metal and plastic. If you remove this little bit of rubber there remains a 4mm diameter hole. Now, all my bolts are M5 (5mm) so I drilled mine to widen it slightly, so if I want to put the rubber feet back in I’d have to glue them, but if you’ve got 4mm bolts you might get away with a completely non-destructive solution.

Topeak Omni Quicktrack Adapter mounting bracket, for attaching the adapter to a standard bike rack. The ends can be adjusted to fit wide or narrow racks but don’t swivel/pivot.

Up-close view of the Topeak Omni Quicktrack Adapter mounting bracket foot

Drilling out the hole to widen from 4mm to 5mm for an M5 bolt.

Rubber foot removed and 4mm hole widened to 5mm.

Step 2: Fit cross-beams to brackets

I had two pieces of pre-drilled steel spacers already laying around from some previous product/tinkering, I can’t remember where I got these. I got very lucky in that the holes just lined up beautifully with the spacing on the Quicktrack Adapter but you could easily use any piece of steel and drill your own holes, either M4 or M5 (5⁄32″ or 13⁄64″ in Freedom Units) depending on your bolts.

Some M5 hex bolts, washers and nuts.

Brackets fitted to steel cross-sections to allow for zip tying/bolting to the rack.

Flipside of assembly. Notice on the ends of each mounting bracket the adjustable ‘wingspan’ of the brackets.

I found it much easier to place the head of the bolt in the bottom of the mounting bracket (upside down) due to the lip at each side of the hole causing difficulty in getting a good grip on the nut with my spanner. So I used lock-nuts to ensure the bolts don’t work their way loose.

Step 3: Fit to Surly Rear Rack

With the assembly complete and fairly rigid, the next part was as simple as finding a way to attach it to the Surly Rear Rack. I did it with strong zip/cable ties, but you could just as easily use a proper mounting bracket if you had the right size. I found that when I fit the actual Quicktrack Adapter on top and tensioned it, it added a little more stability to the rack. I doesn’t move unless I really give it a strong go, so I’m fairly confident it will stand up to my daily lighter-weight commute. I’d maybe have to reinforce it a little if I wanted to carry heavier gear in the rack for a tour, but the beauty of zip ties is that I could just as easily cut them off and re-zip when I get back.

Assembly mounted on the Surly Rear Rack using zip/cable ties.

Topeak Adapternow mounted to a Surly Rear Rack

Bonus: I can also fit my Ortlieb panniers (with the QL2.1 attachment system) without removing the adapter at all. Sadly, I can’t have the Ortliebs AND the Topeak trunk bag at the same time, but the trunk bag sides expand out to side panniers so I reckon I’m covered.

Topeak MTX bag on the rack

Appropriate clearance for Ortlieb QL2.1 pannier clips alongside Topeak adapter

Rack can now carry either Topeak MTX bags/carts/etc or Ortlieb panniers without changing setup.

Getting everything packed and ready to go!

Tue, 17 Sep 2019 18:02:34 +1000

With just a few days left to go until I depart, I’m putting together all my kit, just like Santa Claus I’m making my list and checking it twice.

The photo above is my kit without clothing, i.e. everything EXCEPT my clothing duffel bag and my kitchen items (which, of course, are in the kitchen and I’ll put these together on Sunday night).

Update (5 October 2019)

I didn’t end up needing the larger 700c tubes, as my Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires went the distance without a single puncture! I ended up using one 16″ tube for the trailer wheel at Tailem Bend.

I didn’t end up needing the firelighting materials on this particular trip, but would pack them again, because you never know… The cheap hatchet was very useful as a hammer also._

Setting up the bike for cargo

Thu, 23 May 2019 12:15:57 +1000

When sitting down to plan out the Ride in September, one of the first requirements to come to mind was carriage space on the bike — how would I allow enough storage for food, water, shelter, changes of clothes, etc?

Being a newcomer to the world of bike touring, I quickly found a number of different options and styles of travel, that when compared to the gear I already had, left me with three main choices to make:

I have already decided on my sleeping arrangements, and the other considerations I needed to make were:

To be honest this was a pretty close call, but in the end I decided not to just overload the bike with frame bags and panniers. I must admit it was tempting: being a leatherworker, I could do it fairly cheap; there are heaps of options available; it is the popularly recommended mode of bike touring for solo riders; and I already have a pretty good Topeak MTX rack and pannier setup.

