Dirt Roads / MTB Touring, Personal setups » DiDa’s Dirt Road setup
by DiDaDunlop
On-One Pompino
Above is my dirt road setup.
Bike : On-One Pompino XL with XT hubs, mavic 719 rims, DX brakes
On the front is my little tent a Eureka Spitfire SUL. Attached to the bars using a custom mount
The framepack is a standard jandd framepack. It contains alle the bike stuff and my lights.
The rear rack is a Nitto. On it is a waterproofbag which contains:
Sleeping bag (go lite ultralight)
Matress: Short therm a rest
Spare set of cycle clothing and camp clothing
Toiletries and first aid
As a backpack I used a haglofs 12 litre backpack. In the backpack I carried:
kitchenstuffs: Pepsicanstove and snowpeak cookset
foodstuffs (enough for about 3 days)
maps/batteries/money/keys
This year I hitched a ride from holland to Gotenborg (Sweden) from there I rode back to holland in about 8 days. My goal was a much dirt road as possible and that goal was achieved. Lots of lonely backroads and nice views. No mechanicals and on average 180 Kilometers a day. My gearing was 42/ 16-18-20. So the chaintool saw lots of use because I had to shorten en lengthen the chain according to my gearing needs. In Sweden I mostly used the 42/20 and all the way through germany and holland it was the 42/18.
I also have a Salsa EL Mariachi with new (recieved october 2009) epic frame and seatbags. Gonna give that a nice testride in the spring and report on that one when it’s done.
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Hi Dida,
Nice pic and story. Simple and sturdy setup. Count me in for that testride next spring (if you want to).
Tot ziens,
Frank Z
Your thoughts on how the Nitto would work off road? At most 8lb load.
I did use the rack on my El Mar and did some offroading. The weight as about 8lb. I could feel the rack moving laterally. This rack is, IMHO, not a real offroad rack.
When you buy it you get two different lenghts of rod for the seatstay attachment. I only tried the long version (as pictured above). With the shorter ones later movement will be greatly reduced. Maybe I’ll try that this summer.
The rack is currently only used on the road and dirtroads. As said that is the best surface. For real offroad I would suggest a bit sturdier rack or use it only for light loads. Maybe beneath a saddlebag as support or a place to pack some extra clothing etc.
That seems like a nice setup you’ve got there. I like the idea of the frame bag, I suppose it’s really just dead space between the tubes, I wonder, did your inside leg ever catch on it when pedalling?
I’m planning a late spring/early summer trip on my Pompino, probably around the West Coast of Scotland, though I haven’t quite made up my mind yet. I could decide to go somewhere flatter.
How did you find those mungo bars?
Hello,
framebags are, IMHO, one of the first things you need when bikepacking. No trouble whatsoever. I think everybody on this forum that uses one has the same opinion.
West Coast of Scotland sounds nice. High up (Ullapool / Cape Wrath) or lower (Glasgow/Fort William)? There’s still an offroad crossing between Aberdeen and Fort William lingering in my head.
Those Mungo bars are from my house dealer in the Netherlands. http://www.singlespeed.nl. You should be able to get them from on-one directly. http://www.on-one-shop.com
DiDa, how did you prevent your R10 from slipping on the seat stays. I had a lot of trouble with this during a recent tour. I suspect adding more girth to the stay will help the p-clasp get a better hold.
David,
I found that the clasps that came with the R10 were nog big enough for the stays of the pompino. So i bought some bigger ones at halfords. I did not have any troubles with slipping down stays. Maybe they we not tightend enough? I tighten them down so far that the tips of the P clasps almost touch. There’s a lot of room left for tightening them down.
Maybe some duck tape on the stays will help. That probably has a bit more friction than the paint on the stays. Especially if you wrinkle the duck tape a bit before applying.