Hello everyone.

I'm looking for a front rack for some offroad hiking.

I'm not sure to get a freeload rack or a tubus swing.

The freeload is mounted on the fork legs, and the tubus is mounted on the crown and stem.

I think that the tubus will bounce too much and bring me out of my balance (when the fork's working basicly, some nice descents etc); So i might wanna go for freeload, but that's not very friendly to stock things up... So I'm not sure...


Thanks for the answers in advance!

I always carry around a small 2 person tent. So... I kinda sleep next to my bike. Tends to hurt when ur moving too much in your sleep, but you'll have the comforting thought of having your bike safely next to you.

about the rain... Well, if it hadn't been a bike, it wouldnt have been wet lol. Lots of grease.

Once replaced my crankset and a full glass of water came out of my frame, I've seen a lot but that was "WOW"; drilled a small hole and it's been dry ever since.

Well darn it (as Americans might say)! I was wondering if something like this might work for a no-stitch DIY frame bag. I had plans to try a tape skeleton like this one with ripstop side panels attached with more tape.

Please let us know how well it works and how durable it is. How are you going to secure it to the frame? Looks to me like it would just fall out of the sides at the moment. Also, with four layers of tape each side, isn't it pretty heavy?

Great effort though, nice to see a no-stitch frame bag may be possible!

Hello DoctorRad,

About it's durability... Think it'll do just fine, it's not like it's being hammered all the time, and when i look at my wallet that's been used for over a year (2 layers), and still working, i think it'll be prety nukeproof as it is. (wishful thinking) I've put in all my cooking and repair gear and it's holding it .

About securing, it's prety firmly attatched as it is now, the skeleton's curved along the frame tubes. It's rly a mission to install or take it out in the first place. You can see that on my last picture. When the bag is fully loaded it adds some tension, securing it even more. There will be some straps added to the bag of course I'll add a picture showing it more clearly. I always try to make things on my own, before I buy things.

About the weight... 341 g, Think it's okay ;-)

Padded shorts, a stripped carbonium slr saddle, and some baby powder does the trick for me. The saddle got quite some flex in it.

Hey everyone!

Since I was looking for something for a new way to carry my stuff on long trips, I thought of something new besides the racks, beamracks.

I was thinking of ordering myself some framebags at epicdesign, but first, I wanted to see if it's all worth it... Thinking about it, I came across this:



So I decided to make myself a framebag 100% out of tape. Quite the challenge... (I have a lot of things made out of it btw )

Here are some pictures of the project...

1. I took some tape and cut it on 1340 mm. Hereby i created the skeleton for my framebag. If you look closely, you can see the corner turned toward the outside, this makes sure that the corners are nicely firm in my frame, it'll become more clearly on the following pictures. Those corners were just taped enough to support the skeleton, They'll be reinforced obviously.




(!!!) In the corners i made some small beams to reinforce the structure.



2. Skeleton made... Now some fabric.
Making a nice strong fabric. I used 4 layers of woven tape. (water- and temp. proof)

Now I place the skeleton on the fabric and cut it on the right size and attatch them.

3. This is what they look like together. I didn't have enough of the gray tape to I used op some black aswell, having a black/gray side. It can hold 7.4 L. A nice volume for a fully frame (16")



Here you can see how the framebag is made around the frame, it won't fall out easily.



Here are the curves in the structure, which makes sure it's nicely secure in the frame.




I spent 2.5 hours making this bag, tomorrow I'll attack some straps to it, and something to close the bag on the side, many many ideas. Next tape projects... Handlebar- and seatpost bag.



More pictures of the straps/side will be coming asap. Stay tuned.




Oops I did it again... Another bag  



This seatpost bag was a lot harder to make than my main frame bag, took me 3.5 hours. Since i have no fabric to sew something in to close my bag, I had to be creative. It can cary 9.5 liter. Detail pictures will follow


Now there will be added 3 rings to the sides of the bag and some little hooks to the small ropes to "close" the bag. Atm it's waterproof, almost finished.





Greetings

Laurens

@ Blackhound.

Touring in Luxemburg can take a while. There's the world of cruising for miles, or to enjoy every singletrack in Luxemburg. Belgium got a nice variety of tracks, of course it's not as exciting as the Alps for example, but never got bored here.

If you want to visit Luxemburg, feel free to contact me about some nice spots, gpx tracks, etc.

Hello everyone
I'm Laurens, one who's been passionate about mtb'ing for years now.I Live in Belgium, near Bruges. Started out an xc mtb'r but with my roadcycling past the big trips kinda appealed to me aswell. Did some big trips last year of a few hundred miles, and a few 1-day trips (+250kms), all these were self supported. Fell in love with bikepacking ;-) I also like hiking trips by foot, and did many. Mainly... doing things outside is gives me the energy.

Next year I'm planning some mtb challenges
1 from east to west of Belgium, 85% offroad selfsupported. 520km in 3 days.
2 http://www.grenzsteintrophy.de, 1250km, 40-50% offroad, in 9 days. Germany

Looking forward to meeting you guys

Laurens

Thanks.

I wanted to get a frame bag made, but in the end, this piece of paper and some plastic covering it did the trick, not to mention it being +125 dollars cheaper.


The main cities i came by:
Roeselare, Waregem, Oudenaarde, Ath, Nivelles, Gembloux, Namur, Assesse, Ciney (where they make some of  the finest Belgian beers), La roch en ardenne (great spaghetti), Bastogne, Wiltz, Esch-sûr-sûre.


I've got a different kind of setup on my mind for this year, got myself a new bike aswell so. Here's the link.

Hello Everyone, I'm Laurens, and here's a small report of one of my bike trips I did last summer.

. 19.55 av

I intended to take the train to luxemburg and go touring there for a few days, leaving from a camping site where my tent's located. Things turned out totally different. I planned to ride over there and have a few days of fun, double fun!

So on june the 19th I packed my bike and prepared to leave for a trip of 300km. Here's a picture of my bike setup. Wasn't planning of racing to Luxemburg so packed my bike to have a much comfort as possible.


***8 hours of sleep later***



Looking at the geography of Belgium, the first 80kms were flat as a pooltable. The following 100 kms went from 50 tot eventually 450-550 hight. The last 200 were all at 550m hight max. The further I drove, the harder it got, combining that with a lot of rain and winds, excellent biking weather. Whoohoo.

Oh what do we have here... The bridge of Namen, means only about 6 more hours to go. Had some spaghetti in a local bar, finally something different than energy gells.

Late at night, finally arrived at the campingsite, where I couldn't find the owner, so picked a spot randomly and set up my tent, longing for some food, but most of all a hot shower and some sleep.

My bike sleeps next to me on trips, wouldn't want it to dissapear over the night. Got some reasons to be suspicious too...


The day after, I went swimming in a lake nearby, talking about re energising!:) only had about 50km, while i had so much more things to see, but my legs wouldn't support it just yet.

The next few days did trips of 75-100kms, mostly offroad, re-explored luxemburg all over again, but by mtb, one of the things on my to-do list that had collected dust over the years.

On day 6 I took the train all the way home, happy, lots of photo's, even more good memories. Enjoying a nice beer at the balcony at thome, and thinking "oh joy, gotta work tomorrow"


Here's a link with a few more pictures from my trip. So a message to you all, "come to Belgium"!
http://img339.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=sdc112120.jpg


Besides this trip I did several other "bike challenges". Mostly 1 day jumps (a trip like this one above, a lot of kms in 1 day) or a few 2-3 days trips. and 1 8 days trip.


Laurens