Dejay Birtch called in from Atlantic City with more brilliant commentary.

Does that guy have a blog?  Hilarious stuff...

I am planning a trip not so different from that... i am going to start in cable (i have land in hayward - so want to start/end there), run up to duluth and head north to grand portage, take the ferry over to isle royale (no bike riding - but you can take transport bikes), from the island i am going to take a different ferry to copper harbor, and then head back down to hayward/cable.  I don't have a 'specific' route at this point - just general directions/city destinations.  But hell, if you want to push your trip back to late July/early August i could use some company?? 

Probalby a stupid question - but i am a newbie so lighten  up a bit, eh?

Anyway, I am trying to figure out how to strap a dry bag to my saddle rails/seatpost and so far haven't been able to get it overly secure.  My method so far has been to wrap the rolltop down tight - wrap it around the seatpost 1.5 times (if that makes any sense?) and then have one strap going to through the saddle rails and around the bag (to suck it up) and one going from the seatpost and around to the back of the bag (to suck it forward). 

Any tips on this?  What am i doing wrong?  Will there always be a bit of sway with this method?  I got it fairly stable - but i think that it would become a real pain in bumpy singletrack type scenarios.

Thanks!

I have done a ton of road tours but am in the process of outfitting my mountain bike for some off road shenanigans.  I have a pretty compact set up and i think i can get away with a dry bag strapped to the bars and a 20L pack for most of my 3-4 day type trips.  My question is; being that i have probably 50-60% of my weight on the bars will it screw the handling up a lot? 

In my road touring experience about 75% of the weight was in the rear and 25% in the front.  I could really feel the 25% up there but it was, obviously, a much tighter geometry than a mountain bike. 

What say you?  Will i be OK?  Should i just nut up and buy a good seat bag?  Or should i just quit over-analyzing everything and go ride my bike in the woods?

Langsters are just twitchy... if you get a cross bike you will be fine with the seat bag or rack/panniers.

Sorry - already sold on another forum. 

Thanks though...

I bought a Hennessey last summer only to realize I am more of a ground dweller.  It is the 'desert rat' model (which is the ultralight body and regular fly in a light sandy looking color). 

Not my picture - but this is what it looks like. 



I only used it 3 or 4 times... great condition.  Comes with snakeskins and tree straps.  Make me an offer...

Hi there - i am trying to plan a good trip for next summer and am currently leaning towards heading out to Missoula around late May for about a week.  I know there is a ton of stuff to ride out there - but i would also like to hit some good trout fishing along the way.  Any suggestions??  A 300+ mile gravel/dirt loop with some good fishing potential would make me horny...

Any thoughts?

Thanks a ton!
Jasper