Some of you will remember the trail that the vietcong used to take supplies to the south dueing the 'unpleasantness'.But there was a very valuable lesson for me there,and that has not come to light till now.I am almost 60 [ 2 months ] and in great health,except I had one knee replaced and the other is next.That limits my weight bearing to VERY little,so I took a page from the north vietnamese and went to a bicycle as that will allow me to carry a load of well over 500 pounds,yes you read that right.I could [ past tense ] walk with a full pack of 60 to 100 pounds,now I can load up the bike and carry a load that would kill most men and not even know I have a strain.There maybe some liturature online and that would give you a start on this idea.I am SURE I am not the only one that would like to carry [bike] a real load and not worry about the weight.My 00.02

What kind of bike?

What kind of carrier containers?

Sue

My biggest problem, given the state of my back, would be picking the loaded bike up if I dropped it. Pushing it uphill does not sound like fun either. Hope it works for you...

I think the idea would be to go with a bike cart rather than loading up the bike itself

http://bikecart.pedalpeople.com/

I had the same idea, I've even used it to move my duffel and ruck full of gear across campus, back when I didn't have a car.
Adding a longer pole to the handle bars to help steer and hold on to would have helped me. But the concept works really well for carrying freight as long as you don't mind moving at a walking pace or slightly slower.

Any other tips or ideas you can think of for making this work easier, maybe over rough terrain?

Good idea on the using of a bike to move a heavy load.

Where I live there are many Forest Access Roads that are closed to motorized travel. These are good gravel roads that access terrific remote country and the use of bikes and carts (even horses) are permitted on most of them. A group of my neighbours uses a homemade rickshaw(sp) type cart with 4 tandem bike wheels to move their entire fall hunting tent camp 8 kilometers into a remote forest cutover. The cart is pulled by 2 men on flat ground and 4 men when going uphill. The real work begins after their hunt is successful, carting a bull moose out to the gate where their vehicles are parked.

We also used to access a remote Lake Trout lake beside an abandoned railway line by putting our canoe (with all the camping gear in it) in a homemade wheeled cart. This cart used 2 mountain bike type wheels, mounted in homemade welded forks connected by a crossbar at the axles. Two 3 foot pieces of 2x4 were bolted to the crossbeam and the canoe sat on these. It was hard on fiberglass or kevlar canoes, but aluminum or plastic (Coleman) canoes had no trouble with it.

Mike

A cart would no doubt be better (as long as the trail is wide enough), but all of the photos I saw from the war were simple bikes with huge loads, being walked by a person with both hands on the handlebars and both feet on the ground. Seems to me that a heavily loaded bike is going to fall over a lot, not to mention having to "drop" your bike to help a buddy over a log, etc.

I used to fish a little walk in lake with a friend. There was a dirt road, very steep in places, so he made a frame from an old bedframe, and put two bike wheels on the sides. We would set his flat bottomed jon boat on the frame, load it with our gear, and a fishin' we would go. Only problem was coming out, on the steep part of the road it seemed that we pushed up one step and slid back two. Probably still better than carrying the thing tho...

Sir! That is one fine idea! Those guys had their act together anyway. And we all know the rules of warfare in Asia, the most committed wins!
Good call,

Look at this :

http://www.cyclesmaximus.com/cargotrike.htm

And also look at the "electric assist option" !

http://www.cyclesmaximus.com/electricassist.htm

Not for the Amazon jungle or the Ho Chi Minh trail, but great for paved or unpaved roads.

Well a partial Correction. It was *also* the North Vietnamese, and not only the Viet Cong, -bringing their Supplies and Troops on down the Trail. Probably Pathet Lao and Khmer Rouge too, -as in the Famous Example of our Satellites once snapping a Shot, -of their bringing a Yacht on down, -for Sihanouk!

The Cargo Carrying Capacity of a Bike, -I too think I would find Interesting!