Introduction Thread

[Gabriel Amadeus]

Howdy folks,

I'm Gabriel Amadeus in and around Portland, OR. Born a Yooper. I ride bikes a bunch and take photographs.

Affiliations: Limberlost, Velodirt, Bunyan Velo, Zoobomb.

Here's my bikepacking rig for now:

My loaded Surly Krampus bikepacking getup by gabriel amadeus, on Flickr

And me:

I'm not very good at selfies by gabriel amadeus, on Flickr




And check out some of my recent adventures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielamadeus/

[WonderMonkey]

Hello all!  Last year I increased my bike riding to add an exercise component to my weight loss (currently 75 lbs. down, 25 more to go) journey.  I've been a recreational kayaker, backpacker and camper so camping off my bike was a natural progression of that.  I have a friend (my wife and friends with him and his wife) and he does all the outdoors activities with me.

This coming weekend we are doing our first overnight camping outing.  It won't be too far in miles as we are just testing out what we have, etc.  So far we have been able to translate a bunch of our backpacking knowledge over but we are always looking to learn more.

I am in the planning stages of a 1,000 mile self-supported tour next year.  If I can pull off the planning it will be a whole new thing for me.

I should add that both my friend and I camp out of hammocks.  Very relaxing.

[DirtyBear]

Hey all. This is somewhat of a new adventure for me, the extended trips and loading up a bike, so I've got much to learn. I've been mountain biking for the past several years, and just got into racing in the past year or so. I started racing XC, and it gave me a rush to be in that kind of atmosphere. However, the feeling only lasted an hour and a half.

This past winter, a close friend and endurance mountain biking mentor of mine passed away, leaving me in a mess of sorts. After a while, I decided to pick myself up and carry on his legacy as best I could. Over the past several years, he has attempted and completed the Tour Divide and Trans North Georgia multiple times. I was lucky enough to grab a spot in this years TNGA, and began training for it the past couple months. I'm looking to be competitive on this ride, but we'll see how the next several months go.

I'm doing my best to pick at the brains of those here in the DFW region on bikepacking (gear/strategy/etc), but there's always more information to be gained so I figured this was a good place as any to join.

Nice to meet y'all, the name's Ryan.

[macr237]

Hi, my name is Mark and I Live in Canberra, Australia. I am just starting into to bike packing, so I am very green. Hoping to pick up a lot of tips from this forum, which I already have.
The photo is my new frame which has just turned up yesterday.
The frame is a Muru Cycles BNT http://www.murucycles.com/#!bnt-tourer/c1kxd.

[occamsrazor]

Hi, I live in Kenya. Not so much into bikepacking but looking at getting a Surly XC/touring setup and this forum seems to have a lot of knowledge on it. Also a lot of the issues you guys have with reliability and availability of parts are also valid for living with a bike in Africa. Best wishes to all...

[gnpais]

Hi,
My name is Gonçalo Pais, i'm Portuguese living in Lisbon, Portugal, SW Europe.
I'm into travelling by bike since kid, made a pause for several years but now i'm back to biking and travelling solo or with my kids. My blog: http://roadbook.blogspot.pt

I was never into the bikepacking scene until i've met some bikepackers last year (Gary and Patty) . Now i'm transforming my btt bike into my bikepacking companion . Since i'm portuguese, and we're known to be with a footstep in Europe and other in Afica  i'm doing my own gear (and my kid's) upcycling material i have at home.

Hope to share with you some of my ideas, and try to improve it with your expertise...



thanks.

[iamrockandroll13]

Hi, I'm Mike. I live to ride my bike, if only I could find a way to get paid to do it. I'm from central PA, surrounded by some of the best mountain biking and bikepacking terrain on the east coast. Bald Eagle State Forest is my home away from home with 300,000 acres of land to explore with camping permitted pretty much anywhere with no permit. I'm gearing up for my first Ultra-Marathon Mountain Bike Race, Trans North Georgia and depending on how that goes I may do the Allegheny Mountains Loop in October. I pushing my limits and exceeding them sometimes so I know where they are. I also race 100 milers and Endurance XC. If pressed I will admit I do a fair amount of road cycling as well  .





My wheels: Salsa El Mariachi Ti custom build

[stephjo]

Hello everyone, new here. Dropped by to say hello:)

[OnThaCouch]

Hello all--
New to this forum and bikepacking. Never done a trip but looking forward to learning lots from you all and getting out there.

I am in N. CA. Mostly a XC style rider but love camping and riding...why not combine to two.

I am OnThaCouch on MTBR and many other areas of the interwebz.

[brokenandcoastal]

Hey everyone. New to the forum and bike camping in general. I live in Portland Oregon but will be in Santa Cruz California for a couple months for work. I have a website where I am trying to document all my cycling adventures at : www.brokenandcoastal.com and pedaloften.com

Look forward to learning from you all!

