Bye bye Yuba

Changing your bike again!!!

Yeah, been a few changes over the past year. Each time I thought it was the "right" decision. What can I say - I make some bad decisions. But am learning :)

The Yuba definitely rides smoothly. Nice bike for cruising along. Also works well for carrying what ever you want. No worries about the strengh of the frame. Going to miss the solid no flex rack.

Am currently back on my old Aluminium MTB frame. The Yuba is on ebay and has offers so it will sell. Why the change? Number of reasons.

The extra length touring causes me problems. About town I can't get into some lifts, going through bicycle path squeeze points - it doesn't make it. I have to lift the back wheel up and move it to make it around. This also happens on the wheel chair ramps. The weight of my gear and the bike and the length don't make it easy for me to do this. Not I'm not in town that much, but the lifting and moving it affects me even in the bush.

Can't lift it over a fence easily. Noticed this more on the Lithgow trip with a friend on a standard length bike. Two of us managed, but I wouldn't do it on my own. (Actually, I can't lift the Yuba easily even when unloaded.)

I've no hope of getting it on a plane because of the extra weight and the length.

Yeah, the extra weight - noticing it more that I'm in Sydney. Places I've cycled lots. I expect to travel a certain speed and with the Yuba that isn't possible. Interestingly this didn't bother me in the country. So think its just I'm "back in the old places".

So after anguishing over it for a few weeks, its back to the MTB frame.

My old MTB without the wrapped frame.

Texas

What a week it has been..
I stopped a couple of days outside of Aratula. The second hand shop there, the guy gave me a book, so I had to stick around to read and and drop it back. While there, I saw a koala in the wild!!!! The koala climed down one tree, ran across the ground and up another tree. Did this a few times before finding a tree it was happy with.
After leaving, it was a two day climb up over the range. The road I picked had signs saying no trucks, semi trailers, caravans or busses. Some of the grades were 17%. Needless to say I walked lots of it. It would have had great views, but mostly I was struggling to see more than 20meters - fog or mist or clouds. It was cold and wet, wet, wet. It took two days to climb the range.
Stopped in Legume, and Liston for a night each.
I'm currently in Texas staying in the caravan park. Yes. There is a town called Texas in Qld.
Memorable moments;
If a tree falls in the bush does it make a sound? You bet. At 9:15ish at night, I went from sleeping to crouched ready to run in one heatbeat. A very loud "crack", followed by the sound of falling. In the morning i found some small twigs had hit the tent. The dead tree fell towards the tent, but the top of the branches stopped about 10meters away..
Digging a hole in the rain forest is hard work - lots of roots.
From Killarney to the NSW border, the road is called "Border Road". at the border, in NSW the road is called Killarney Road. QLD likes having the roads called Border road. Same thing happened when crossing again on the way to Stanthorpe.
Texas has sheep farming- lots of flies. Dig any hole early in the morning before the flies wake up.
New top speed - 79.5km/hr. Might have been faster but i put the brakes on early on.. But then lost a water bottle the speed crept up before I knew it..
Rain stings over 50kn/hr.
Being wet each day has its problems. I wear the same clothes each day. I've only three sets: one to wear, one to sleep or change into and one spare. So if one pair is wet, and its still raining, they go back on the next day. I found that I have lots of little blisters or boils. Any small cut would easily become infected. A day of being dry has helped them a lot. Clothes that are wet constantly smell. In short before washing today - I stunk. Going past road kill, the flies would all leave to follow me. I had so many on me, I'd chase them off to make the uphills easier. Fair dinkum!!! Skin softens in the water, and I found small pills of skin in the tent. Any callouses I had are long gone.. But after all of it, one good wash and everything is gone. I smell clean again, my clothes have the soap and sun dried smell. Looking foward to sleeping tonight - a clean dry bed.
The blue Ortlieb bags have shown a problem. The top is closed by a roll down, but the edge has a cloth strip. This strip soaks up the water and lets a few drops inside. I'm going to spray silicon on it when I get some to stop that. For the moment I'm double bagging to stop my sleeping bag getting damp.
The panniers on the Yuba Mundo work well. I feel like I can ride faster than with thee Go-Getters. Its also easier to pack and unpack the bike. Its also easier to push the bike up hill - the wide loader bar isn't in the way. The panniers sit a few inches higher - which is a big help when crossing water. I walked through water up to just below the axle height. The go-Getters would have been in the water, and lifting the bike. Water that deep has a lot of force. I wouldn't like to walk through any deeper flowing water...
Pictures:
- Road side heading away from my cow paddock camp.
- second hand shop at Aratula
- koala in a tree
Picture taking has been limited in the wet. My phone isn't water proof, and mostly I was so wet, I didn't want to risk opening the water proof bag to get out the phone.
After all the rain - it isn't as unpleasent as you might think. It does make for some changes, like stopping earlier to give the inside of the tent time to dry, or taking longer to setup and take down the tent.. And when the sun comes out its so magical. Riding in the rain is easier in some ways - its cooler, and there isn't any water shortages :)

