could you post a few more pics and how it looks attached to the bike?  I've been wanting to make a bar sling type thing for a while now, but can't exactly visualize how to do the straps/hardware...

thanks,
BM

Anyone else here read the dirt and dogs blog?  It's one of my favorites, and I love their photography....  But it appears as though they are trying to keep their location secret, or I'm just unable to figure it out form their posts.  I can understand the privacy concerns and all that, but I'm dying to know where they do most of their riding.  I'm assuming it's somewhere in Az- and their recent post refers to a green river, and near the Prescott area there's the Verde River, so I'm wondering if that's a clue.  I've got a potential employment opportunity coming up in Prescott...  Nothing may come of it, but it is exciting to think of those beautiful desert trails becoming my local trails...

BM

I never go anywhere without a knife, except the airport, and maybe some banks and government buildings...

I don't understand the mentality where it's totally acceptable to spend $400 on a sleeping bag, or $2k on that new custom frame, $500 or more on a new wheelset, etc..., but balk at spending $100 on a pocket knife.  I carry a humble CRKT M16-04, and have been pretty steady for the past 10yrs, and use it daily.  I have carried a leatherman for a while, but the pocket clip broke and I've been lazy to get a new clip so now it sits in my bike's tool kit next to my Crank Bros multi-tool.  I find the needle nose pliers extremely useful for pulling out stubborn thorns and cactus needles from a tire's carcass before putting in a new tube.

I teach my boys that every man should always have a knife on hand.  I mean, I may not need a knife.  I could rip and gnaw at stuff like an animal, but I choose to use a more sophisticated implement like an upright walking modern human.

I can't tell you how many times I've been standing in a group of men trying to get some job done, when the need for a knife arises, and everyone stands around staring, trying to decide which of them is going ot run back to the shop to try and find some kind of cutting tool, when I just reach into my pocket, flip out my blade, and hand them my knife...

So then, why would I go out into the back country for any amount of time, with less than what I would carry to work of the grocery store?

BM

Some misc. projects-

http://thru-hiker.com/projects/

http://backpacking.net/makegear.html

BM

For what it's worth I have had several cases where un-reinforced hook and loop rip out along the top tube (where all the load is) rip out after a year or two. So we beef up all of ours on the main load bearing flap. It's less of an issue if you are putting in like a whole string of 2" strips.  On your bag where there are 2 after the shock mount (ie- not much else supporting the vertical load) I'd reinforce those for sure. Typically do not bartack velcro alone, unless you use a nice and wide pattern you'll just perforate the crap out of it and make it weaker.

Thanks for the advice.  I'll definitely take it into consideration on my 2nd bag.  I think I'll do the full top tube velcro flap deal and maybe a couple other refinements. 

BM

Ultra Magnus, looks like they have some IRC tires over at PricePoint: http://bike-parts.pricepoint.com/search?p=Q&ts=custom&w=irc and you can always type in the model you want in Google and hit the "Shopping" tab on the left--worked for me.

but no mibros- 

google shopping only comes up with two hits and neither are the mibro for marathon - https://www.google.com/search?q=irc+mibro&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=irc+mibro&hl=en&safe=active&client=firefox-a&hs=ZGY&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnsfd&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=C5xfT9LmFufYiQKKw82hBA&ved=0CEMQrQQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=c40207938170aea&biw=1837&bih=1109

BM

My favorite tire to date is the IRC Mibro for desert riding, and even better was the Mibro for Marathon.  They seem to be impossible to find anymore though.  I would say their only fault was incompatibility with Stan's sealant.  I tried t anyway, but it resulted in the tire catastrophically blowing off the rim .  But I never found a better tire.  They rolled incredibly fast, had great predictable traction, were very light weight, and I never cut a sidewall once.  In contrast, on my normal XC loop that I rode several times a week at the time, I tried out some Maxxis Larsen's TT's and in ONE RIDE had no fewer than five cuts on the sidewall on the rear tire, and a couple good scrapes on the fornt.  The tube was herniating out of the tire, it was a miracle I made it back to my car.  Those were the worst of weak sidewalls, but every other tire I ever rode ended up with a cut sidewall at one point or another.  No IRC tire I ever rode suffered a cut, and I rode Mibros, Serracs, and Mythos's until the knobs were ripping off.

I'm in a state of tire mourning right now, so I just usually ride whatever scrubs I get handed down from friends who work on race teams or have connections to race teams.  

IRC's bike website is still up, and they show new models, including tubleess ready versions, but I can't find them for sale anywhere.  So, if anyone can figure out from where to purchase them- I'm all ears.