However, being +100kgs, I wanted to reduce the load on the bike, and as said above I’ll be wearing a rather tight-fitting dress, and therefore I don’t want to be packing out the bike with too many items that I could get caught on, and rub my mostly-bare legs against.

Verdict: Close call, and normally the way I’d go, but this time is not the best option for me.

When I first set out to ride to Adelaide, my lovely partner Danielle contemplated coming along with me for support and company. The issue for us came down to the length of time I expected to do the trip, not wanting to slam the kilometres but actually enjoy the ride, and the resultant uncertainty around the schedule. As Danielle is a criminal barrister, 9–10 days off work amounts to a rather large financial burden, and we eventually made the decision that if we were going to sacrifice many thousands in wages, we’d be better off just donating that much and staying at home.

Another factor in the decision is my mental health, and the resultant anxiety from having to rely too heavily on a support vehicle, and be too regimented in daily schedules and achieving riding checkpoints that may not be ideal when I’m out on the bike. Of course, if a support crew eventuates — or even just other riders to accompany me — that would be awesome, but being able to plan for the least outcome ensures the ride will go ahead without too many issues.

Verdict: Again possible, but would involve a lot more organisation and planning to pull off.

A cargo trailer, attached to the rear axle or seat post, allows the bulk of the load to be towed behind the bike. Considering also that I weigh +100kgs myself, this puts a lot less stress on the rear axle of my bike.

As detailed above, I will be carrying a lot of water, and although I will try to buy most of my food each day at each town/stop, I will need a small amount of rations for emergencies. A trailer enables me to carry a lot more gear.

The other benefit for my particular use case was in having sides to the trailer that I could easily make up signage for, better advertising my cause/explaining to passersby why the f— that bloke’s wearing a dress, and maybe even picking up some donations along the way.

Verdict: I went with the trailer option, as providing the greatest versatility and enabling me to more easily plan the ride itself.

With the decision made, I settled on a Burley Coho XC trailer, which I will review in more detail after its first 200 kilometres of use, and am so far pretty happy with.

Saturday morning Creswick run

Sat, 04 May 2019 18:10:10 +1000

I made another run out to Creswick today, taking a slightly different route to avoid a long gravel section of roadwork, and taking in a bit more of Pootilla — what a great name eh? — and Wattle Flat.

It was also the first chance I’ve had to field-test the Jakroo cycling bib that arrived on Friday! They look fantastic, and importantly, are heaps better in the comfort department, and I hope to be able to get a good shot of them whilst I’m wearing them on my next ride to show you guys. They really made a difference to the ride and I’m sold.

I met my partner and daughter in Creswick for a coffee and then headed back. When I first rode this distance just a month ago, it was the farthest I’d ever ridden. I’ve since pushed that milestone out to 60km with the Ballarat–Skipton Rail Trail ride, then to my first 100km on 24 April when I rode to Beaufort and back.

It was nice to reflect during my ride how far I’ve come in just a month, and I decided to try and augment my training with some off-bike physical activity. I’m going to try and hit the gym a little, though I’ve always hated gyms, and might even try some pilates and/or running (if my doc approves!) to try and strengthen my core and ensure I don’t hurt my back again.

Sleeping arrangements

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:54:26 +1000

With my primary focus lately on fundraising, training and basically getting the word out there about my ride from Melbourne to Adelaide for charity, it’s actually been a nice diversion to contemplate something far simpler: where am I going to sleep each night?

Not wanting to ‘waste’ money on proper accommodation that could be far better spent on the cause, and being an enthusiast of the outdoors anyway, the obvious answer for me has always been to camp rough in, or near, each town/stop on the journey. So the next consideration quickly became weight and size to enable my camping gear to be stowed on the bike or trailer.

I also didn’t want to be sleeping on the ground each night, in the springtime rain, only to then ride 100+ kilometres during the day and sleep again on the ground. It’s with this in mind that I first started contemplating a simple hammock and tarp setup. After a little bit of research, I happened across a great little gem whilst shopping in Melbourne at a store near Hardware Lane called Platatac. Platatac specialise in ‘tactical’ products for law enforcement and military, but they also have some great light camping products — which makes sense as no Army soldier ever wanted a heavier pack.

The Snugpak Jungle Hammock fitted almost every requirement that I had, so I took the plunge and parted with $80, then sprung another $100 for the Snugpak All Weather Shelter light ground tarp to go with it.

I intend to properly ‘field test‘ the setup soon, so I can be sure it will be sufficient to my needs.