in the trips we did, I had a older deck on a llama and Dylan had an open boat. We carried our bikes and gear the same way so it did not really matter.
Humm… panniers put them between your legs?
I’ve got a decked 09’ llama, bikes fit fine. Rolled up spraydeck does not get in the way of bikes or gear. I would say go for the deck, absolutely.
this one looks right, inexpensive folding mountain bike, I can’t see spending a lot of money on a bike that I might put at the bottom of the river…
a little heavy but has 26" tires instead of little clown tires most folding bikes have
I’ve seen some folding bikes that have a suitcase trailer you can carry gear in or put the bike in it, that would protect the raft and bike, also thought of getting some sort of bag to put the bike in
is anyone else concerned about sinking the bike if things go wrong? I thought about getting some sort of floatation device, or an extra throw rope so if it went under I could at least pull it out or float it to the bank?
You look very relaxed here!
You might be able to just make a buoy (maybe using a dry bag?) that would float the bike if you had to ditch it for a bit. For a sense of size… 3 gallons is about 24 lbs flotation (ie exactly equal to displacement… the weight of 3 gallons of water.) Given the bike has some displacement, then you might float a 30 lb bike with three empty gallon jugs. To make it something that’s more packable, it might be a dry bag with a couple tie points stitched on.
I was thinking about a marker buoy instead, but that seems like a bad idea. If you had a small buoy on 20’ of string… you’ve got to deal with entanglement, failure to deploy, recovering the raft from a dangerous rapid, strong currents that sink the marker buoy…
I wonder what the floatation of a full-length foam pad is? It may be enough for a bike heavy bike, though marginal.
that’s good to know, the more I do this the less concerned I get, I’m starting to doubt that I’ll ever pop this boat
I carry a 2 gallon water bladder it sounds like that would float the bike.
I wonder if alpacka would make a little custom bicycle buoy and how much that would cost, just a small tube with the oral inflation and some grab loops
found this pic, you guys with fat tires don’t need to wory about your bike sinking…
The best and least obtrusive solution for flotation on a bike ive seen is to wrap the frame tubes in the thickest foam pipe wrap you can buy. It takes surprisingly little of this to float a bike, and weighs just a few ounces. Go to an actual plumbing supply shop for this the stuff at lowes/HD is too thin. I used to use this for lake jumping on a BMX bike. One other solution is to use a spare innertube affixed to your frame and inflate it until you have the necessary flotation.
We have flipped and it is ugly.
On the upper Talkeetna I fell in a hole and got flipped.
Tried hanging on for a minute to get my breath and found that the paddle was stuck through the fork so could not right the boat.
Pulled paddle out (challenge). Still couldn’t right the boat. Heavy current, cold water.
Climbed on upside-down boat and paddled for shore (worth practicing in general – have done this more than once), bike hitting rocks on bottom and being fairly jarring, but made it to wadeable water and got to shore.
Difficult to hoist to shore in cold and exhausted state.
No fun. Also expensive if load gets away, but should wash up on gravel bar (fingers crossed) or log jam (ugly).
Potential of losing boat and bike keeps me in easier water with bike. Plus bikes make rapids tough for me.
Please share your experience from lake trials.
I’ve never tried this with a bike, but it’s for this purpose that we first experimented with something like Alpacka’s packtach. For open water (where re-entry is sort of required) we’d set up a cord that went from the raft, through a loop on the pack, to the paddle. Sometimes would use a wrist loop too. The boat flips, you release it using packtach or similar, right the boat and re-enter, then deal with your pack. A key danger here is the potential for the boat to blow away… hence all the attaching.
I think a bike would make this more difficult since it’s got so many things to hang up on whatever attachment system you’re using, plus you’d need a more solid connection which might be harder to release.
A handy knife might be a good option in addition to the packtach.
The main reason we used the lanyard wasn’t to make sure we didn’t lose the pack, it was to make sure that the raft was “sea anchored.” If you had a firm hold on the raft, completely cutting the bike free shouldn’t be a problem… you can get ahold of it after you’ve re-entered.
Regardless, some experimentation is a good idea. It’s pretty easy to experiment on this front since you can do it in flat still water.
I do love the smug feeling of being able to have the bike and raft at the same time - but it is a bit of a pain to paddle.
I wrote a mini trip report of a trip here:
http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/owens2011.html
I did better after I took off a bar end which was getting in the way of paddling. I did flip in a low head dam hole but I managed to haul the bike-raft mess out easily (it was very shallow.)
I also should have wired the derailleure to the frame to keep it from bumping into things. I maybe should have take off one pedal.
Still, a fun concept, but unfortunately I don’t think I’d want to push my limits in WW w/ a bike.
–=Tom
It is also much easier to retrieve and tow boats or perform a wet re-entry with nothing or very little weight on the bow. That said, on longer trips, I do strap my pack on the bow. I just try to keep the base weight of my gear as light as possible.
I’m getting ready to order a packraft for bikepacking with my moonlander. I’m 5’9" and weigh about 195 lbs. Do you think I should go with a Yak, or a Llama for tours of up to a week or so?
Oh yeah, 32.5" inseam
^^ Does he give you discount for your advertising?
I recently had this done to my Salsa Fargo.
My first idea on getting the bike on the boat was to stack it the way you do to get it in the box (the two triangles on top of each other). It’s too awkward and tall
Now, I"m playing with putting the rear triangle on the stern (seat tube near my back, derailleur at the very stern), and the large triangle, fork and bars on the bow, with the wheels on top. But then the drive train is not protected as well as I"d like.
I also tried putting the bars and fork inside the rear triangle on the stern with the large triangle in side the boat pushed forward against the bow. What I don’t like about this is then the large triangle is gonna get dragged over that rock i didn’t see and the headset would be…ruined by all the water? I did think of getting a long bolt and nut and some plastic washers to clamp the headset together and try to keep out dirt/water.
Overall the boat is a lot more stable and paddling should be easier (wheels can be a little farther forward).
If anyone has any ideas/experiences they’d like to pass along, please do. I’m going to glue on some more grab loops and take the whole think on a couple month long tour. I’ll write back with what I learn.
Happy travels.
Mountain bikes and pack rafts are a combination made in heaven. Both of them provide us with the same priceless commodity. Freedom to travel farther and quicker than our own two feet could carry us, or, in the case of the pack raft, to places where they could never carry us. plain long sleeve shirts and more regular where can be good for Bikerafting.