That is super rad Troy. make me one!

Sure thing. I'm talking to Gripsport here, discussing the options of grafting a new rear triangle onto the tagalong, to clear a BFL on  clowns, with an IGH for chainline and drive simplicity.

Be awesome to see something like this at the NAHMBS   Just remember where to send the royalty cheques...

Hehe, gives me an idea. did up a footprint the other day from tyvek, reinforced the corners with gaffa tape before hole punching them. I might booty-fab a bag for my old giant VT, with tyvek, gaffa tape and hotmelt. I'd be lucky to use this bike once a year for trips, so I'm sure I can make it last. SFD (stitch free design) for SFA (guess )

you could probably fashion an entire frame bag out of duct tape on your bike if you really wanted too.... just not sure how to close it.

You could make it from Tyvek tape

Great report, and good on you for taking the time to take and post pics! Was kinda cool, sitting here in Aus, 1000's of miles away, seeing those pics of Noble and recognising the particular rock gardens of Barney, Stairway etc, got me reminiscing a ride there early last year.

One thing that amused me on the top road just before the lookout to Storm Canyon...

Looks the goods there Rhino.

I was talking a client the other day, he's in Smithton in the rugged north west of Tas, reckons there's a fair bit of remote coastline up there that would be a much better ride than the tas trail. Good opp for some packrafting too.

I put a King on the back of the Fargo, I don't think they are that loud, with the ring drive. What I liked was that the internals will suffer a bit of water ingress and still work.

But, SCV are only bringing in 32H models, I had to buy from Aspire as I wanted 36H. Mated to Mavic TN719.

I'm working on a light single tool to remove the cassette lockring in one hit, to reduce the tools needed. Proprietary wheelsets like your Shimano/Mavic Crossmax are great with toolless spoke replacement (from a lockring/rotor standpoint) but the weaknesses are there too.

Sometimes you can get lucky with plants (but of course not to be relied upon). In many areas of low water we have ti-trees (Malaleuca/paperbark), the leaves can be crushed and the oil applied to the skin, much the same as citrosa geranium/mosquito plant. More of a novelty though. Generally have a tube of Bushmans in the kit, option of 20 or 80% DEET.

I'd go X9, the last of the full alloy crank, light with OCT hollow. Great GXP BB, new low drag gutter seal.

Over the years I've used a few different methods to get out with the monkey. For these latest trips the tagalong was the best option, carries cargo as well. Thought about a Tout Terrain trailer, but man just too expensive - even at wholesale for me in the shop. Plus the monkey is a real outdoorsy kid, shutting her in a trailer would be equivalent to driving.

My theory has been to expose her to the rigours of our adventures, as she grows the adventures grow too, so what is outside the comfort zone for some kids is just normal for her. Kids are incredibly tough.


She rode in the rain for a fair bit, then played in the rain on the beach while we parked up under a small shelter sipping hot soup.



She sat on the tagalong for a 12 hour outing, walked about 12km, and collected about 6kg of shells, coral, cuttlefish and driftwood



If we were doing a lot more singletrack, a Thudbuster would be the perfect suspension for her.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Without inventors and their out of the square ideas for problems, we probably wouldn't have realised we can use a rock to open a nut. Look at bottle cages for example, imagine a world without them - you'd be stuffing your jersey pockets with bottles and looking like a team domestique. Or zip ties, where would we be without zip ties, thank you Thomas and Betts.


 I have a 1 hour ride to and from work each day, this gives me a bit of time to ponder ideas and create stuff. Cogito ergo sum. Great ideas, stupid ideas and off key singing are the specialties on the commute, though on one fine day I pondered the issue of how to carry our pet monkey on our next adventure. I don't recall what I was singing though.


Our pet monkey is getting bigger, she's grown from the Weeride, to the LOCT, as well as a Weehoo iGo recumbent tagalong. We've had a halfwheeler tagalong bike in the shed for a couple of years, used it a few times, but the experience for the monkey was always ho-hum compared to riding up front with daddy. We've toured a fair bit with her on the front of the tandem in her Weeride, lost count of the full daytrips on and offroad with her on the Baby AC bike, so she's familiar with big days in the saddle with daddy.



With an upcoming trip we need more storage for 3, and the soft sands to cover will be better ridden with an additional tyre. The brief was I needed to carry the monkey, a handlebar bag, pannier rack for the Ortleibs and a top bag. Too easy.


Lets start with the basic chassis, standard Giant Halfwheeler tagalong.





These normally come with a 20" wheel, I researched the possiblity of changing to a trials wheel and tyre combo to get more width, but with this I wouldn't achieve a longer footprint which is what you really need in sand.


