I’m interested in uni touring and so I was wondering what everyone uses to carry there luggage while riding long trips.
I was thinking about getting a rack to put on the back of my frame then getting a bag like this one to carry the majority of my things.
Then if I needed to I would put a bag like this one on both sides of my frame.
And finally if needed I could put some sort of smaller bag on my T7 somehow for things I would need access to while riding.
I’ve toured with a rear seatpost luggage rack. The problem with these is that there is weight hanging off the back of the frame, which acts like a lever, forcing the nose of the seat into your crotch. This is in no way comfortable.
I would recommend checking out some ultralightweight backpacking websites - you can put together a week’s worth of camp gear inside of five pounds. Unicycle repair tools would be extra, but it’s still totally possible to carry most everything on your back.
The more weight you’re carrying, the slower you will go. Hills will be harder, and the unicycle will be less manoeverable. The more weight on the unicycle, the more difficult it is to mount when you’re tired. The more weight on your back, the less time you can sit on the saddle.
I would recommend placing weight off the front of the unicycle if possible, since this forces the saddle into your butt rather than the other way around. Be careful that whatever you set up doesn’t interfere with your pedaling, it may feel fine for five minutes but when you’re on the road all day, you want to be as comfy as you can get up there.
good luck!
A car/van
When I was in BC this winter a guy at a bike shop told me that he knew a guy who towed a modified BOB trailer with his unicycle. This seemed like an intresting idea but if you are going to have two wheels you might as well use a proper touring bike.
I would think that for carying gear on a uni you would want to get it relativily balanced front to back so maby you could have something long and thin (like a tent) in the front of the uni. I would just experament untill you get a setup that you are comfortable with.
ERIC
How would you mount stuff on the sides of your frame without it getting in the way of your legs? I understand how this could be done on a giraffe but on a 36"?
Racks are useless, make the unicycle ride like crap.
You can strap some things like sleeping bags directly to the seat. This makes the unicycle ride a bit less like crap, but still pretty poo.
Lightweight stuff, and don’t take tons of stuff you don’t need like loads of spare clothes.
All my stuff for a 3-4 day trip (camping) fits in a large camelbak. For a longer trip, as long as you’re going through towns to get food, you don’t need any more than that.
As for Ken’s car, I’ve toured with and without a support vehicle. In some ways a car is nice, as it means you can carry tons of kit. In other ways though, it kind of feels wrong, cos you’re not really using the unicycle as a mode of transport. It also can add hassles if you rely too heavily on the support crew and they screw up for some reason. Oh and it tends to reduce your freedom to just pootle and go wherever you feel like, you tend to have to organise things in advance.
I think touring with a support vehicle kind of feels like just going for a bunch of rides in a row, whereas without, feels more like bike touring, more like an adventure.
I also think that there’s a magic to lightweight camping in particular. Sleeping under the stars is awesome, you see a whole other side to the places you’re travelling through.
Joe
A woman just finished riding accross the US last year (I think finishing in November going East to West. There were some posts here about it). She had a medium sized Camelback, and here support crew was her father riding a touring bike w/ front & rear racks and panniers.
edit: She did the whole ride barefoot, for charity.