Gold Coast

Hanging out with friends on the Gold Coast now. Been very surprised about the cycle paths about Brisbane. They have much better facilaties than Sydney. Good paths that go everywhere I wanted to go. Clear signage. Maps. So awesome.
Ditching the GoGetters for panniers. About 7kg weight there. Wow. Also loosing the wide loader bar. Caught my foot on it a couple of times on rough roads. The panniers hang higher, which is a bonus:better ground clearance.

Stonehenge, Isisford, Blackall

Last day doing things in Stonehenge. Was helping cut the law on the ride on. Never used one before. I managed to:
Find the bottomless pit (in fairness it wasn't marked, and was hidden in the knee high grass)
Cut the water pipe (plastic also hidden)
Am now in Blackall. Was a long hot ride from Stonehenge to Isisford. Rolled in on 7pm after leaving at 4am. There was stops during the hot part of the day, and lots of rest stops after that. Slept several times.
Isisford the river was over the bridge. Walked that pushing the bike. Lots of mossies and sandflies about right now.
Still having lots of hassles with bags. My blue waterproof bags are that, but getting them on the bike hasn't been as successful as i'd thought it would be. Thinking now that panniers, the tried and tested touring gear carriers are the go. My gear at the moment is held on with lots of straps and ocky straps. Looks big and messy, and is a pain to get on and off the bike and to find anything. Am sitting the blue bags in the yellow Go Getters. It the blue bags are upright, they tend to fall outwards. Lie them down and opening them without unpacking is hard. Tried putting different amounts of gear in them, and in the Go Getters. Haven't found a combination that works for me.
The fatter tires are way better. They provide some suspension, and track better on the dirt roads.

Go-Getters and rain

I've been meaning to comment on using the Go-Getters for touring for a while now. Time to do it. They are huge! But, i think that they are not the best for touring. This is my experience so far:
They are not 100% water and dust proof. The lid folds over the bag opening. I've not been able to get it to a state that i'm happy with in dusty conditions, or that i'd trust it in driving rain. In rain i'm having important stuff in plastic bags. This is annoying.
Dust sticks in the weave of the fabric.
I think they might be mean't to be used with running boards and side boards. I'm not using either, and have found that the braze- on points, with button bolts in them are wearing the bags out. See the holes in the bottom of one bag in the pictures.
The clips are not easy to operate, if your taking the bags on and off daily. I have ended up using two hold points on each bag-the inside two. The outside two are used to attach the shoulder strap. The shoulder strap makes picking up loaded bags easier.
I find that i cannot stuff goods into them in the same way as using roll top bags. If i stuff them too hard, the lid has a larger gap which has me worried for water and dust.
My bags sit on the wide loader, which is lower than the wheel axle. This is good for center of gravity, but the down side is that i've scrapped the bags on rocks, stumps, and road kill. They now have tiny holes.
The bags are weighty on their own. This is more in comparison to roll top bags. The fabric is thick and should last ages.
Both shoulder straps broke the adjustment bit of plastic. Since this is one attachment point, both are now tied onto the bags.
I'll be getting some roll top plastic bags. Ortlieb make some. I'm considering removing the wide loaders, and attaching some core flute on the sides of the rack. The two bags will them be hung in a cloth sling on the side. This will place them above the axle.
I'll have to visit a larger town when mobile again to get the cloth, well probably canvas. I'll have a photo then. It may be easier to understand then.

