Touring outback Australia

Hi - me and a couple of friends are doing a tour in the Kimberley (Northern Western Australia) from July to September this year (from Katherine to Broome) and we are debating whether we should take trailers or panniers - we have done a lot of touring in Australia and New Zealand with panniers but feel that with a lot of unsealed road and having to carry a fair bit of water, that trailers are the way to go on this trip. Anyone who has had experience of 'outback' type touring like to comment? We are leaning towards BOB-type trailers, has anyone any experience of these in rough conditions?
Anyone who would like to come along can contact me privately too!

 

I just returned from a tour of NZ and many of us touring cyclists debated and discussed the pannier or trailer question . the only sure fact that came from all the talk was that the trailer must have suspension ,see bobtrailers.com , it prevents the trailer from wobbling on downhills and at high speeds I met an Australian who did the great divide in North America with a suspension bob and a high quality full suspension mountain bike I met him rolling along in the south island ,personally I use panniers with my mounatin bike ,the whole package is lighter but I am also curious about trailers as I am planning a trip to outback Australia.

 

Generally you should be able to get through this route carrying enough gear and water using front & rear panniers, handlebar bag and racktop sack. Plenty of people have done this before you. Get a 6 or 10L water sack from an outdoor gear shop for extra capacity.

Another type of trailer called an Extra Wheel was used by this Polish guy, but he cycled the Canning Stock Route solo(!!) successfully. His site has plenty of photos of the setup:
http://www.wildworks.co.nz/csr/home.php

Cheers
Peter

 

Wow. Checked out the site and photographs. Talk about impressive.

 

Look at the size of the tyres , I have the same frame geomtry on my Kona Smoke and my panaracer fireroad 2.1 tyres make it look like a tractor but yhose ones on his bike are monstorous

 

mate have been touring round oz for the past few months and had a stint of 400km between waterdrops... carried 20 litres of water and 10kg of food plus all my other equipment and managed with panniers alone... biggest hint i can give you is to keep the heavy stuff closer to the ground to lower your centre of gravity...

on the other hand the terrain is really flat that you are doing and a trailer will handle the roads really easily... mind you with the single laned roads (one lane for both directions) and road trains (50m long monster trucks) i wouldn't be using a trailer...

 

As long as you stay on the sealed highway a trailer is not realy needed. If you plan to bike the Gib River road , it might be a good idea, especially if your body weght is over 80 kg. Rim and spoke problems are otherwise a real possibilty on this rough road. ( We have not biked it on our round Aust. tour).

The toughest part of the whole tour we found to be the stretch from Roebock road house ( near Broome) to Sandfire road house.We did this in 2 days , one day we used 20 ltr water between us. We managed to get water at a station.

If you do not use a trailer , put as much weight as possible on the front. I use both low riders and a panier rack to carry the tent (across).This will save your rear wheel.