It seems that most people are choosing waterproof zippers, I am just curious why that is? My wife is making me a frame bag for my new Beargrease and typically we have been using 'sports' zippers from the fabric store because they are easier to pull than the waterproof ones and readily available at the local fabric store. Since the rest of the bag will be Cordura and not waterproof, any other reason to choose the waterproof zippers besides looks?

Yeah, outvoted by my better half! We're going to stick with the free-standing Copper Spur.

On a related note, does anyone know if you camp in Death Valley in the spring and don't bring a tent, do the scorpions sneak into your sleeping bag and sting you?

So for those of you with the Fly Creek and other non-freestanding tents, do you ever have trouble trying to find enough points to tie down to?

I'm curious if people have any experience with / opinions on the values of a freestanding tent vs a non-freestanding tent. For the last 12-15 years I/we have been using an old The North Face Slickrock tent. But its old now and really starting to fall apart, so we're shopping for a new one. It's "package" weight is 5 pounds 3 oz.

We're considering the Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 and the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2.

The Copper Spur is freestanding has a lot of space, especially vertically, great venting, 2 doors and 2 relatively large vestibules. Would stand on its own without stakes for dry weather, or needing a minimum of 2 stakes for wet weather. Its packaged weight is 3 lbs 7 oz.

The Fly Creek is a guyed out tent, so even if its dry I think it would need 4 stakes just to give us all the floor space, and probably 8 stakes as a minimum if it was rainy. Its a bit cramped inside, if 2 people wanted to sit up at the same time they would definitely have limited position options and have to have their back up against the wall of the tent. Just one door and one vestibule, but probably about as much vestibule space as our current tent. Package weight is only 2 lbs 10 oz!

The Copper Spur does save at least 1.5 pounds over our current set-up, plus its a lot more space inside and bigger vestibules than our current tent.

But the weight weenie in me really wants to like the Fly Creek. Cutting our current shelter weight in half would be awesome. Truth is, it would probably just be me in there half of the time. My wife and I are pretty friendly so to speak, but I can still see the tight space being an issue in the morning when she is grumpy. My biggest concern though with the Fly creek is its need to be staked out. Its not uncommon for us to be camping someplace you can't effectively get stakes in the ground, I mean sometimes you can find a spot for a couple but having to put 6-8 in the ground might be a challenge. Sure, you can tie them off to bikes or rocks or trees, but... well, this is what I'm asking, I don't know how well that would work?

Can anyone give me some advice about using a non-freestanding tent in real world conditions?

Thanks for the info slhappy.  Our exact plans haven't settled yet.  I'm thinking we'd fly into Vegas and then take a shuttle/tour bus to DV and just bike it from there.  Right now I'm thinking Feb. 16-26th, but there is some wildfire training in Prescott AZ starting on March 10th that I might go to, in which case we'd move the trip to the end of Feb/beginning of March.

Plans are still really up in the air, I'm just trying to get some base info so I can make some good decisions.  I did find some videos online after I posed of 4x4 driving in the area so I have an idea what the road surfaces are like.

I've been to Death Valley a couple times, but never really got "out there" more than a couple miles from the highway.  Since I'm pretty busy with my business during the warmer months of the year, I'm always looking for someplace well above freezing to ride in winter and early spring.

So, I've been researching off-pavement ride options in and around Death Valley and haven't found much.  Apparently riding bikes on rough roads in one of the hottest places on earth with limited water availability isn't that popular.  Understandable, because  from what I am seeing you would probably have to carry 2-3 days worth of water at times.  But oddly, I can't even find much about 4x4 driving on these backroads to help me figure out some route ideas.  My only real goal is to see The Racetrack, and to stay at lower elevations as much as possible to enjoy the warmth.

Anyone have any thoughts, experience, or resources that might help me?  I have found this map, but its kind-of hard to read this huge PDF on a screen, and I'm trying to figure out where I can order a paper copy.

You know, very few ticks on this trip, I think I picked two off of me the whole time, and I was doing a lot of bushwacking.

The fork was custom made by a friend of mine.  He was in the middle of building it when the Everything Cages were released, so I just asked him to add a couple more holes.  As it is set up, I can use it with my low-rider rack, or the Everything Cages, or just mount 2 water bottles, so its pretty versatile.

Yeah, I don't see any reason why the strap slot need to be at the mounting points, in fact, I don't know if you need them at all; once things are strapped down tightly I can't imagine they would slip.  There are effectively twelve 3-3.5mm strips of aluminum that hold the mounting plate to the rest of the cage.  If those strap slots did not exist, we'd be looking at six 30mm strips taking that same load.