New wheels!

Yeap. Thats my current wheels.How did that happen?
While sheltering from the wind and rain in the shade of a toilet block i noticed my rear rim had cracks! Lots in fact. Needless to say, i couldn't pedal on.
I'm going to get both rims rebuilt on wider and stronger rims. That will take some time, as i'm in the country. (There is a mail truck twice a week.) Until that is done, i've got a job: truck driving. I'm getting to see the road from up high.
Its an old truck. Patience with the gear changing is essential.
I'm moving sand at the moment; Drive to point A. The truck is loaded. Drive to point B and empty it out. Go back to point A and repeat. Interestingly i'm finding it peaceful work.
I've also been helping out with the usual computer problems, but truck driving is different.
It's stopped raining for now, and the temp is rising. Soon it will be "hot". Truck air-con is "keep the window open"

Just about done.

Just about finished building.  Did some riding in the rain (again). Slash guards worked well. Will keep them on. Much cleaner feet at the end of the day. Cleaner bike also.

Decided not to use cloth around the Go-Getters. That would involve a lot of sewing - edges and eyelet holes. Although I've a 5000m of thread. I don't want to wait about here to get all that done. In a moment of thinking - bought a small tarp. Cost less than $4. Promptly doubled its value by putting a few more eyelets around the edge. Its big enough to go over the rack, down the sides, and up a short way on the outside.  There is also a bit to cover the ends. I'm thinking to run a string through the eyelets and use some ocky straps across the top to hold it all together.  I haven't tried it with the bags yet (tomorrow), but it looks like it will do the job of keeping mud of them. I can also use it as a rain shelter when not riding. When I ordered the frame and got the Go-Getters, I did think about using a tarp then - kind of like the Xtracycle Freeloader bags. Wasn't sure, and the Go-Getters were a great price, and they are huge!!.  I like being able to open the top and dump Stuff in. Shut the lid and its  water proof. The Go-Getters are well thought out - with buckles, and bits of velcro in the right places to pin extra strap up off the road.

Also decided not to cover the chain any further. If I put a disk on the chain ring, there will only be a couple of inches of chain free at the rear cog.

Used a piece of water pipe found on the side of the road to stop the fork swinging right around and bashing the light. Its cut so that the wheel can be almost at right angles - something that shouldn't happen riding. The spring under neath keeps the wheel straight when the bike is on the center stand. Still having problems with that spring - the extra long hoses push the wheel slightly to the right - no much, but precludes hands off riding. Changing the location of the hoses helps - but will wait until I can shorten them before playing with the spring again.

Found a Red Bull can on the side of the road - used that to make some sleeves around the seal on the pedal. Red Bull cans are very thin. The join is is made like this:
        _______________
         \
           \  \
______\_\

When squashed flat - its secure against popping open. Cause to take the pedals off - it has to be pulled off. Tins are common along the road side. Use scissors to cut.

The chain guard does a great job of keeping mud off the chain. All this would have ended up a grinding past on the chain.

Woo Hoo - riding

My quick ride the other day was as a single speed. Decided today to quickly fix the gear changer and work that Rohloff. In a common story, it took way longer than I thought it would. The cable outers for the gear changer ended up being 1870mm long. Easy to cut them - used side cutters and then filed them flat. The liners - scissors. Cutting the inners was hard. The two pairs of side cutters in the shed both didn't want to cut. They mushed and chewed. I thought about using a pair of scissors, but ended up using the grinder. It wasn't the best and I wished for proper cutters. I'm thinking to either buy a pair and carry them with me, or better yet, find a bike shop to precut some inners to the length I need. Arrggh - to do that I'd need to take the cables out and measure them. I don't know how much is inside the twist shifter. So, next time I have to change a cable - I'll try and remember to measure then, and then get them cut to length.