BM

edit:  To the op point of riding on pavement- I bike commuted on the Mibros for about a year.  They rolled very fast on the street-and the low square knobs made for predictable cornering on hard surfaces.  Eventually the center knobs wored down to semi-slick level, which only made them better on the street, and still ok in the dirt.

I'm impressed.  Looks much better than my gas tank.  How does it ride?  My situation is similar to yours- as I don't have a lot of spacers under my stem either, and my steerer tube strap is low on the bag.  On the bike, my gas tank would flop too easily to one side or the other which would occasionally hit my knees when riding.  I found it too annoying and tossed it to the curb.  I also could have benefited from a stiffer structure.  I just used thin construction foam which I already had on hand.

BM

This looks really good!

Straight to the Dyneema X, brave man!     I like that stuff.

I haven't produced a video of making a bag, but I do build a fair number of framebags with the velcro sewn into the seams of the framebag.  It works out just fine, and is plenty durable, with quality materials.  Your way is also good, just a bit more time consuming, as you mentioned. 

Keep at it. 

Scott

I ordered the dyneema before I really even knew what xpack was or where to get it.  If I did, I probably would have gone that route instead.  But either way, 1yd of dyneema is like $24 or so, and it didn't take much to make this bag.  I probably didn't even use 1/4 of that yard, so that's like what, $6 in fabric?  Oh, and what the pictures don't show is the inside is lined with blaze orange silnylon for visibility.  I have a picture of the inside somewhere but couldn't find it when I put the post up.

The question now is do I dare trying my hand at a seat bag and a handlebar harness.  There's not a lot of functional difficulty in a frame bag, but seat bags and handlebar bags need to ride nice and stable, holding their shape...  sounds more intimidating.

Thanks for the encouragement.

BM

I have a Selle An-Atomica and love it. I saw somewhere that Selle An-Atomica site was selling the brown (only) for $99.98 while they last, which is half off. Two of my buddies just ordered them as well. Can't beat that price.
http://www.selleanatomica.com/rapidcart/
Woody

That's mighty tempting but a brown riveted retro looking saddle would look a bit odd on an all silver and black SC Blur XC...  hmmmm...   I could pull it off it were black, but that price tag (which at half off is still on the spendy side) might be enough to make me just take the punishment from the fashion police. 

How about changing the thread title to "Favorite affordable saddle?"

BM

Here's my attempt at a frame bag that I finished about a month ago.  I learned a lot from these forums and learned even more while doing the project.  Overall I'm ok happy with it, but I have left over fabric so I might give it one more shot. 

Things that didn't turn out so good -
I messed up the seam allowance for the french seam (won't do that again- bind it or something else)
I had one more lower strap on the seat tube that you can't see in the photos that ended up interfering with my front derailleur.  This preventing me form being able to get into granny gear.  I have a pretty tight relationship with my granny gear so that is unacceptable.
The zipper is too short.  I originally intended for he zipper to be higher up on the bag, closer to that top seam, and because it's such an acute angle, the length changes a lot every little bit it moves up or down.  I'll have to dial that in better next time.  Also, the zipper pull is upside down.  That's not so much of a problem, but it just bugs me.
And not a mess up, but all I had available to me was white Velcro.  If I did another one, I'd get some black stuff for sure.

When I sewed the 2nd side panel on to close it up, even though I started out lined up properly, everything shifted while sewing and I ended up off my more than an inch, resulting in a twisted bag.  So, I had the opportunity to get to know my stitch ripper really well.  I was more careful the 2nd time around.

I also made a gas tank, but it flopped to the left and right too much so I ditched it. 

Question- when I put on my straps, I first sewed on some nylon webbing, and then sewed the Velcro to that with a box stitch X deal.  But I recently watched a porcelain rocket video and it looked like he was just sewing the Velcro tape straight to the bag.  Is that good enough?  That would save a lot a work.  I mean, that's a lot of stitching to attach all that Velcro to the webbing.

I've been using this bag for commuting to work, and it'd done the job well enough.

BM

You have to consider how good your balance is at those speeds, and how well you can keep the front wheel on the ground.

Super low can be useful, but sometimes in the field you'll still be walking.

Everything depends on the situation, but if I can keep the pedals turning, even at a walking speed, while keeping balance and maintaining my line, I'll stay on the bike.  the reasoning is, if the terrain flattens out a bit, to go faster all I have to do is upshift and keep moving.  If I got off to push, then I have to stop, throw my leg over, and try to get started, which eats up time and energy. 

