[tom.lohkamp]

My wife and I are planning to raft rivers throughout the continent, driving from spot to spot in our little bus. We're thinking an electric mountain bike would help, and here's the idea. We'd go to the putin, and rig for the trip. Then one of us would drive to the takeout, park our rig, and bike back to the putin. We want to put the bike on our raft and take it down-river, and since it's electric, it would be nice to keep it dry. Is there anyone already doing this? If so, did you fab a dry-box for the bike? Is the box aluminum, hypalon, or ???.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Whitewater Worthy Equip]

Jacks plastic welding will make custom dry bags. A folding bike might work well.

 

[dsrtrat]

+ 1 for Jack's. They made a custom super size dry bag to my specifications for my outboard. Go to their website and look at their custom section. Easy to work with. They may have long lead times so plan ahead.

Custom Dry Bag Design Procedure - Jacks Plastic Welding

The 38 in by 38 in by 3.94 in dimensions in this drawing represent the cargo inside of the bag. You can see that there is 1 inch clearance on each side for ease of the item removal. The handle is located in the center of the cargo on the side for the best balance. […]

www.jpwinc.com

 

[jgrebe]

The main thing that needs to keep dry is the battery. Remove it and put in a dry bag/box. The motor and controls are designed to get wet - or else you couldn't ride in the rain. Obviously a flip is a different issue and they might not survive long term submergence but a splash from a rapid with no power attached should be fine

 

[B4otter]

Only complication would be Wilderness areas, and designated river sections... no bikes.

 

[missiongravity]

It won't work in every situation but the smart solution is to just lock the bike up at the take out, drive to the put in, raft and then ride the bike back to the put in to get the vehicle. It's not as nice as having a vehicle at the takeout but it beats schlepping a bicycle down the river.

 

[tom.lohkamp]

Hey thanks everyone. Good points all around.

 

[jaffy]

Sounds like an awesome trip. You're hitting Canada and/or Mexico too? Are you going to be posting pics/trip reports of the rivers you liked best? I'd be interested in following along. What's your rig like? 14' raft for two people? R2 or oar rig? Trailering the boat fully inflated?

 

[xileff]

Only complication would be Wilderness areas, and designated river sections... no bikes.

At least one National Park (Canyonlands) won’t allow bikes on boats, either.

 

[Marshfly]

My wife and I are thinking the same kind of thing. We roll around in a 5th wheel and a lot of places do not have shuttle services available.

What I found, is that a used scooter can be had for 1/4 to 1/3 the price of an E-bike and it will actually do real speeds on the road and is useful around town way more than a bike. We already carry mountain bikes. Within the next month, the bikes are going on the roof of the truck and scooter will be on the hitch of the 5th wheel.