Sadly I had to put a side the nice thick tubed handle bar from Yuba. By the time the brake lever, shifter, and a small bit of grip went on, there was no space left for the bar ends. I did like the extra rise it gave. Used the old bar I had, but will look to replace it with a steel tube sometime. I through on the lights, and old mud guards, adjusted the seat height, and headed out for a longer ride.

The brakes are starting to feel better. The front ended up getting some washers between the fork and the caliper to space it out far enough to adjust correctly.  The rear by careful design by me (yeah right! - pull the other one.) was spot on - no spacers needed.  By the time the rear hose was routed, it was okay for length. The front hose is really too long. I'll wait until I'm at a shop to shorten it. I don't want to risk not having a brake here.

The Yuba cargo bag goes on well. I was going to keep the space look to the frame, but now I'll find something to place on the sides and wide loaders. I want to try and stop lots of mud hitting the bags as I'll end up unclipped them and carrying them into the tent.

First trip - to the post office to collect the mail. Picture above is outside the post office.

How does it ride on the road - really good. Lots of gears - though didn't need any of the low gears here. Need to find some hills to test that out.

After riding about for a bit, I then returned to the chain guard. I need to replace my grandmothers bucket tomorrow.  I cut the bottom off it and placed it over the crank. I cut to more slots out to enable the base to sit as flat as possible against the frame (See the photo below). Its held in with two cable ties. Ideally, the distance up from the bottom of the bucket would be the same all the way around, but because the bucket is a bit soft, it doesn't sit vertically. I put the crank on, and slowly cut bits off until it could turn freely. Just cut anything that hits the crank arm.

On the photo on the right, you can see the slots cut on the back, to help the base sit flat. Cut some slots for the chain and it was done.  Tomorrow I'll sort out the chain runs. Going to go look at poly tubing again.

The guard isn't finished yet. I want to place a disk (I didn't want to upset people by taking another bucket) over the outside of the crank - so there is less of a gap, and to help that bit more with keeping pants clean. I tried with some long slacks on, it does a good job of keeping pants from the chain as it is. The bucket should be cheap - a harder plastic bowl may be better. Now I have a template to start with. I'm still thinking of other options. See what occurs to me tomorrow. I'll be going on a longer ride to the local town. Will be about 30+km round trip. Thinking time, and see how the bucket holds up.

Heres another shot - it does look like it would do a wonderful job of keeping water/mud from the front wheel off the chain. Probably need to paint it - I'm not sure how long it would last in the sun otherwise.  Depending how long, and the cost of a bucket, it might stay the way it is.

A Disk brake Mundo

It took a lot longer than I thought, but then I got the wheel back in and the disks are on. 160mm front, 190mm rear.

This morning was lots of assembling  and disassembling it all, checking with small spacers the amount of metal to add in. I had forgotten about the axle adapter I had on yesterday  - that was an extra 2mm. All up the wheel dropped down 7mm from the original dropout spot. I ended up getting a 14mm bolt, filing the grove for the 10mm axle, and brazing that in the dropout. Then a 4mm plate on the long part of the dropout slot at the rear to get the whole thing to 10mm.  Lots of filing today.

It works, but its still going to be a bit fiddly to change the wheel. The wheel will not just drop in or out. The axle plate on the Rohloff hits the chain stay tube when at the front of the dropout. With the 14mm dropouts, I didn't notice this as there is more room on both sides for it to all move about. With the dropouts being 10mm, its noticeable. If I put the 4mm on the opposite side (the front of the dropout slot) it would have been better. Putting the wheel in or out, there is some jiggling, and rotating the external gear mech and the OEM axle adaptor, before it all drops in (or out). I'm not about to change it now. I don't need to get the wheel on/off that often, and its not that hard to do.

