Panniers!

In keeping with the "cheap and practical" theme of my touring kit, I decided to experiment with constructing my own waterproof panniers. For the containers themselves, I utilized Kingsford charcoal buckets since they are sturdier than most other plastic containers I've found, are completely waterproof, are narrow and have an easy access lid built in. The containers themselves cost about $12 each at home depot, so the total cost was somewhere in the neighborhood of $26 including tax. That was it. No other purchases were required as I utilized spare/scrap parts and a bit of rope I had lying around. If one had to purchase all the components, total cost would probably be in the $50 range.

I can't claim that I originated this idea, as I didn't even know this type of container existed prior to finding an Instructable detailing their use as panniers, but I do believe that my mounting system is an improvement over the one used by phish814.


On to the construction: First the racks were installed on the Aurora. Somehow, they had managed to change dimensions during the final weld, so I had to spend a little vise time getting the mounting points lined up correctly.

The racks don't actually look all that bad!

Shifter cable was routed inside to avoid interference by pannier

Once the racks were installed, I took the pieces of aluminum channel to be used as the "hooks" and drilled bolt holes before placing them in their approximate positions on the containers.

There are holes in that metal- I don't know why they don't show up

I had originally intended to use short carriage bolts and large washers to attach the channel to the containers, but that would require (gasp!) purchasing bolts! This clearly wouldn't do, so I went looking for a free solution in the pile of dead bikes behind the shop.

Observe: a cheap, dry rotted brake pad

Cut off the rubber, and all you have left is a metal plate with a short protruding bolt

Its like it was made for this!

The bolt length is perfect

Once the forward bolt was installed, the pannier-to-be was placed on the rack and adjusted before drilling the second hole and setting the angle of the mount.

Once the top mount was installed the bottom mount was installed as shown below. Its function is twofold: to keep the pannier from swinging out under any circumstance, and to keep the pannier from trying to level itself when loaded. The bottom mount is three inches long to the top's six, and it fits snugly on the bottom rail of the little rear triangle on my rack. A single bolt (er, brake pad) was used to mount the bottom rail, as it is meant more for stabilization than load bearing and it is useful to be able to change its angle as the pannier is slid forward/backward on the rack.

The second pannier is just a mirror image of the first

Once both panniers were completed, I experimented for a while trying to find the best way to secure them so that they would not bounce off the rack. I originally considered drilling holes in the mounts and the rack so that they could be bolted together, but eventually settled on using a rope to lash the top mounts down. I'm still not completely comfortable with this setup, but its good enough to test it for a few weeks before trying anything else.

The panniers have surprisingly little effect on handling when lightly loaded, and don't look terrible for a cheap solution either. Final judgement is reserved until after I load them with water and bricks (or perhaps beer and ice) and attempt to go trail riding. Should be fun times.

Homebuilt Racks: or how to throw time and scrap parts at a problem instead of money

Due to the fact that
A) my new touring bike is disc brake only and
B) the fact that Jamis engineers in 2010 were incapable of putting a rear disc caliper ahead of the chainstay where it won't be in the way of rack mounting points, I had a bit of an issue figuring out where I was going to find racks which would work on my tourer.

Add to the above issue the fact that a decent set of racks (assuming they even work with poorly designed disc frames) will generally run close to or over $100 individually for front and rear, and there's a pretty strong incentive to come up with an alternative solution. Fortunately, I've got access to loads of scrap bike frames, and own a welder which I keep in my parent's garage/workshop about 45 minutes away from school.

The general idea was to utilize the chainstays and dropout from a steel-framed full-suspension bike and orient them such at the rack passed behind the disc caliper.

The original disc-workaround concept

Its a pretty tight fit between the lever arm and the stays

Another set of chainstays serve as the top bars of the rack

While I was designing a rear rack, I decided that I might as well work on a front "lowrider" style rack as well. Cue slicing up another hapless scrap bike:

Sharp edges aplenty

I actually cracked a rib whilst snipping one of the dropouts in half with a set of bolt cutters- turns out bracing one handle against your chest is a terrible idea. Not a huge deal; I ran the McGuires 5k the next morning and two weeks later I can almost do pullups again!

Anyway, back to the general design of the front racks:

That's one rear triangle completely re-purposed

Thought about putting a platform on the front rack, but decided against it

Any further progress in the rack design and construction department depended on the arrival and installation of the front fork, so this project languished for a few weeks until yesterday... At which point I feverishly assembled the bike, headed out for home, and spent until 3 AM working in the shop.

