Mini bike tour

Accompanied by a German and another Chicagoan, I took a mini 3 day bike tour around northern Wisconsin.  I mainly wanted to test out my bike and see how it handled under a load of gear.  Here are some pictures:

Here is a practice round with my bike loaded.  Notice the homemade kitty litter panniers:

Does the green bag make my ass look fat?

Test ride over...

Lakewood, WI.  Our first two nights spent roughing it in a nice lake house (Waubee Lake).  

Two Matts having a beer on the pier...did I mention all three guys are named Matt?

A different two Matts...

We were cruising along fine with the guidance of a paper state of Wisconsin map until Matt C. decided that his "smart" phone would provide better directions.  We ended up on a dead end logging road.  

After a U-turn and about 10 miles down a gravel/sand road we emerged from the woods to find Johnnies Resort.  With a rain storm coming, Johnnie, aka "Muskie," had a cabin, pizza and beer.  Perfect.  

Back to the first two Matts, not looking happy.  

Johnnie also has an amazing view of Lake Wabikon and a dozen hummingbirds that hang out in the window.

Johnnie's Resort is one of the only buildings on this lake. 

One hummingbird, notice the large bee/wasp in the bottom right of the picture.  The bees seemed to scare off the hummingbirds.  

German Matt, relaxing...

After staying at Johnnies, we decided to bike to Crandon, WI in hopes of having a nice quiet breakfast.  Unfortunately, it was Labor Day weekend, which included some sort of Nascar truck rally/parade/race.  These little trucks were extremely loud and the town was over run by fat men in neon racing gear.

The German got a good taste of middle 'merica!

Our bikes at a rest stop somewhere between Crandon and Lakewood, WI.  

German banana break:

Kitty Litter Bike Panniers

I am currently shopping for some Ortlieb panniers for the rear of my bike.  However, they run upwards of $125 used.  While I shop around, I made a cheap alternative.  Panniers from 5 gallon kitty litter containers.  I stole the majority of the idea from Crazy Guy on a Bike.  However, I did deviate from his plans slightly.

24" reflective sticker:     $2.98

5/16 x 1" Hex bolts:      $1.09

5/16" - 18 Hex nuts:     $2.56

5/16" x 1-1/4 washers: $1.98

10" mini bungees:          $2.47

cold shut hooks:            $4.76

Total:                           $15.84

Kitty litter boxes: donated by Dave S. - the only man I know who owns a cat and would admit it.  

First a look at some of the tools and supplies.  Clockwise form top left: cold shut hooks, hex nuts, hex bolts, washers:  

Bungees and reflective tape:

these bungees were later returned for the ones below

Real bungees...

A picture of the Kitty Litters boxes.  They came in sexy reflective colors:

Mikita drill

Here is a look at the hooks applied to the buckets with the aforementioned hex bolts, nuts and washers.  A better look comes at the end of this post.  I drilled 7/16" holes to receive the 7/16" hex bolts. Since I am drilling through plastic I put a washer on either side (inside and out) of the bucket.  

Here is a shot of the panniers hanging on the bike just by the hooks, sans and bungees.  (Notice the bike is hanging on a (sexy bike work stand I previously constructed.) 

Here I cut the 24" reflective tape into four 6" pieces:

A look at the reflective tape applied to the buckets:  

Last, a final walk around video.  The video shows more clearly the hex bolts and the bungees that hold the buckets securely in place.