A small frame with a lot of stuff.
Preparation is well underway for the upcoming micro-tour! It has been a bit more of a headache than I anticipated but I’m working on it! Sort of. I have some new fenders that have been sitting on the floor for a few days now - I haven’t been able to muster up the courage to attempt their install. The clock is ticking, Sam. In fact, rain is predicted for the micro-tour! That should be enough motivation, right?
What I WAS able to get done yesterday was dig out the remainder of my camping items that will be needed for the trip. But first, I had a photo sesh with Benjamin Franklin:
My tent and sleeping pad were tucked away in a camping bin in one of my closets. Digging that bin out of the bottom of a closet that is filled to the brim (space is limited in Brooklyn, okay?!) was not an easy task and was something I also avoided until I couldn’t anymore. Since I knew how annoying this would be, my only goal this night was to get all of my necessary items together. But once that was done, I realized that I really did have a lot more to do and so I began my first attempt at setting up everything on my bicycle. I am CERTAIN there will be other variations of this setup, since I have no idea what I’m doing, and my frame is so small, and everything else is so big.
But first, I want to show you my temporary work setup for getting this bike ready. I am still in need of another bike stand for the third bike that occupies my office/bike room, so this is what I’m working with for now.
The first item put on the bike was my tent, which is a MSR Hubba that I’ve had for close to ten years now. Unfortunately, it did not work out the way I thought it would in my mind.
Because my frame is so small, the rear rack sits VERY high above my wheel. This leaves less space between my rack and my saddle and as you can see here, I can only fit my tent. My goal was to be able to attach both my tent and sleeping pad in this location but putting my sleeping pad on TOP of my tent would cause a large amount of overhang with no room to push it back, under the saddle. I sat on my floor, scanning forums and YouTube for any insight into putting a million things on a tiny bicycle. Then, Martin struck!
My searches were not very fruitful so it was time to get creative. Since the basket on my front rack was already half off (all of my zip ties keep breaking; I need to find better ones or a better way of attaching the Wald 137 basket to the Surly 8 Pack Rack - will there be another post about that saga?!), I removed it completely and tried placing the tent and sleeping pad on the front rack. The Metropolis Handlebars that are currently on my bike are fairly wide and allow enough clearance for the length of the tent and sleeping pad when positioned on my front rack, but I’m not thrilled about the setup.
Since I removed my basket, I decided to get creative with my Swift Industries Sugarloaf Bag and put that on top of my rear rack. The bag wasn’t intended for this location so attaching it to the rack was an interesting endeavor and I’m still not completely sold on the setup. I am having a hard time securing the bag fully so there is a lot of lateral wiggling going on. During these efforts, I was cutting excess lengths on the zip ties when a piece of something fell onto the ground. Did it come from my bike? From my panniers? I couldn’t figure it out and started panicking. Turns out, it was part of the scissors I was using.
For now, here is my current setup:
My one thought is that full panniers could help keep the Sugarloaf bag in place but I haven’t been able to test out that theory yet. Stay tuned for test results and revisions.