The odd thing is that the Everything Cage that broke had my 1lbs sleeping bag mounted in it, but the other cage had a 2lbs hammock and did not break.  The cages are rated at a 4 lbs capacity.

It sounds like you are on the right track putting together a route.  Hayward would be a good location to start from and return to if you want to work it that way.  I attempted to follow the 2010 route to a T north from there, but as I mention in my blog I wasn't feeling well and short-cutted it.  To be honest, it would be a full day's ride on the trails up to Drummond or Delta from Hayward if you stay on the route.  I don't know the area up there too well, but it did look like the route was more round-about then it needed to be.  I know its meant to send you on some good singletrack, but it seems like route to Drummond could have been more direct (while still hitting plenty of good trail).

North of Delta there are no services and no sources of water until you reach Lake Superior (though there are a couple houses in the last 5 miles).  Its surprisingly wild country out there.  Between US-2 and Hwy 13, about 30 miles of riding, I saw just 2 bear hunters and 4 ATV riders).  I would fill up your belly and bottles at the Delta Diner before proceeding, and figure on a full day from there!

Thanks, fixed it.

If you're looking for some route advice, let me know.  I think this has some great potential to be a great route, just needs a little fine-tuning.

I just completed a 639 mile, 8.5 day tour along the Trans-Wisconsin route following back-roads and trails from south to north through the state.  I wrote up a blog along the way if you want to check it out:

http://frankonabike.blogspot.com/2011/07/day-1-yellowstone-lake-sp-to-nelson.html

Note that this a bit of an "anti-bikepacking" ride since I carried absolutely nothing on my back, all the weight was on my bike, and it worked pretty darn well.

This looks to also be something you can only do on a PC

Talked to Garmin support today, what they said was to DL the route from an older version of MapMyRide so it won't DL so many points in the track.  We'll see how it goes

I'd like to try out topo fusion too... that would probably solve all my problems... almost enough to want to load Windows via Boot Camp, but that would just make my MacBook dirty.

Thanks, that has helped, though I don't think its quite the solution, I can now at least see the routes on my GPS (still a lot of silly little flag and mountain icons along the route).

What I am looking to do, I think is called "simplifying" the route.  I read somewhere that the Basecamp software can do it, but I can't figure out where you set that up. 

Hey All, I'm heading out to do the Trans-WI route in 2 days, and this is my first attempt to use a GPS for "backcountry" navigation (have used them for ecological field work in the past).  I am using a Garmin Oregon 450 with my Mac running the BaseCamp software.

I have created routes on MapMyRide.com and downloaded the "official" Trans-WI route from EveryTrail.  I have gotten as far as figuring out how to convert the tracks to routes and then load the routes on the device.  My problem is that it seems that the routes have WAY too many waypoints (every 33ft!) and this is making it hard for the Oregon to load the routes.  Does anyone know how I can simplify the routes so that things will run more smoothly?

BUMP!

Can anybody give me some info on the 2011 route?  I have got something worked out from the IL boarder to Levis-Trow, but I'd like to follow the Trans-WI route as much as possible up to Lake Superior.  Looks like the 2010 route (which is posted on EveryTrail) had more than a few dead ends and impassible sections.... so I'd like to see the improved route for this year.

Any linke to a route or a GPX file or anything would be GREATLY appreciated.

while we're posting links here, DO NOT get one of theses:

http://www.amazon.com/Minoura-BH-95X-Vertical-Horizontal-Bottle/dp/B001392T2O

When on tour several years ago, we mounted a pair of bottles to my wifes touring fork, with one end bolted onto the rack mount and the other held on with a hose clamp.  I wonder if you could use 2 hose clamps?  Start with one of those rubber spacer things (like that comes with handlebar mounted computers, lights, etc) and wrap that around the fork then place the bottle cage and clamp the hose clamp over the hole where the bolt usually threads through.  Hose clamps put down a lot of force, so it might work, particularly if they were kept from slipping down by being mounted above some bulge in the fork leg.

You know, it could have been that Shimano MTB 10-speed wasn't out yet and the 9-speed road and mountain were not cross compatible... but that doesn't make sense either. 

Hello Joe!

I'm planning to ride the TWAT in 3 weeks and I'd like to ride the Trans-WI route from Levis-Trow on up to Lake Superior. You have tweaked the route to be more MTB friendly, correct? Please pass the route along as a GPX file or everytrail link or whatever.

And how did the race go?!?

Anyone use Frog Tog jackets or pants?  I am wondering if they are breathable enough that I could replace my Gore-Tex jacket and windbreaker wit a single, lighter (cheaper) jacket.