My (cluttered) workspace

Prior to any cutting or welding, all rack parts were cleaned to bare metal with an angle grinder and a wire brush.

PPE is a good thing

Would you believe that this was covered in old, flaking paint and rust shortly prior to this photo?

The rear rack, being the highest-priority item, was constructed first.

Start with a (partial) rear triangle

Cut lower chain-stays in half at 45 degree angle and flip

I'm of the opinion that welding gear looks badass

Welded rear portion of rack- the "triangles" are to prevent loads from swinging into the rear wheel

The rack was mounted to the frame in order to spot-weld the top rails into place

The top rails partially welded into place

Some truly awful looking welds (but I got penetration!)

The finished rack

Mounted on the bike

The front rack was simple in comparison to the rear, since I decided that I didn't want a platform and only wanted to mount low-rider panniers.

The individual parts were bolted to the fork...

...then welded into position

Final welding was performed while the rack was vise-mounted

All that remained at that point was to spray a coat of paint on the racks and drag my tired self through a shower and into bed. Pictures of the final results are from next morning.

I felt about how I look in this picture

Front

Rear

I'm probably going to paint them something other than flat black before installation.


Upcoming: I build/repurpose panniers, mount them to the racks in some clever and not-yet-fully-developed fashion, then ride the loaded bike a short distance before complaining about how heavy it is!

Birth of a Tourer

My Aurora is assembled! Truly Spokin finally got the fork I needed in from QBP (a Civia Bryant disc road fork) on Tuesday, but it was Thursday before I got my hands on it thanks to a misunderstanding regarding the store location at which I wished to pick it up. Regardless, I owe a big thank you to Mark for cutting me a deal on the wheel set, fork and BB7's for this bike.
 

The assembly went quickly once I got the fork installed- all I had to do was install brake and shifter cables, adjust brakes, and tune the shifters.

 

After riding it around school for a half hour or so, I've concluded that the steering is a lot heavier than my old Aurora. I'm pretty sure that the geometry of the frame is the same, so this is probably due to the new fork and the fact that I'm currently running 35's instead of 28 width tires. I'll probably install some new 32's right before I leave on my trip.

Isn't it pretty and sleek looking? ...  Just wait til I ruin those lines with some bulky, overbuilt home-made racks!

Picnicking at Pickens

This past weekend I had a couple of good friends in from the Tampa area- Evan, Kelsey and their friend Cat. We spent the first several days hanging out around the house catching up, drinking intermittently, and preparing various delicious foodstuffs, but we all wanted to get outside for an entire day and enjoy the fantastic weather before they returned home. I borrowed three bikes from the shop for them, so we decided to park at Chickenbone Beach and ride out to Ft. Pickens with a picnic lunch. I brought along my trailer and a cooler, thus defaulting to the role of dedicated supply bike.

We were somewhat slow to get moving, so it was around 1:00 PM by the time we loaded up the bikes, obtained picnic food, and trundled on down to the last parking lot before the Ft. Pickens entrance station. For the first couple of miles we fought a slight headwind, so the going was somewhat slow, but once we got to the first battery everyone recovered quickly and set about exploring.

All but one of the pictures after this point can be credited to Cat, because I am terrible about remembering to take photos when I am having fun. Thanks Cat!

I found a way in to one of the restricted areas at Battery Worth, but everyone else yelled at me and informed me that I was acting on a terrible idea, so I backed out.

Cat showed a propensity for riding off of the road and into the sand, which resulted in her crashing twice. Thankfully, a scrape on her knee was the only notable injury sustained.

After checking out most of the batteries, we headed on to the fort itself. Since we didn't have any way of securing all our stuff, I relaxed with the bikes (and the food!) while Evan, Kelsey and Cat explored the fort.

In search of a suitable location at which to hang hammocks and set up the picnic, we embarked down a gravel bike/walking trail which eventually took us back to Battery Worth. There we ate, relaxed for a while, and listened to two Ospreys engaging in a domestic dispute over some nest building issue.

Evan and Kelsey enjoyed the cloth hammock, while I looked like some sort of bizarre cocoon-monster in my meshed camping hammock.

As the sun began to set, we embarked once again, this time with a fading tailwind that pushed us towards the end of our little journey.

Shortly before sunset, we pulled over to the side of the road and walked out onto the beach to watch the sunset. It was a perfect end to one of the best days in recent memory.