Heya - am looking for a wider B17 than mine. I got the narrow, and my sit bones are out of the "pockets" and more on the rails. How wide are these seats at their widest points?

I use a rear rack on a full suspension bike exclusively off road. The weight isn't an issue for me, breakage isn't an issue for a well-built one, I've got the discipline to not overload it just because it's there, and load balancing is easy enough. The benefits are that I have the option for as much space as I like (from two full panniers and a top bag to a tiny single fanny pack strapped to one side), it can hold my freediving fins (for swimming adventures), chainsaw/PPE (for trail maintenance) and obviously whatever camping gear I like (from ultralight stuff in favorable weather to full winter gear in the snow), I can still use the full range of my dropper post and rear suspension because there's nothing between my seat and the rear wheel, when I hang my butt off the back of my seat for a steep descent, the rack keeps my shorts off the wheel, and for road rides where I might be concerned about drag from panniers, I just use the top shelf and a narrow bag... way more flexibility in my opinion.

I'll second an OMM rack - I have actually sat on it just to see if I could (uncomfortable AF, but it ain't breaking and handles off-road bumpies without issue).

I love it!

Mostly chatting about bikepacking? Random gear/route questions, some yard sales, trip reviews, that sort of thing. Got a specific question?

DaKine makes a hydration fanny pack that's got some loops on the bottom: hangs from the handlebars (upside down) when riding, and hangs from my butt when walking. It doesn't come with a ton of room though (wallet, phone, keys and bike pump largely maxes mine out).

Does it hold your stuff? High five for recycling an old thing and saving a buck. 

Other than being nigh impossible to fix in the field (depending on the failure and your willingness to carry a spare, pre-bled cable/caliper set), I can't think of one.

When I see some of these videos, I'm picturing the setup for some of the shots, and I would never take the time to do that (ride ahead, set up the camera in a good shot, ride back, ride forward, stop, get the camera, repeat (and then all the editing). I'm glad other people do it, but you'll have to settle for stills or parked videos from my rides.

Is that pretty tight? Like will wind be an issue?

... I am drooling here (and Bishop is only a few hours away from me; I'm on the 108 corridor). I need a Maxle in the front though.

I'm totally with you Mark, I would sooner give up my suspension fork than my dropper post.

Same. I might give it up if I rode on pavement.

I use a rear rack with panniers. The rear rack does more than hold bags for me though (plus I'm not racing or anything, and really don't sweat weight that much), and they have way more room than a seat bag.

• My rear suspension is the sort that got bad "brake judder" (like trying to shake me off the bike bad). After studying it for a while, I found it comes from the rear braking force coming straight up the seat stays, in line with the rear shock, where it would start to resonate. The Old Man Mountain racks I use clamp the middle of the stays, which "broke" its resonant frequency, and completely cured this phenomenon for me.
• On rare occasions, when 5" doesn't get me low enough for a descent, I will still hang my butt over the rear tire. The rack lets me get my butt as low as possible over the tire without having the crotch of my shorts catch on the wheel.
• It's on fender duty (though I like this more for keeping mud off the back of my dropper post than my butt, to prolong its life.
• Of course it works for hanging panniers off the sides.
• It was part of the solution for getting rid of my backpack while still carrying my stuff (found a handlebar-mounted bag with a water bladder but not enough room for tools, so, the rack now holds my tool pouch). The "triangle" was already booked with a spare tube, headlight battery, and camera.

The Imperial version of the B17 comes with small perforations along the bottom of those wings and some laces with which to tie them to each other... shouldn't be too hard to throw a few holes on either side and lace this one up?

I can't speak to specific brands, but looking for much the same thing in a new bike, here's how I went about it. I wanted a dropper post set up so that at max height, I'm "fit" with the bike in terms of leg extension. At the other end of the spectrum, I wanted as much throw as possible for different geometry options, so I got the longest I could find (13" or so). Based on this, I needed a bike with a frame that 1) had the geometry that would fit me with the post at max height but still allow the post to fully descend, and 2) had a straight enough length of down tube to fit all that throw.

A Specialized Stumpjumper FSR fit this bill for me (wasn't easy to find a full-suspension bike with a straight enough down tube for the full throw of this dropper post, but the geometry is perfect). What I sacrificed for this (until I figure it out) is the ability to mount a solid front rack (mostly because it uses a Maxle, but I'm not sure I'd trade this for "easy" front racks, since I have a rear rack that covers most of what I need, and I love the Maxle).

There's also no seat bag with a dropper post (or I'll bury the bag into the rear tire when I go down), so I use a rear rack. The rear rack in this case does several other critical things:

• Eliminates brake judder (by breaking the harmonics of the seat stay). I don't know if you've heard of this, but the sort of bike I have appears to be very prone to this, and mine had it bad. This totally cured it.
• When I'm in a particularly steep chute, even with my seat all the way down, I may hang back over my rear tire. The rack keeps the crotch of my shorts off the wheel, so I don't have to "float" over it. I don't sit on it, but it's very easy to get my weight as far back as I can without having the rear wheel grab my shorts.
• It works as a rear fender (more to keep gunk from spraying onto the back of the dropper post than on me, but still).
• It obviously lets me carry a bunch of gear in a set of panniers. My tool pouch is a flat, rectangular thing that (not coincidentally) fits perfectly on the top of the rack. This was one of the steps I took in getting away from a backpack (hydration pack eventually went into a handlebar bag and now my back is free, but that's a different story), and I can still drop my seat unhindered.