A few years back I was regularly doing this steep power-line road climb.  The road was very poorly maintained and was very irregular, rocky, with many rain ruts, washed out areas, with the occasional sand and gravel patches.  I got really good at riding really slow up steep climbs.  I just checked my gps data from a couple of those rides and my average speed on the steepest parts was around 3.1 - 3.4mph...which I still think is faster than trying to walk up steep loose terrain in cycling shoes (not to mention how uncomfortable it is to walk in cycling shoes).

My $0.02

BM

I was following that thread on BPL but didn't realize it was you...  It looks like it turned out fantastic, and I'm really interested in hearing how well it worked in actual use, especially when sleeping in rain w/o a tarp.  That takes some guts imo.  Did you seam seal it?  (sorry if you mentioned it, I can be reading comprehension-ally challenged sometimes).

BM

Yeah, I find it funny when extreme hiking seirra club zealots complain about mtb trail damage, when I' used to sharing my trails with moto's.  One throttle happy rider can do more damage in one minute than a dozen skidiots could do in a month of regular riding.

Our solution here where we ride is build our trials in a way that discourages mx travel.  Narrow passages, slow sharp turns, etc., stuff that adds technical fun to a mtb ride, but keeps the motos away on trails that are more fun for them.  They can suck the fun out of rides in dry weather riding just as much as wet weather- all they have to do is turn our nice hard packed trails into soft sand and a climb you once were able to ride turns into a hike-a-bike.

BM

I've used the trash bag and water method and it works well but requires two people.  One person holds the pack open while the other adds one litre of water at a time until the pack will barely close.  A friend bought a huge bag, 25lbs, of pinto beans from Costco and offered those for the next session.  The beans should be less hassle and spillage a non-issue.

That is a fantastic suggestion.  I'll have to look around for some inexpensive bulk dry goods.  It seems that it would be easy to weigh 1l of beans, stuff the pack to it's gills, and then weight how many liters of beans that took.

I can imagine the look on my poor wife's face when  I tell her I need a giant bag of beans to measure the volume of my pack!

BM

I think the camelbak stuff is OK, just don't think they engineer it with weight in mind like the Osprey folks do.  I think the Tallon would be a fantastic commuter pack too...easily carry a days clothes, lunch, and maybe the kitchen sink too!

I used to feel that way too until I saw the Octane packs.  I haven't confirmed it yet, but the Octane packs (both the 18x and the 24) supposedly only weight 16oz (w/o the bladder, I assume) and the talon pack in a large is 1lb 13oz.  And the both list for the same price of about $100, but the Camelback comes with a reservoir, and I can get Camelback stuff at 1/2 off...

JReeves- that certainly is a lot of junk to fit in that pack!  I wonder, is there any simple way to measure an pack's actual volume?  All I can think is to get some kind of liner, like a trash bag, stuff it inside, zip it up leaving an opening for a hose and fill it with water- and weigh it.  But that sounds a bit impractical.

Thanks,
BM

edit- I just verified that my Octane 18x weighs in at 17.125oz empty w/o the bladder.

I'm glad you posted more pictures and details of your kit!  You replied with just the one picture on the thread I started on backpackinglight.com and I was eager to see more about it!  Gotta love these setups.  I shaved over a pound, not to mention a bunch of space, off of my cook kit compared to the setup that I used for my last trip.  Simple and effective!

I kept putting off posting the whole kit because it's always a work in progress, and I want it to be "complete" before I went to the trouble of writing a long post detailing the whole thing.  I finally reached a point where I felt it was "good enough".  The freezer bag cozy is going to be changed.  It's just a prototype.  I may end up buying one from the freezer bag cooking people (don't know the website off the top of my head).  Might not be wroth the trouble of farting around revision after revision.  I would like something with a flat bottom and it'd be nice if it was wide and low enough to eat from, but I dunno.  Needs to fold flat for pack-ability though.

I love how light it is compared to commercial setups.  A friend of mine has an msr reactor.  It's sweet, but man, is it heavy.  I imagine if I were melting a lot of snow it'd be a good option, though.

I would consider replacing the cook pot with a comparably sized ti pot (I've seen a couple that look promising) for a slight weight penalty, but then I could go to a Caldera Clone setup and gain some durability and efficiency.  I'd like to keep the kit under 4" diameter to fit in my frame bag.  The beer can pot is about 3.6" diameter.

Thanks-
BM

Nice setup you have. Can you share more info on your stove?