I did have a moment of wondering if the 203mm disk would be a just bolt on. There is enough room for it. Decided not to try it - as I didn't want to wait more days for a rotor and adapter.  Also had a wonder if there was another size caliper adapter that I could have used instead. Anyway if at some time in the future I want to change it, the bits added in can all be ground out.

The chain - I wanted to have the chain tensioner pushing up, but it didn't work out. The chain hits on the wide loader. Down still works. Don't know how many links on the chain, and I'm not counting them. I'm running 39/16 cogs, with 165mm cranks. Ended up using a half link to get the length just right.

Just as I finished, it started raining - and hasn't stopped. So there was a very short ride in the liquid sunshine.. The brakes feel a bit spongy. Need to ride a bit more to see if that is a real problem, or just my perception of them. Both hoses are too long. The front has way too much hose. Not sure if this affects the brake feeling. Will check this out more when its not raining.

The weather encourages getting mudguards on next. They will not go on easily. Brake calipers are in the way. Can make up short adapters to fix this, but am also thinking about making up some wider guards. I running 1.35 tires on at the moment, at some point I might want to got bigger. I'd like to not have hassles with mud guards then. Going to go hunt about tomorrow and see whats available. Corflute would be handy right now.

I also will put a piece of tube over the chain runs - as I want to try and keep muck off the chain as much as possible. It will also help keep the  bottom run from slapping against the frame. Ideal would be fully enclosed chain running in oil, but that's to hard to do. But any covering has to help with keeping the chain clean. Certainly will help with keeping me clean. I have a piece of 13mm poly tube, but want to try with a larger size. Another thing for tomorrow.

Out of interest, I wondered what the load limit on the Rohloff is. Ended up sending Rohloff an email last night asking. The answer is; there isn't any - but you do have to honor the gearing limits they set. So I can pick up as much stuff as I want - long as I can pedal it. That works for me.

New Rotor arrives

The new rotor arrived today. Its actually the 190mm Magura option from Rohloff. As I guessed, it is a bit big for the caliper to bolt onto. Yuba recommending a 180mm for the rear. I think a 185 would be just spot on.

When I ordered the frame, I also I ordered the adapter from Yuba for the rear 180mm disk. Looking at it now, its way too small. The brakes arrived with two different size adapters - 1 small  (that almost matches the Yuba one),  and one larger - that works better on the rear. Better, but not perfect.

The image above has the caliper resting down onto the top of the rotor. This is with the axle adapters on the Rohloff hub, in the 14mm dropouts. At both ends its about 5mm to bolt flat to the adapter. (Its easier to see the gap on the front bolt.) This will sort its self out tomorrow when the dropouts get narrowed. I'll get some more metal at the bottom of each dropout - and the rotor will drop downward. I might also put some spacers between the adapter, and the caliper to fine tune the height - to get it just right.

I'm excited now - this is all stuff that can be done by me - so there is not more waiting for parts to arrive. Baring any unexpected developments, I should be able to have a ride tomorrow.

Brakes arrive

Finally the trip to the postoffice, saw me return with a large box. First thing was to fit the rear - as it was probably the one that was going to be the problem. Arrrg...It still is a problem :( The 160mm Rohloff rotor is too small (Well that or the disk mount is too high.) I had suspected that before, but was assured that it would all be fine.
Changing the adapter when I realised that I had two different sized ones, helped slightly, but not enough. Still too little disk rotor is under the pads. And still too much for me to "fix" by changes to the dropouts. Not happy. I could have ordered a larger rotor earlier, and not be sitting now waiting again.

*sighs* more waiting time. Need to order a larger rotor. Rohloff don't do a 180mm or 185mm any more, so its either 190mm or 203mm. Yuba recommended a 180mm Rotor, so I'm going to go with the 190mm.

So, more daily trips to the post office waiting for a larger rotor.

The front fits without any dramas. So I've one brake. Might fit up the chain and have bit of a ride about on the weekend.

Rohloff bits arrive

The new axle plate makes mounting the wheel a lot easier.  Will wait until I sort out the disk before making the dropouts 10mm. When I narrow the dropouts, I'll add a bit more metal for the torque plate to press against. 