Other than frame geometry options like this, you're probably looking more at the handlebar style than anything else for alternate riding form (especially getting yourself more upright)?

Cows, amirite? 😄 I do wish they were less skittish... I feel bad when I come across them, and no matter how chill/slow I am, they always go scurrying away.

Thanks for the reply! The Canal du Midi is the southern half of the entire run (the northern half being the Canal de Garonne) The terrain seems wonderful for an easy ride... it's like a cross country ditch trail (I'm tempted to bring a tandem and cart my girlfriend along - should be basically level the whole way).

For the section you were on, how would you describe it (or the various parts of it)?

As in, were the most developed parts like the canal rides through a downtown section, some sections with shops along the side, scattered shops here and there, or not much at all?

Also: were the least developed parts rural enough where it wouldn't be weird to throw up a tent a ways off the path? I'd much rather camp, but if it's weird to do this for long stretches of the ride, well, I'd still probably do it, but the ride would be different.

My girlfriend and I visited France earlier this year, and drove a car from Bordeaux to Marseille. Along the way, I kept catching glimpses of a big ditch/canal that (after some research with Google Earth) appears to be a big cross-country waterway. Further research indicates that this can be followed by bicycle. I'm interested!

Has anyone done this or is familiar with this ride?

I currently ride a 2008 Surly LHT with Smart Sam half knobbies and and an ebay seat post suspension that works quite well on mild offroad, but I'm tired of racking my junk when things get gnarlier.

I use an adjustable seat post and live by it so much that I personally found it worth packing around it (as in, foregoing a seat pack) to keep that as an option.

I've never had anything but a hard steel frame, however after trying my mother's (comically small) Trek Carbon Lush I'm now sold on full suspension.

I bikepack with a full suspension 29er - it's fine.

where I live (high Sierras - it snowed a few weeks ago in July)

Do tell... I live in the low Sierras (highway 108 corridor).

Is it possible to mount a front or rear rack on a full suspension bike? I understand there is likely to be interference with a traditional style mount, but has anyone overcome this?

Yes - to keep my suspension seat post viable, I went with a rear rack and full panniers. Tons of room (and there's still some room on top of the rack as well). I haven't looked at front panniers yet with the singular exception of a month-long bikepacking trip through Japan. There, however, I brought an older, beater bike that I was "okay" with having lost or stolen (an old 2000 Schwinn Mesa GS), and I finagled a front rack onto that thing. I think Old Man Mountain makes front suspension racks if you're so inclined.

I did some googling and I found a company called Old Man Mountain (OMM) who make a line of front and rear racks called the Sherpa that supposedly work with FS bikes due to their unique mount points. I'm going to do more research, but maybe someone here has experience with them?

Their Sherpa is what I use. Besides working with the full suspension, it does two things for me: 1) if the seat post can't get my butt low enough for a drop, I will hang trou over my rear tire. While I don't sit on the rack, it does let me get very far down without my shorts catching on my tire. 2) This bike, like several other full-suspension ones apparently, suffered from pretty severe brake judder. Apparently many people went after trying to tune their brakes to fix this, but this judder comes from harmonic resonance up the seat stays when braking (as it sends some force directly up them and into the shock for this design). The Old Man Mountain rack clamps onto the seat stays in the middle, which broke that resonance, and cured the judder. They're built pretty well... I hauled an oak tree stump off a mountain with it once.

Besides carrying a backpack

I finally got rid of mine when I found a handlebar bag that comes with a water bladder. This got the water off my back and my rack got my tools off my back, and it's sooooo refreshing to ride packless. For all these reasons, that rear rack never comes off. The handlebar bag, by the way, is actually a fanny pack that came with a fitted water bag that has loop fasteners on the bottom with side-mount tension straps. This allows me to hang the pack upside down from the bars without fuss, where all the things that were on my back go now.

I make mine into bungee cords... I find hook ends laying all over the road in lost bungee cords or tie straps, cut the inner tube into the length that I want, pull it through the hook body, tie it in a knot, repeat on the other end, and by the time that wears out, the rubber is largely useless. Some cord hooks make it tough to feed the end of the tube through, in which case I'll slice the cord as needed. This recycles the inner tube and cleans up some litter at the same time.

That's actually pretty clever, but then if you get up to some high speed, you might be throwing impulses faster than the unit can handle? I guess it depends on the unit, and if it's actually an issue, you can just pick the lesser of the two evils.

I live near and ride around most of the entire Stanislaus river watershed, and the forest itself has a fair amount of bike trails. Snow (if we get it - this is likely to be in your favor, really) is usually what keeps us out in November. Lately though, November has just meant cold temperatures with some rain. I take it you're looking for off-road routes? Where are you considering starting, and where would you want to end?