C

I posted the details over on backpacking light, since I got the inspiration from one of the members on that message board.  Here is the thread-
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=57486

BM

This is my 8.5 oz COMPLETE camp kitchen.  Many super light camp cook sets you see posted leave quite a bit out to achieve their advertised weights.  I mean, I could pare this down to just the stove burner, a hardware cloth pot stand and a oven liner tray windscreen, but that's by itself isn't' very useful.  I mean, you need a spoon to eat with- something cook in (pot cozy or something) and something to clean up with after dinner, right?  I don't think I've made too many sacrifices here while still achieving a satisfactory weight and compactness.  This setup fits perfectly in my frame bag.  The whole kit is as diy as I could make it, from re-purposing things around the house.

So here is the complete kit along with the meal I'm about to cook-

The fuel bottle and measuring cup are your standard Robitussin variety.  4oz bottle, with a safety conscious child proof lid.  I also have an 8oz bottle (Vicks something or other, but NyQuil would do).


In the stuff sack is my pot-

The blaze orange stuff sack is left over from my frame bag project, uses a zpacks 1.25mm zline draw string with a zpacks tiny cord lock.  The pot is your standard issue Heineken cam, wrapped in fiberglass cord to insulate it so I don't burn my fingers.  It also serves a double purpose as 10' of spare cord should the need arise.  Now that Heineken quit making keg cans, I guess the Fosters is the last option for super light cans.  the lid is a top of a bumblebee tuna can, cut around the sides.  It's a perfect fit.  The lid handle is made form 1/16" titanium wire, from McMaster Carr.


Inside the pot is my insulated hot drink cup (Campbell's cup of soup), windscreen, pot stand rods (3/32 ss welding filler rod), pot bale handle thing, piece of foil to insulate the stove from the ground, and a spare 1qt ziploc baggie, just in case.

Here's the windscreen and it's closure setup.  The two halve interlock with those tabs take from Captain Paranoia's Caldera Clone templates. (http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/forummessages/mps/UTN/22357/URN/5/dt/4/srchdte/0/cp/1/v/1/sp/)

This is the slot and tab detail-

and on the inside-


The pot and assembled windscreen / pot stand-


The hot drink cup holds my alky burner-

A light load towel and my lighter


The setup ready to go-


I usually use 4tsp of fuel per boil (2/3oz or 20ml)


boiling away-


By far the best tasting almost instant oatmeal ever-

I say almost instant because the instructions require you to add the water before microwaving, and then you cook it by nuking it for a couple of minutes.  But if you reduce your water by a tiny bit (about by as much as would boil off in the cookign process) it turns out great in a freezer bag cozy.  It kicks butt all over your standard Quaker packets in both flavor and texture.  I haven't compared, but it's probably more nutritious as well.

The only thing missing would be some lipton tea bags or some starbucks via.  2c of hot water can rehydrate two packs of oatmeal and have just enough for a cup of tea or coffee left over.

What's not shown is my spoon.  The one that I was using broke, but any plastic spoon will do the job.  In honesty, I would probably opt to take my Sea to Summit aluminum spoon.  It's got a nice long handle a large "bowl", if you will, for fast efficient eating.

What I'm goign to upgrade in the near future is the stainless rods for the pot stand are going to go bye bye in favor of an 1/8" ti version, also from McMaster.  I think I'm going to by at least 6' of material and chop it up into tent stakes, or you could use any shepherds hook stake, I guess....  I'm just not a big fan of the available Ti hook stakes.

BM

I ended up getting the Octane 18x for Christmas for a couple of reasons..  One- it's adjusts in volume from small to big with that zipper thing in the middle.  It's kinda of cool for when you don't need a ton of volume.  And two, I got it at a really good price through a work connection.  It's a nice pack.  I like the straps, it rides nice, very comfy- but it's a bit on the small side.  It says it's 21 liters with the middle zipper open, but I think they might be padding their numbers a bit.  I have a Crumpler Mahoubar (can't spell it) that I've used in the past for bike commuting that worked well, except it's a bit heavy and not that comfortable with heavy loads, that is supposed to be 23.5 liters.  Now, I tried putting a days worth of clothes in the 18x and it barely fits with no room for a lunch.  I'm a tad bit disappointed.  I guess that is a pretty significant 2.5l of space.  I'm sure it will be fine for general mtbign and bikepacking but I was hoping it could serve double duty as a commuter pack.  I'm sure I could still manage if I brought some of the stuff I'd need for the day, the day before by car so I wouldn't need to carry as much by bike...

So, my question is- how does that Talon 22 rate as a commuter pack?  How well does a day's worth of clothing and food fit?  Has anyone done a side by side comparison between the 18x and the Talon 22?  What bugs me a bit is I could have gotten then Octane 24 for the same price...  Oh well.. 

Thanks,
BM