UKC

I set myself a challenge for the year - a nice 3 day bikepacking loop around the Brecon Beacons. My initial thought was to ride on my super plush full susser. But now my inner masochist is starting to think that maybe using my 24 year old fully rigid clasic Kona might be a good choice. Should I go for the full Rough Stuff Fellowship approach, or the hi-tech high comfort one?

In reply to Dom Whillans:

Old rigid Kona. Great touring bikes.

In reply to Dom Whillans: Whichever you can fit panniers to

Personally I would go with the rigid for any serious touring, but three days? I don't suppose it matters which.

In reply to Martin1978:
panniers? touring? if i was planning on being on roads it would be a no-brainer - rigid all the way, but this is a strictly off road jaunt sleeping bag and tarp strapped to the saddle, thermarest strapped to the handlebars and a small sac with some bivi gear in...

In reply to Dom Whillans: I thought the issue with full suspension bikes was generally that there is less frame space to attach your baggage to?

I've bikepacked with my hard-tail Kona Blast
http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.fi/2012/11/dark-times-november-bikepackin...
http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.fi/2012/10/mud-and-gears-and-rock-and-rol...
http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.fi/2011/06/bikepacking-7-brothers-hiking....
And in each case found I needed to wear a small back pack in order to bring everything I wanted/needed.

I've also done a trip on my Felt Hyrbid, no suspension:
http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.fi/2011/04/bikepacking-first-attempts.htm...
There I managed to load the bike so that I didn't need to carry a pack which is nice.

For going rough-ish offroad/single track for me, my Kona is great because it's a 'proper' mountain bike, but for touring on road/unsurfaced road/some paths - the hybrid was actually great. I bought a cyclocross bike last year to replace the Felt as my commuter. I've thought about bike packing with that too, but it's noticeable that the lack of "space" on the handlebars is a real issue. Obviously traditional panniers is a solution although for me that would lots of extra money, the saving of which was one of the attraction of bikepacking over traditional touring.

In reply to Dom Whillans:

You need the rigid bike with one of those alpkit bike packs fitted to it. You might actually enjoy it then!

In reply to Dom Whillans: 3 days off-road sounds great.

I spent a week biking (mostly on road with some trails) and swore I'd never, ever take a rucksack again. Came back with black and bleeding shoulders. Yeah, I was young and pleased just to get away! Hence my pannier recommendation.

I have seen guys using "Bob" trailers off-road. That looked the best way to do it. They were doing some pretty serious stuff as well.

Sounds like a great trip. I'd take the Kona for simplicity.

In reply to Dom Whillans:

MTFU and ride the Kona, you know it makes sense
I did a similar type of trip on Dartmoor in the late 80's on a Raleigh Yukon. Great fun!
Make sure you take plenty photos and report back.

In reply to Dom Whillans:

I did three days bothying with a bob trailer and in essence ended up over packing and the trailer was heavy. My own fault. I also had a full sus. It was still just fun so i reckon either choice will be exactly that, fun.

If I went again, I'd use a geared hardtail and look to take a alpkit fitted bag and light rucksack.. for me panniers always load a little one way or the other, and like a bob trailer can be unsettling. I recall descending on very lumpy rocks and I could see the bob trailer starting to overtake me on a corner... it was manageable but weird.

In reply to ti_pin_man:

What are these Aplkit bags people keep mentioning?!

In reply to Dom Whillans: There's a nice bikepacking article in this months Singletrack. They were riding full sussers and in fact looked like 29'ers. They rode a route around the Lake District.

In reply to Rollo:

http://www.alpkit.com/shop/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16786&...

In reply to nniff:

cheers all for the advice, i reckon the full suss 29" option is the one i'll go for, if the route's too easy i'll do it again on the kona! i think i'll be giving my hard earned pounds to Wildcat Designs - as much as i like Alpkit, Wildcat make everything in my home town and I have to say their stuff looks better than Alpkit

In reply to Dom Whillans: what, these people?

http://www.wildcat-designs.co.uk/

Very nice...

In reply to Siward:

lovely aren't they? i'm going to be toasty warm on my little jaunt!

er...

I might have meant these guys http://wildcatgear.co.uk/