[Leaf in the Wind]

Hello all. Newb here. I found this site by cruising the net looking for bike info. I have riden a bike since boyhood. I am 47yrs old now and about 5yrs ago I gave up the best mountain bike I ever had to go live off grid deep in the Southern Oregon Mtns. It was a mid range priced TREK, a great bike, I rode the hell out of it. Well, I have come back out of the mountains and have ended up in Delaware. In about 3 or 4 months I will be moving back to the west again to Grand Junction Colorado.
I grew up playing in the wild places, I am an avid camper, hunter and bushcrafter. I have taken my bike, when I had one on many backwoods trips. I did not even know there was a thing called bikepacking. I love the concept and before my move to Colorado, I hope to have a new rig together and ready to hit the trails there around Grand Junction and others. I hope to learn a lot from all of you here and maybe contribute some of my experiences when I begin having them again. This is a great forum, I am looking forward to being a part of it. Please forgive me if there are a lot of "dumb" questions, or what may seem very basic to you guys that are veterans to bikepacking.
My first one is what is MTBR, sounds like another forum on this subject of bikepacking?
thanks everyone.   

[offroute]

A big welcome to the international contingent any yanks alike. Cheers!

MounTainBike Review, yes a web site.

[Leaf in the Wind]

Thanks offroute, I did eventually figure it out. Like any hobby, passion or obsession it has its own language and I just have to learn it. Appreciate the help. Leaf

[Terry66]

Hey there. Long time cyclist/mountain biker from Dayton, Ohio. Did you know that Dayton has one of the largest connected bike trail systems in the country? Over 300 miles of connected and paved paths all over the area.

A few years ago, I built a Salsa Vaya as my first "adventure" bike. It has been totally awesome. I've ridden it on multi-day trips on the Katy, GAP/C&O and in probably a dozen states. It will run up to 700X45 tires. While it is perfect for what it is, I am thinking about building a more mountain bike oriented bike for lightweight off-road bikepacking. Right now I am leaning towards an Ogre. I already have an XT group, cassette, a set of Avid BB7, extra 29er wheels/tires, etc.

I am going to test ride a KM/Ogre to figure out the sizing. I am right between sizes. I am 5'11" with a 32+ inseam. I "prefer" a larger bike, but I want to ride them to make sure. My Salsa and Spec Roubaix road bikes are a 56 with a 90 stem. My HiFi 29er is a Medium.

[Norwayrider]

Hi,

My name is Espen from the south of Norway..
Been into cycling for about 30 years, mainly road and gravel.
Grown up backpacking in the Norwegian nature but mainly traveled by foot.
Ready to try some bike packing to get a bit more range and see more places.

Have a few cyclocross bikes now, but are looking to by a Surly Ecr.

[Leaf in the Wind]

Terry66 and Norwayrider, welcome to the forum. I am new here myself, been bikepacking before I new there was a name for it or people did it other than myself. This site has lots to offer. Hope to read more of your adventures on here. 

[MPS]

Hey everyone, I'm new here. There being said, I did read all the personal setup posts and all posts in the winter bikepacking area, and a few others. Found this website 9 hours ago, I'm done reading now. 

I'm a German cyclist who is usually touring lond distance, see www.unlocked-achievements.com. Currently I have 115 of 193 countries, and my next plan is doing Siberia this winter, going to Japan, and then riding the Silkroad back to Europe. Should take 9-12 months.

I'm working on my gear atm, but did add the gear for my last trip, a Sahara Crossing, to the personal setups page. Maybe it helps someone.

[Skylab3368]

Time to introduce myself as well then. I am Harold, based in the Netherlands, 46, married, 4 children. Started cycling on age 2 I think (as all Dutch do), but only took up mountain biking about 10 years ago. My world has never been the same since then. I found out soon enough short distance/short duration is not my strength, but marathons were. Up until now I have participated in a lot of marathons, but the most memorable are my 7 participations in Duchenne Heroes, a charity mountainbike event from France to the Netherlands. In total 700 km in 7 consecutive days, through wonderful terrain!
I have taken up fatbiking  about 4 years ago with the build of the first Surly Pugsly imported in the Netherlands (I bought it from a friend) and since then I have neglected all my other bikes I'm afraid. Next week I will get my hands on my new bike, a Surly Ice Cream Truck, with which I will participate in Rovaniemi 150 next year. Ultimate goal is to participate in the ITI somewhere soon, both distances.

[Sparkyga]

Derek from Canada! Been lurking here for a long time but never had anything to post.

Pretty much a homeless dude who lives on a Surly Troll. Slowly have been transitioning from 4 panniers into a bikepacking setup for my travels. I seen my first bikepacking setup last year when Tour Divide riders rode through Eureka MT last year and it just made sense to me. Looking to ride the length of Africa in 2015 on a bikepacking setup.

[Mista Bone]

Howdy from SW Ohio, a bit chilly right now.

Back on a bike after 25+ years, bought a Trek 3700 Disc, been doing mostly streets and Rails to Trails. While the Trek (IMHO) isn't suited for rough trails, it suits me for paved trails and packed gravel.

Had already bought the Bontrager rack and bag when I bought the bike, found a set of panniers on Craigslist for cheap. Just need to figure out the camping gear and I plan on riding around Ohio's R2T network in 2015.

Plans are a Jone's H-Bar for strapping sleeping equipment to the front to even out the weight, then just figuring out what I need and what is just a luxury. The see about trimming down (no panniers) for single track trails.



PS: If you are into modified Honda's...yes, I'm the same Mista Bone.