Offroading with the 4x5 - A quick Fabrication

All,
Last week, a friend of mine and I rode the Lehigh Valley Gorge trail in Jim Thorpe, PA. Wanting to take the camera with me (sinar f2), I fabbed up some brackets for the bike, and we were off.
All in all, the brackets worked out extremely well, and being made out of Alumnium were extremely strong (the rack is rated to 25kg, the bracket I made I estimate has a strength of 70kg), yet had some give to it over the rough stuff. Some photos can be viewed here (warning ! these photos were taking with a 20D).
The trail is rather nice, 26mi in length. The weather forcast for the day said 20% chance of rain...Naturally we had hail. Still a good (abit wet) trip.

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Regards,

Very interesting, I had tried something like this once but did not have much luck. Holes, bumps, rocks all would know my tripod loose. I ended up with everything on my back and just using bungy cord to hold my tripod to the bike frame.

Very nice. I am envious. Looks like a great little trip. What is the gray hard case for the view camera?

Nice setup, is the tripod you were using a Slik? Looks like you had a great adventure.

Curt

Very interesting, the photos are just fine! They really illustrate what you did!

Once packed two Hasselblads with lenses, a 4x5 Graphic View II and lenses, a 16 mm Bolex Rex from Ensenada to LaPaz on a 250cc Honda. I constructed racks to hold my equipment packed in Domke bags. Made it down and back and sold the 16mm film to Honda for one of their "You Meet the Nicest People on a Honda " advertisements.

Charlie.......................
I also carried the film and a Pentax Spotmatic for snap shots. A fun trip!

Thanks for the feedback.
#1 - Yupper, the gray case was the camera
#2 - No, the tripod is a bogen 3021BN with a 3047 Pan Head

I think Im going to try to figure out a way to mount the case vertically, on the side of the bike. The top mount made the front wheel abit floaty..Kind of like driving a MAC truck with 100,000lbs on the back....Fine for gravel trails, but I don't think I would be too happy on some of the rougher stuff.

Regards,

That last shot - #4 looks like a winner n should be viewed in the gallery.

Thanks. I haven't gotten any of those negs developed yet - I need to get some fixer; but perhaps tomorrow.

That's just cool! Next you'll have to post pics of the whole building up process complete with materials list

p.s. I will never complain of photos taken with a 20D when they are this interesting!

The frame really was very easy to construct..Seriously took 15mins (using a hacksaw, drill, and pop riveter). I can furnish plans to you if you like, but it was really rather simple. Here's the basics:
I went around and purchased the beefiest bike rack I could find. My issue was that I have disc brakes on my bike, so finding a rack was abit harder, but all in all, the actual rack was rated for 25kg. REI had some nice ones for standard V-Brakes on sale (super cheap, less than $20) that looked rather strong.
The rack has thee sections: two downtubes/legs, the main rack, and two arms that affix to the braze-ons behind the seat (your rack may differ here if using V-Brakes). The two lower legs atatch to the main rack via three allen bolts, and the upper arms bolt into the brazeons, and bolt into the rack.
What I did was purchase a length of alum. angle stock (1"x1"x1/4"), and some flat bar stock (1"x1/8"). I then cut the angle stock to length, and drilled holes in it so that it would mount in the three bolts where the legs bolted to the main rack. I then cut lengths of the flat bar, and riveted it across the two pieces of angle stock. This basically gave me a rack on top of a rack.
I then drilled holes, and mounted some eye bolts to the ends of the bar stock. This gave me locations to mount bungee cords to hold everything in place.
I found it best to make the rack 2" longer than the actual length of your case, and the crossbars 2" wider than the actual length. This will do two things - #1 allow you to affix the bungee's easily, and #2 it allows the bar stock to flex abit, thereby clamping down on your case from both sides.
I also would have preferred to TIG the whole assembly, but it was done rather quickly. If you are going to rivet, use wide-headed rivets. These will give you about 250% more contact surface than regular pop rivets. Overkill ? Absolutely - but I have saved way to long to afford my camera equiptment.
I am going to rework the rack however. As I stated earlier, riding a bike with an extra 40lbs high on the back like that is like driving a tractor trailer...Really floaty. It was fine for the rail to trail and the street, but Im not sure how much fun it would have been on some single track. Im planning on mounting the case off to the side, with a tripod mount and extra water (as ballast and supply) on the other.

Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

Cool! Thanks for the additional info. I'd love to see pics after you've done the refab.

No Prob. I didn't get a chance to get to it this week, as work was CRAZY. I'll let ya know once I have something of substance.

PS - How is the biking in SC ?

SteveH said:

No Prob. I didn't get a chance to get to it this week, as work was CRAZY. I'll let ya know once I have something of substance.

PS - How is the biking in SC ?

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Biking in SC? Well, as a matter of coincidence, I just wrote about it on my Dead Link Removed. I do alright - alright enough to continue to do it and like it. But I hear tell that there are other localities where folks actually like bikers! Must be Nirvana

Nice - I think I'll pass on the Bike SC tour . People really don't mind bikers up this way, I think mainly for one of two reasons, #1 being that a lot of yuppies think they look cool on their $3700 carbon frames huffing and puffing up the road, other yuppies watch out for their brethern, and #2 the bike messengers in the city are just nuts and have no problem removing your side-view mirrors if you look at them the wrong way.
There's a lot of nice trails up this way, can go all over the place on a bike. The states actually designate 'bike routes' through some of the scenic back roads, and offer maps to navigate your way.

SteveH said:

#1 being that a lot of yuppies think they look cool on their $3700 carbon frames huffing and puffing up the road, other yuppies watch out for their brethern, and ....

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That cracked me up! Thaks for the laugh!

Once had somebody down here ask me if I was poor because why would I ride my bike otherwise, right? <rolling eyes>

Digidurst said:

Once had somebody down here ask me if I was poor because why would I ride my bike otherwise, right? <rolling eyes>

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Hehe, I would have told them that you reject society, showers, and vehicles ! Then they would have thought that you are some independently wealthy nutcase and they would have apologized.
That wouldn't work around here though, as it seems the independently wealthy nutcases here like to train olympians and drive tanks around their estate....