Looking at doing some light weight bikepacking on my Surly Karate Monkey 29er with a minimalist rear rack and was wondering the type of fork that I should be using.  I have always been very keen to get a On-One carbon fork to help soak up some of the bumps or maybe a suspension fork may help a little more when I hit something a bit rougher.  Can anyone give a bit more insight. I am looking at doing mainly fireroads but I think alot of them will get pretty rough and want to be able to head off-road

Rigid (karate monkey steel)
Pros - Will never break, no flex, I already have one so free, good energy transfer esp on hill/roads, could have racks fitted
Cons - rough ride

Carbon Rigid
Pros - soaks up bump so wrists don't take a beating, relatively cheap
Cons - Strength particuarly under heavy breaking, cant take racks

Suspension Fork
Pros - Good on rough terrain, Wrist dont get smashed, more fun on Single Trail
Cons - potential for breaks and then I am stuffed extra weight, dipping under heavy breaking, cant take racks

Have I forgotten something

Check out this

http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?195884-Suggestions-for-epic-weekend-ride-Victoria&highlight=bikepacking
or
http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?187645-Bikepacking-Victoria&highlight=bikepacking

Recommend the Great Dividing trail from bendigo to Ballarat. Mainly fireroads but still fun.

Sorry I will be away doing away camping that weekend. Was thinking out at Lerderderg and riding some of the Great Dividing Trail on Monday.  I am thinking of taking a day off work and doing a S240 after the Warburton Cycle Fest on the 1-2May, just cos I will be out that way.

If anyone is interested I was going to do a S240 on the Yarra Trails on Friday night of the 9th April, with some riding in the dark till maybe 10pm or before.  If you are interested send me an PM

Hey...I'm still interested! For me, there dates that work are Jan 6-7.   

Did you mean the 6-7Feb? not Jan?  If so then I would be up for a ride.  So lock it it.

Stevage as you are a local I dont doubt that will will get to do a ride another time.

My Trip report for the Great Dividing Trail.  Apologies for the poor grammar/spelling
http://www.bikepacking.net/tripreports/australian-great-dividing-trail/

If anyone wants the GPS tracking data and my speeds, elevation etc let me know and I can email it to you!

It is not the uphills that you have to worry about on a SS cos I just have to muscle it up a hill to keep momentum, well unless it is too steep then i walk and when that happens it is really steep, though I might have to get a smaller chainring to use it bikepacking.

So it seems that there is conflict between Stevage and Lukey for the dates.  Does anyone else want to throw their name into the mix as a tie breaker.

I haven't looked at any routes but maybe a following the yarra upstream.  There has to be a decent ride in there somewhere.  Would consider any other options as well.

Mat/Steve/Anyone else interested

The rest of January is looking pretty full atm mainly due to heading to RAdelaide for the Tour Down Under but could head out for a trip on the weekend of the 30-31 Jan and 6-7 Feb.  Definately want two weeks off before the Otway Odessey. 

Could maybe hit up the Otways or maybe the Dandenongs for some decent hills in preperation for the ride. Any other suggestions.  Would love to travel 150km+ over the weekend depending on terrain.

Also as a heads up I will likely be riding my 29er rigid SS so maybe slow/walking up the hills and spinning on the flats/downhills.

So who is interested?

ps keep an eye out for my trip report for the Great Dividing Trail that I did last weekend.  Was good fun!

Stevage. I dont have a GPS but my mate does and he will be recording it on his phone.  Will post it up when finished.

I will need to wait till the new year before committing to a weekend away in Jan/Feb as I have the Otway Odessey to do in med Feb so will be training for that, though Bikpacking could be a good thing for it.  Definately interested in hooking up with a few ppl for a ride.  Just need to get map of the bicential trail to have a look at.  Would be interesting to see how that goes.  The parents have offered to pick me up in the Omeo area (from Lakes) so I can hook up with the train on the way home.

ps does anyone have "Off road cycling adventures" First Edition by Keiran Ryan.  The second edition is good but the first has some different trails that i wouldnt mind seeing.

regarding using a Tricross to do Bikepacking I would be very hesitant to use a a cross bike if it doesnt have rack mounts.  I say this cos I have used my Tricross Sport Triple for heavy overnighters on road.  I had a heap of flex on the rear when loaded.  The sport bike is rated to a 135kg rider and 25kgs luggage.  The comp models arent designed to take luggage and the rider weight is something like 110kg. (sorry for the metric)  So add in rough firetrail or even single track and things look sketchy.  Cross bikes are designed for smooth tracks albeit muddy and snowy tracks.  They arent designed to take big hits like you would accept when riding offroad. The warranty doesn't apply if you arent riding as the 'intended design'

That all said it is horses for courses.  I know guys that do enduros on them, ride mtb marathon.  I would suggest getting a strong wheelset, the thickest tyres you can fit 45mm+ and some cross top brakes, using the hoods can get annoying/painful.  That all said I love my crossie for commuting and cant beleive more people dont use them in Australia due to their ruggedness and larger tyre capacity.

Enjoy it though and let me know how you go with it.

I am heading out to do the Great Dividing Trail from Ballarat to Bendigo with train connection to Melbourne as my first easy bikepacking trip with a friend.  While I have done a few overnight rides, none of them have been offroad and my mate hasnt done any.

It is around 270kms, 3 day adventure and I think that it is somewhere around 50-50 singletrail.  Well maybe more fireroad than that but still not too bad.

I chose this as our first bikepacking ride due to proximity to civilisation (we could actually stay in town both nights all of which are train accessible), there may be total fire ban days and love hot dinners so can buy food easily, you can get a train to and from melb there and my mate has ridden 2 of the legs before.

I will post up my review of the track from a bikepacking perspective when I get back.

In the meantime is anyone out there interested in a Bikepacking trip (1-2 nights) in February?  Here is a link to some MTB epics that I would be interested in riding soon http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195884

Alistair

I think that since it is me and my mates first attempt at Bikepacking that we might go solo to start with.  Would be looking at going out again in Feb if you are keen.  Maybe we should start up a Vic Bikepacking thread so it is localised and we dont hijack this thread anymore

http://www.rotorburn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195884

Has some ideas about where to go for a ride.

I am looking at doing a ride somewhere for 3 days MTB bikepacking during the same time.   Will probably head off on the 27/28th and back on the 30/31st.  Havent decided where we will be going though.  This will be my first bikepacking ride.  Have done the Albury-melb ride with camping at Bonnie Doon. 

Did you have any ideas where to go?

The Albury ride is doable with a the right conditions.  It would be an epic though.  340kms though i would probably start in Albury cos it is slightly higher than melb and hope for a tail wind.

Yer there are only coach services from bdale.  Vline wont let you take a bike on the coach (even in a bike box?? maybe)

Enjoy your trip.  I will build up to something like that, though I am thinking about Melb to Albury in a day and have come back from Albury in 2 days.  Hope the weather holds for you