leaving gear safe with the bike
 

Thursday we are leaving for a trip to Spain on our bikes. Besides the normal gear you take with you for living on the road, we are also bringing our rock climbing gear. We wonna combine climbing and riding.

Main concern was how we could safely leave our riding gear with the bikes while we are climbing.
My boots for ex wont fit in the pannier. Plus those might still be loaded with camping gear, cooking...

So we bought 2 big 'packsafe' nets. They are made out of fine iron wire and can be tensioned and fixed with a lock around the luggage.

What we are planning to do is leave the Ortlieb bags on the back of the bikes with the packasafe around and over them. The packsafe is connected with the bike by including parts of the bike in it (luggage rack, indicators,...).

We have tested the things this weekend and found them to work well.
If we stop in any place we can leave our jackets, boots, helmet,... with the bike under the Packsafe. Once you are used to how to place it, it goes quite fast. And in warmer regions this means you don't have to walk around carrying your jacket, helmet,...
The things we can get to first are shorts and teva's. So we can even trow out the bikepants and walk around a city comfy and not being worried about our gear all the time.

Of course... thieves can use special tools (or less special tools) to cut the wires. But if the bike is parked well in sight this will be noticed I believe / hope. Plus most of the gear sits in the Ortlied bag, so it can't be seen.


This little trick gives us an immense feeling of freedom while travelling.

If you wonna see what a packsafe looks like:
http://www.edirectory.co.uk/pf/pages...e+Size&cid=880

Although I didn't buy it online. It is just to show a picture.

Hi, to lock my helmet and jacket to my bike, I use one of those "wirelock" for bikecycles that lock to itselfe. Put it throug the helment and the jacketarm, then throug a "safe" place on the bike. Remember to clear the pockets before you leave your jacket..

Happy riding

Another item that you could use is a thin bike cover. I have found that if folks can´t see whats there, they are less inclined to figure out how to steal it.
I have one from Aerostich in the US, balls up to the size of a grapefruit. I will even use it if I visit a market in a new city for an hour. So far, so good.
Cheers,
Rene

www.renedian.com

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Go slow, be well.

Back from our trip and the use of the safepack turned out to be great.
We were able to walk around cities in shorts and teva's leaving our gear safely with the bike.
Same when we went rock climbing. Left the bikes at the foot of the rocks. Packed out climbing gear. Placed what we could in our panniers and the rest (helmet and boots mostly) went in the packsafe.
We did always place the bikes in a public place or well in sight.

Felt safe and OK to leave our stuff in this way. And we weren't bother by our gear doing 'sidetrips on our roadtrip'.

Wont go on a biking trip any more without the thing. Even consider it taking it with me when I go backpacking and have to travel a lot through cities or on public transport.