The Self Sufficient Bike Camping Thread.

Thanks for the report. The Budawangs is a great area to visit.

Did you encounter any lock gates going through the properties off Braidwood Road at the start of the Endrick? Reason I ask is that entrance has officially been closed for several months and NPWS have only recently renegotiated access with the property owners.
 
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Calvin27 said:
Question though, does the rear suspension actually work with all that on there? My bike is a bit more of a conventional vertical shock so no chance I'm getting any triangle bag in there. But should be able to make do with your setup minus the triangle bag switched out for a 20L backpack.
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The Epic is only 100mm. I don't think I could have managed the loose climbs without traction from the rear suspension and I would have been beaten up by the descents. All up there was only around 11kg extra on the bike and it was reasonably balanced, I just pumped the shocks up a little - all good-ish. Adding 11kg to a XC racing thoroughbred did make it feel like a sack-o-shit.
The only thing with a backpack is that it is additional weight on the saddle - and your arse - so maybe not great for longer trips.
 
Comic Book Guy said:
Did you encounter any lock gates going through the properties off Braidwood Road at the start of the Endrick? Reason I ask is that entrance has officially been closed for several months and NPWS have only recently renegotiated access with the property owners.
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There are 2 routes from Endric/Red Ground T junction, straight ahead on the Endrick River firetrail and right on the Red Ground firetrail. The Red Ground firetrail is the AOTB route and was OK apart from being overgrown, no obvious private property, no gates other than the NP bogan gate just before Endric river crossing as you are leaving the park onto Meangora Rd. I hear that the other route, following the Endrick River fire trail to Meanora Rd is more problematic and certainly looks like it traverses a couple of private properties. There's a report on the AOTB facebook group of being lost in a maize of creeks and getting directions from the friendly land holder.
 
Calvin27 said:
@carpetrunner, I meant the bags getting in the way of the suspension movement. Probably not too bad on a horizontal shock design,
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No problem with the bags and the suspension movement - only 100mm anyway. There are frame bags out there for more difficult shock placement. If you can fit one biddon in the triangle, you should be able to get a 3L frame bag, if you can fit 2 bottles then you should get 5 or 6L. The biggest problem for me were tent poles, I guess this is why using the and a tarp is popular.
There's a few long toptube roll bags out there for enduro style frames, and the forks were surprisingly easy for water.
The rear saddlebag needed to be less than 6L to avoid bottoming out on the rear - I had a mylar scrape guard just in case and it did get used.
 
cokeonspecialtwodollars said:
I'd forgotten all about this thread, really should post some stuff in here one day.
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Me too. In the last 4 years I've managed to average a bit more than one bike packing trip a month. The majority have been overnighters with a departure time after work and an early <6am rise to get back before work, but each one of them has felt like a miniature holiday. Very good for the mental health. There is nothing better than riding out, camping on top of a mountain and watching the sun go down with a cold beer and some mates.
 
Nice report @carpetrunner. I rode that track from Nerriga to Sassafras back in 2018 and sounds like some things haven't changed. The track in and camp spots near the Endrick River end weren't well defined so I stopped in a clearing near the river. There was a open grassy section in the middle there where the track was indistinct. Just took a little wandering around to find it a couple of hundred metres away. Also found at that point what looked like large metal pig traps and it hit me I was out here alone without as much as a penknife to defend myself! I miscalculated my water and was dry by the time I got out on the road at Sassafras, tried pulling into Tianjara but in the middel of the last drought it was dry too. It was a long hot run, luckily downhill to Nowra in the middle of the day. I reckon you can learn a lot from little adventures like this.
 
carpetrunner said:
Bicentennial National Trail (BNT) membership, guidebooks and maps - is it worth it?
Who's in BNT and why should I join?
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What sections are you thinking about. I did a couple weeks in Northern nsw 5ish years ago. Was well organised but on a bike it can be frustrating that the trail prioritises farmland over the beautiful national parks and state forests next door (this is done to suit the horses the trail was made for). It is good to not have to map it out nd research the trails yourself though
 
The BNT is a long trail so I would assume that the guidebooks would contain a lot of information. BNT membership to buy the guidebooks seems a bit much though.

There was guy on here years ago (wildwazza I think?) who knew a lot about the BNT but he hasn't been around for some years...Just looked him up, OOPS, he was banned in 2012.

Also, the BNT appears to be fully mapped on Open Street Maps. Could be a handy planning resource.
 
The husband and I are planning on doing some bikepacking with the kids in the near future.
Previously our almost 5 year old rode on a Dolittle seat, but he's too big for it now.
He can't quite manage the distance we plan on travelling (between10-20km). So I was wondering if anybody has ridden single-track/fire roads hauling something like a tagalong/co-pilot?
@Plankosaurus gave us a tagalong a while back but I think it was destroyed in a fire at my in-laws farm.
We've tried a Trailgator but didn't like the handling.
Thoughts, recommendations?
 
I loved the trail gator, but only on bike paths... on singletrack it often got caught up going over obstacles, or winding around trees.... I would imagine any of those trailer style setups would be similar?
 
kbekus said:
I loved the trail gator, but only on bike paths... on singletrack it often got caught up going over obstacles, or winding around trees.... I would imagine any of those trailer style setups would be similar?
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The Trailgator is pretty long.
I haven't researched how far back a tagalong sits by comparison, but it looks a little shorter.

Towhee strap is another option. We grabbed a Bunnings carabiner strap, which works pretty well, but the young fella freaks out about rear-ending us and holds the brakes!
 
I'll put this video here.

More of a record of the ride we just done than an exciting MTB video.

I need to find myself a better hiking pillow as the super lightweight air bag is not cutting it, this is the second trip that its been giving me the shits. Might even take a weight hit and get the Therm-a-rest compressible pillow at around ~400g.

Upgrading and weight-weenie'ing hiking/bikepacking stuff is nearly more expensive than upgrading bike components :p

Camping each night was between 2°C and 5°C and my 8°C bag worked well with my clothing on, puffa, beanie, trousers and thick socks.

Tent - Black Wolf Mantis 1 = ~1500g
Bag - Mountain Equipment Starlight micro = 600g
Pad - Nordisk Vanna 2.5 = 400g

Pretty happy with the above stuff right now but plenty of room for upgradeitus, just need a different pillow.

 
ozzybmx said:
I'll put this video here.

More of a record of the ride we just done than an exciting MTB video.

I need to find myself a better hiking pillow as the super lightweight air bag is not cutting it, this is the second trip that its been giving me the shits. Might even take a weight hit and get the Therm-a-rest compressible pillow at around ~400g.

Upgrading and weight-weenie'ing hiking/bikepacking stuff is nearly more expensive than upgrading bike components

Camping each night was between 2°C and 5°C and my 8°C bag worked well with my clothing on, puffa, beanie, trousers and thick socks.

Tent - Black Wolf Mantis 1 = ~1500g
Bag - Mountain Equipment Starlight micro = 600g
Pad - Nordisk Vanna 2.5 = 400g

Pretty happy with the above stuff right now but plenty of room for upgradeitus, just need a different pillow.

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You need to look at the Nemo range. Very very comfy lightweight pillows.

https://www.nemoequipment.com/collections/pillows

Sent from my M2012K11AG using Tapatalk
 
Oddjob said:
You need to look at the Nemo range. Very very comfy lightweight pillows.
Click to expand...

Going to have to go down and look at a few. I see there are a couple of stockists in Adelaide.

I reckon anything will be better than my 39g balloon.

389711
 
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