Packing LF Gear on bicycle trailers

[Tin Can]

I find the tripod the biggest problem.

A good one is long, heavy and a little delicate. The long rear rack on the Surly Big dummy is a good idea.

Google image search. https://www.google.com/search?q=carg...IVVxWSCh2IcQyV

[Colin Graham]

Absolutely. Hence the need for a trailer, or a longtail frame.

[steveo]

I've had the RB67 plus bivvy gear on the bike a few times. Camera was on my back not wanting to damage the mirror every thing else spread over the panniers.

I've been looking at how to get my Arca comfortable in said panniers with out having to take my hiking bag. I figure if I put the monorail and tripod in one bag, the standards with a lens wrapped in the dark cloth in the other. My only concern is keeping a spare lens and a handful of film holders safe with all that rattling round though they would probably be okay with the standards. If need be I can pack my bivvy gear around all that though the handling would be starting to get interesting with all that weight on the rear, not a problem on the roads but a bit hairy on the mud.

[fuegocito]

This my set up for anything bigger than 45/57. The Ries is more for show since I tend to use something a lot lighter when heading out on two wheels. Panniers is quite efficient in dealing with 45's compacts. The trailer system works Ok but it tend drag backward as you pedal(specially when one is going uphill). I think carriers that are part of the bike frame will be a lot more energy efficient.

[Vaughn]

Once (and only once), I put as much 8x10 gear I could in the rear panniers, the camera pack (with camera body - 8x10 Zone VI) on my back and the Ries A100 stretched out on my rear rack. It worked, I suppose, but would have been better on pavement rather than single-track trail and then down a steep dirt road for a few miles.

In New Zealand, I had a Gitzo 300 series (with Gitzo #2 ballhead)...about 25 to 28 inches long. It went cross-ways on top of the rear rack -- the tent and sleeping bag and pad also went cross-ways on the rack (the camera pack went on top of everything else). Worked fine. With fully loaded rear panniers, the tripod was only a couple inches longer than the width of the two panniers and rack.

The Big Dummy looks great -- I'd add front panniers just to even the load for easier handling. One thing I found important when carrying heavy loads (in NZ my rolling weight was about 325 pounds) are large air-volume tires. I ran 1.9"x26" tires...smooth center tread with knobs on the sides. They were very nice to have when I was bombing down Haast Pass on the badly washboarded gravel road!

[Colin Graham]

Many thanks for sharing your experience and set-ups, it's really helped me to refine what I want into what might actually be practical.

Yeah, a trailer just seems like it would be awkward for loading and unloading, backing-up, locking-up, etc. I'm leaning towards a dedicated longtail cargo bike - the Surly is hard to beat, except for it's size and cost- 58" wheelbase! I might actually highcenter it on a few trails around here. There are some cheaper options from Yuba, and the new 2016 Kona Ute looks pretty nice- not as big, but not as burly either.

[Alan Gales]

If there is a will, there is a way!

http://theverybesttop10.com/overloaded-bicycles/

[adelorenzo]

I never attach camera gear to my bike, IME stuff will get rattled to death pretty quickly. I've never used a trailer but can't see it going any differently unless you are sticking to smooth pavement. When bikepacking the camera gear is always on my back.

[Colin Graham]

A wooden field camera and some barrel lenses? Not much to rattle there. Anyway, like I mentioned in the OP, I tried a ride with the pack on my back, and I really wasn't much of a damper between the bike and pack. But I was really uncomfortable and top-heavy besides. I'd rather rattle a camera to death than my back!

[Vaughn]

adelorenzo, you are correct, but perhaps over-state the problem. Equipment in panniers is somewhat protected from the sharpest jolts -- I kept my lens/shutter in the front pannier with some padding if possible. View cameras fortunately are not fine instraments like roll/digital cameras and can be tighten up if needed, with a screw driver in many cases.

In New Zealand I rode on a lot of gravel roads (most have been paved since then), including the road over Haast Pass -- heavily washboarded, which on the downhill side for me was perhaps 10 kilometers of perhaps 20 to 30 kph. My bicycle had no suspension. There was a 140 k section on the North Island going through Urewera National Park -- I hit deeper gravel on the road's edge on a curve and flipped over the handlebars onto rocks just a 100 meters shy of where the paved section started! I had to regularily tighten nuts, etc on the bicycle, but that is true if one stays on the pavement, just not as much...just had to do it on my road bike I use to commute.

This was in 1986/87. I am still using the same camera and lens I took on that trip (with many backpack trips since then, also).

I prefer not to have LF gear on my back -- top heavy, so not quite as safe. Possibly greater chance of injury in a fall with a pack on ones back (just a guess here -- never happened to me), and a lot more weight on ones bum when riding. But probably more doable on short trips than long ones...I averaged about 60 kilometers a day...a pack on my back would have been painful...and hot (and many times very wet).

But vibration is an issue.