With sand, you are constantly climbing a 'wave' of sand that rolls in front of the tyre, the longer and narrower the footprint, the better float and less resistance of the 'wave'. Widen the tread and the 'wave' you are pushing gets wider too, adding resistance. Buuuut, the increased surface area may provide additional float - depends on the weight on the tyre. Tyre pressures, sand temperature, grain size and moisture content come into play too.


So I needed to increase the tyre width as well as the length of the footprint, so the only way to do that was upsize the wheel. Several things needed to happen, the wheelbase of the taglong needed to grow, and I need to source a fatter wheel combo. Well, duh.


Velocity make a 44mm wide rim called the Snowcat, I bought the last new one they had - it was a front - a quick dig in my parts box netted me the 32H Shimano rear hub. The Australian Velocity factory is less than 20km from our shop, so Adam shipped it same day, wheel came home with me strapped to the backpack.




Swapped over the hub using the same spokes, hub flanges identical, spoke length perfect as you can see from the pic - nipple threads fully engaged with spoke head.




Any high points need to be cleaned up with the Dremel. Thank you, Albert J. Dremel.




Velocity had no rim strips, so made up a rim strip from the clear polyester adhesive tape I use as frame protection. 100mm wide, fold in half, trim and apply.



Tyre of choice was a Maxxis Hookworm 2.5. These tyres are awesome, had them on the Baby AC (the original monkey carrying bike) for many years with excellent ride and wear characteristics. Look phat and perform well in sand.


To fit this into the Halfwheeler frame, I used a chainstay assembly I've had kicking around in the spares dept for years. Bought on ebay for a couple of bucks, it's the chainstay for a Giant AC. I researched a few other options - Xtracycle classic (didn't have the tyre clearance and unable to integrate into a 20" rear triangle) and even a Puglsey fork (no derailleur hanger, odd angle for axle entry and unsure of strength of fork blade)




I wrapped it and the Halfwheeler seatstays with some old tubes to protect, isolate and to provide a firm and grippy interface.




Mock up of the wheel in place with some rack mounting brackets, allowed me to dial in the position of the wheel for clearance and correct alignment.



Install the AC chainstay. Mounting it below the Halfwheeler chainstays would have been more ideal, but the dropouts and derailleur hanger didn't allow for an optimum fit, plus chain rub on the chainstay (I wasn't going to cut or mutilate the Halfwheeler at this point). Mounting above the seatstays gives me a good chainline, tyre clearance, solid mounting and raises the axle centre about 30mm.




Alloy angle offcuts provide more surface area and using screwband hose clamps for a firm, reliable and adjustable bond. Thank you Lumley Robinson.




* After this pic was taken, 4 more hose clamps were added to provide redundancy.


Drivetrain bits - I'm a zealous recycler/repurposer, so comes as no surprise I have this stuff lying around. The Halfwheeler runs a 7spd twisty, I'm going to run a top normal rear mech to make it easier for the pet monkey to shift. As with the other sand bikes, I'll be running the super dry Ride Mechanic Bike Milk chain lube. Thank you, Owen and Cheryl.




The AC chainstay assembly had bolt mounts for the seatstay suspension pivots (the Giant AC was a 6" dually) and would make excellent mounts for the rack, but needed to step them down to suit an M5 mounting bolt. A mounting nut for road front brakes was the perfect diameter, a quick job with the hacksaw docked them to length.





The nuts were steel, so liberal amounts of grease packed in during assembly. Rack lower legs mounted, stainless hardware.



 The upper rack mounts had a similar serendipitous outcome, there was a breather hole for the stay bridge, perfect diameter to tap an M6 thread.



Added a small extension bracket to get the rack sitting level. The drive side of the stay was angled to allow clearance for the crankset, a few CPS washers (Avid techy name for the concave/convex washers used under their brake calipers) corrected the angle and allowed firm tension on the bolt and extension bracket.





Rack of choice was another Topeak Super Tourist DX, have these on quite a few bikes. Separate bar for pannier bags, as well as the MTX slide for top bag attachment. Will be using the Ortleib bikepackers for this trip and a dry MTX top bag instead of the drybag pictured. Big squishy saddle (with springs too) just not enough room yet for a suspension seatpost.



The Halfwheeler came with a cutesy fender. Inadequate. The pet monkey was directly in the line of fire from whatever the back wheel throws up, so the fender needed to be mega-upsized.




Back when I worked in industrial automation, we had these sample signs from a supplier. I had a few lying about in the workshop storeroom, perfect size and made from 2mm polyethylene. Printed one side, white the other.