Waiting for parts.

My hopes of being quickly mobile failed. The Monkeys to the rescue. Called and spoke with Nic. They'll make up the hoses to length, bleed em, and have it all in the post next week.Love those guys!  Rohloff Australia are sending a new axle plate and disk rotor. With luck enough gear will arrive next week to let me pedal around the cane paddocks. Until then, having to content myself with sitting on the seat, and dreaming of the road ahead.

Yuba Mundo Arrives

Due to a one thing and another, and Ben and I exchanging emails all of last week, and my frame didn't leave the shop until Friday 21st May. Fedex estimated a delivery date of 31st. I was hopeful, but thought it might take longer, but checked their tracking site almost hourly :)

This morning it surprised me. While I was thinking it was just leaving Sydney, it arrived. How is that possible - from USA to the middle of no where so quick. Four days!!! I order stuff in Australia, and it takes longer than that. Needless to say, I'm very happy right now.

I wasted no time unpacking and starting assembly. Thanks heaps Ben. It was well wrapped and padded in the box. It was so exciting unwrapping each item and finding what was there. I can't say enough good things about Ben at Yuba.

Rather than fill up this blog with pictures, see all the pics I took here

Finally it was unwrapped and on the floor. Initial impression - its solid. Just what I ordered. I'm happy with the  finish - it is what it is. A good value, cargo bike frame. For the record, there were no scratches on the paint before I started. But as this is going to get a work out touring, I'll be buying some touch up paint at some point. I also assembled with the help of grease. My reasoning is this is a metal frame, its going to spend pretty much all its life outside, a bit of grease on parts will help slow any rust down. The insides of the frame will also get a squirt of something oily also.

First order was getting wide loaders on. Then start to transfer other components from my MTB to it. Wide loaders just went on without any problems. Just slide on and tighten up the bolts.

Then things got interesting. Some things I thought would be a problem, weren't. Others that I thought would be no problem at all - are.

For the problems - at the moment two standing out:

I had planned on using my existing front hydraulic brake, and was leaning towards just using v-brakes on the back to get rolling. But the front hose hose is too short, and its going to need a ton of spacers and longer bolts to fit the caliper. That blew the option of getting it ridable. Time to either get a new front brake, or find spacers and a longer hose. Thinking about it now, I was probably overly optimistic thinking I could use my existing front brake - it was for a very special fork setup, and I did want to raise the handle bars on that bike anyway - so of course the brake hose would be too short!

Next was the Rohloff.  I ordered the axle adapters as the Mundo dropouts are 14mm and the Rohloff axles are 10mm. After taking a drill to the adapters, they fit the axle.

Time to drop the wheel in. I had thought that I'd just drop the wheel in, make an clamp to hold the torsion arm, and be done. This isn't to be. Using the torsion arm and external gear mech on this frame, it is not going to work. Both parts need to be below the frame and so don't fit together.

The dropouts are 7mm steel plate. Looking from the rear with the wheel out, the left hand dropout is flush with the tubing the forms the frame. The right hand side is mounted about the middle of the tubing. This means that there is only the width of the dropout, before the tube bulges out. On the other side of the tube is the disk mount.

After a lot playing with different angles on the axle plate I have, I think that either the OEM axle plate will just work, or the OEM2 axle plate will work with some help. Not 100% certain just yet. I need to find dimensions for the Rohloff drop outs to see how they compare to what metal is available on the Mundo. The Mundo dropouts are long with lots of thick steel - so the OEM is probably going to be the best bet.

I will be taking a welder to the frame though what ever happens. With lots of putting the back wheel in, and taking it back out again, the axle adapters got annoying real fast. They are small, round, and both want to drop off when your not expecting it, and roll away. The other thing that bugged me about them is that the drop out is 7mm thick, but the axle adapters are 4mm wide. I'd like to get a bit more axle in the dropout.

More installing tomorrow. 

Decisions , decisions

I'm not the best packer,  and decided that I wanted more space than just the two rear panniers. Space to carry extra water so I can spend more days out of town. And not have to hunt for space to chuck in some road side fruit or veges, or a few books.  I've got to have space!

Okay, I'm also a hoarder and manage to pick up all sorts of things from the side of the road on the basis that they may be Useful at some point. The danger with more space is that it gives me more space to keep stuff that really should have been left where it was on the side of the road. So far up the coast I had to ditch stuff several times after picking up items that I thought would be useful. But roadside stuff is so good value when its free :)

I've spent a lot of time hunting about reading reviews and travel blogs, and weighing up what I want to do - and the pros and cons of panniers , trailers (single or double wheel and even four wheeled using 20" or 26" wheels), and long bikes (Xtracycle, Surly Big Dummy, Yuba Mundo)

Panniers - my rear panniers are large, my MTB frame is short, so there wasn't room there to do anything. For front panniers, I'd need to work out an attachment.  I also wanted to raise the handle bars - and decided the best way was to change the front fork. The current fork was made for me before disk brakes were common and is short. Changing the fork to a Surly Instigator fork would give me a minimum of 4cm and up to 10cm of rise. Surlys fork doesn't have pannier mounts, and in any case I wanted the panniers to be mounted higher.  (I'd had problems with low hanging panniers on deeply rutted dirt roads.) Front panniers would stop the front wheel lift tendency when riding up hill with the back rack is loaded.  So this was an option.

Ruled out multi wheel trailers - their not for single track. Can't imagine riding with one down some of the dirt roads I've been on.

Wasn't that happy with single wheel trailers. The mounting might have been a problem - the back dropout is crowded enough on the left with the rack, mudguards, Rohloff gear mech and torsion arm. Wasn't happy with stationary handling either. There often isn't a tree handy, and its tricky enough balancing the bike with panniers against the plastic road posts. The Extrawheel trailer did look good though.

Long bikes all had oodles of space and generous weight limits.  One down side was its more of a change. You can leave a trailer or panniers behind - but you can't leave the tail end of your bike behind.

I liked the idea of the Xtracycle - but some reviewers reported frame flex with larger loads.  I'm not sure of the longevity of my existing aluminium MTB with the Xtracycle loaded up on it. And I'd still need to raise the front end.

Big Dummy looked promising  - some reviews reported flex on this with the heavier loads on this also. Besides the frame and fork, you also need to either build or buy a Xtracycle kit to carry any load, you can't carry anything on the Big Dummy without some racks mounted on it. This pushes up the frames base weight (and price).

Google and you'll find that there are plenty of people that use the Xtracycle and Big Dummy for touring.

Yuba Mundo: The frame is ready to carry load - tie panniers on or sit gear on the rack. And it looks super strong. All reviewers reported it as 100% rock solid, even when loaded to the max or more. However, the most common downside to some people was the weight.  (Note the Mundo has been on a diet from V1 to the current V3 model).

Compared to the Surly Big Dummy, the Mundo V3 is slightly heavier. But only slightly.

Mundo       :  frame and fork 10.5kg, with the sideloaders 12kg.
Big Dummy:  frame and fork   7.1kg      with wideloaders  10.76kg
Difference:       difference of    3.4kg, or   with sideloaders   1.24kg.

But wait! That 3.4kg for frame and fork compare isn't the fully story. Actually to compare frame and fork - I think you need to add the Xtracycle Pannier Kit or the Cargo Van Kit to the Big Dummy frame to be a valid compare. To allow you to carry something on the Big Dummy. Both kits are aluminium and weigh in at 3.175kg - so the Mundo is only a 225grams heavier for an all steel frame at the just frame and fork stage.

Compared to the Big Dummy, the weight isn't an issue.

The Muno is steel, with the sideloaders being CrMo.
The Big Dummy is CrMo, with the wideloaders being aluminium.

I know planes are made out of aluminium, and my current MTB is aluminium, but, I do like steel.

After a few emails to the owner Benjamin Sarrazin at www.yubaride.com, and a quick call I ordered a Yuba Mundo.

Now to wait until it arrives.