A quick measure up, drill a few mounting holes and routed out two slots with the other Dremel for the velcro strap. Thanks again, Al.






Only issue I had with the material was that it was very white, and would reflect a lot of glare into the monkeys eyes. I had this self adhesive window tinting mesh in my workshop store, perfect.



Dude, is that carbon?



Because of the frame pivot to allow folding, a quick velcro attachment was necessary, the plastic is pretty flexible and will roll well when folding the frame to put in the truck.




Handlebar bag for monkey chow, rainjacket, flowers and shells she collects by the shea shore.


Boat leaves on saturday morning. We had a quick test ride down the street to the big sandpit in the park, I quizzed her to see if she liked the bike "I love it, thank you daddy" she replied whilst enthusiastically nodding her head.




I felt like an inventor.

I reckon the best bladders are the Osprey ones, very easy to handle, fill and store. For more than 3L water storage,  an MSR Dromedary bag, with the optional hydration kit and a CB mouthpiece.

Fair comment Troy, they can be cranked up very tightly. The Flash is pretty light weight.
Jeff

Yeah, we have a few on the floor atm and had a good look at them, no way I'd be comfortable barrelling down some techy single with downward forces on the seatstay.

Not even sure how a BOB or Extrawheel would go, with the torsional forces they apply to the rear triangle, as the Flash is more of a race frame weight with tubing thickness. I tow my Ibex on a few bikes, super flexy on my old VT dually, moderate on my alloy frames, super stiff on my old steel '88 GT karakoram.

You could use a tandem BOB skewer with a few spacers to get the mount out past the frame dropout.

But I reckon the best option is go lighter with gear (if possible with time and budget contraints) and utilise framebag, seatbag, backpack and handlebar harness system.

I'd be wary of fitting any kind of rack (Freeload) that clamps to the seatstays on the Flash, due to the design of the SAVE seatstays. The cross section is ovalised in the centre, weak to resist downward forces.

Shakedown ride for the fatbikes, Bribie Island:

Hey Errin,
Have you ridden on the beach with the weight of a kid on there? been thinking of it with a rear mounted seat on my fatbike.

Hey Eric, Errin is Area45.

We've done a lot of riding over the years with a front mounted seat, the pet monkey has been on one since 12 months (now 6 and half) first on a big travel dually for singletrack, another on our road tandem, now on a fat, so we have a lot of experience together. She loves it. Some big days/weeks too.

Front is WAY better, bike is better balanced, the little one gets the same viewing and riding experience as you do, still have room for seatbags and framebag access is fine, and because they are right in front you can interact/feed/educate/protect them as you ride.

This current front seat is a LOCT, hard to get as they only do limited production runs. We started with a Weeride until she outgrew it at around 4.5 years.

Pic from a fat shakedown run:



We just came back from a week on a local island, loaded up with snorkelling gear, full wetsuits (winter here) and the pet monkey was on a new rig I built for the trip (I've got it on my blog, but must post it up on the DIY board). 7psi was fine, carved through chopped sand from tyre tracks and floated over virgin sand.

Raining buckets back to the boat:


Daytrip from camp:


It's basically a tagalong bike, with a chainstay section grafted onto the seatstays, to run a Velocity Snowcat and Hookworm. Topeak rack and Ortliebs. I booty fabbed it up for the trip, but seriously thinking about getting GripSport here in Aus to mod the rear triangle to accept a Clown and BFL, 155mm alloy ISIS cranks to suit 100mm BB and Nexus 8 for gears. Little half fat.

It's like that with BB's too. Does my head in with the choices to make when stocking the shop for repairs.

First offroad ride on the moon, shakedown day run on Bribie Island.

The thing above the top tube is a LOCT seat for our 6yo daughter.

Awesome, thanks so much for measuring it for me.

Ah yes, was thinking about Yakima, always liked the product, philosphy and history. Our Shimano rep has just started his Yakima agency, so easier now to get them here in Oz. The high roller would suit perfectly I reckon.

The moon runs big fat larrys on clowns, 115mm or 4.5" @ 7psi, do you think the wheel holder would accept this width?

I'm looking at ways to mount the fats on the roof of our truck (Ford Maverick - similar to Bronco or early Chev Blazer) and camper (Jayco Outback Dove) and looking at the options. We have roofbars on ours, and have room for at least 3 bikes, a rooftop bag, and a double kayak. Was thinking of something like a Thule 532 Freeride, but wondering how the shape of the upright bars interact with the tyre of a moon.

What roofracks have people used with success for their fats? I want to leave the bike intact (not remove front wheel) and also have framebags I want to leave in place - so no frame mounted racks.