Introduction Thread

[Smithhammer]

Hey folks -

Dropping in from Teton Valley, Idaho. Been riding bikes my whole life, but a few years back I started losing interest in the whole dual-suspended mtn. bike thing. I guess part of it was just longing for the days when bikes were simpler, and a sense of exploration was a big part of getting off pavement. Just picked up a Fargo this spring, and I couldn't be happier - it's the perfect 'do-all' bike for around these parts, from the buffed-out singletrack down the road from my house to multi-day trips across the Great Yellowstone region and beyond. Looking forward to learning and sharing with you all.







Oh, and we're a block away from the Grand Teton Brewery - stop by for some of the finest beer in the Rockies when you're in the 'hood!!



And if you're traveling through, our local shop: Fitzgerald's, adventure cycling headquarters for the Tetons. 

[saskawhat]

Hey everyone. First-time dot-watcher here, just checking in from rural Saskatchewan, near Regina (unfortunately on the WRONG side from the Qu'Appelle Valley). About as close to "raw rookie" in the bikepacking world as you can get. Did the Mickelson Trail end-to-end in 3 days in 2013 & the NorPac Trail + Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes in 3 days in 2014, with plans to tackle Maah Daah Hey in two days later this month. Currently riding a 2013 model Giant Roam 3, which comes with some obvious limitations, though in my defence I had no idea at the time of purchase how much I was going to enjoy even short-distance bikepacking. Original plan wasn't for much more than general fitness. Anyway, cool site, cool forums, & looking forward to chatting with some fellow n00bs who also have some greater ambitions.

[numbToe]

Hi There!

My name is Ray.  I'm from Ottawa, Ontario. I've been riding bikes since 2001 when the fam moved to Ottawa from Nova Scotia.  My first bike was a Canadian Tire "dual suspension" bike.  Rode that poor thing into the ground.  Slowly evolved up to a Commencal Mini DH.  Up until now I've been riding downhill and all mountain trails in Ontario and BC.  Bikepacking and touring is a whole new world for me.  In August two friends and I will be taking on the Great Divide.

[bradym77]

Hello Everyone,

I'm Brady and I'm from Northern KY and have been riding for about 5 years.  It started with my best friends pair of crap Huffy bikes and some local trails we found.  We were hooked.  Now we've been looking at ways to keep us on the saddle longer and came upon bikepacking.  We have taken several overnight trips mainly to camping areas in parks with some decent trails.  Doing this mainly to shake out any problems with the gear we're taking along with how to fit everything on the bike before we do a big trip with no bail out options.  I've gleaned quite a bit of information from here lurking and finally decided to join.

[Massaman]

Delighted I found this forum!

I'm just getting into off-road bikepacking, but have toured a few far off places by road.

I hope to glean some of this communities knowledge and hopefully contribute experience as worthwhile.

Good to be here, thanks.

[b r e n t]

Hey, I'm Brent. Figured registering would be better than continuing to lurk for the foreseeable future

I haven't been on a forum since like early 2000s, but I think some of y'all actually know me irl. I wish my name without the spaces wasn't already taken, but that Brent has already contributed far more here than I have so I'm fine with it

[Celtic Dragon]

Hi I'm Simon, and I'm a Brit. Just found out about bikepacking after a foray into the South Downs Way in England. I found this forum after googling the Tuscany Trail after reading a blog on this years event.

I'm an experianced hill walker /  camper and have bushcraft skills (looks like they will be usefull for this game).

I've got back into cycling after giving up smoking earlier this year, and I can tell you its no cheaper!

[JRA]

and I can tell you its no cheaper!

Hah!
Hang on, it only gets worse from here.

[smokeater]

Hello All,

My name is Garrett, I've been riding bike passionately since the mid 90's.  My first MTB I bought with money saved working a summer job at a local PT clinic.  It was a COYOTE ALU 5, polished aluminum, super sweet.  I spent many summers afterward riding the trails of Keystone CO with that rig, learning often times the hard way, how to handle single track.  After high school, I started working in the industry in Denver, CO for a shop thats no longer around.  I met some awesome people, raced in some cool events across the western Rocky's and solidified my love for the dirt and even the tarmac.  In more recent years I've relocated to NW Iowa where I work as a professional fire fighter/paramedic and now have a wife and 3 awesome kids.  As Ive gotten older Ive tuned into more endurance oriented sports, and found that experiencing the beauty in my surroundings, either in the woods or on the Iowa plains makes me content.  I'm here to learn what it means to venture into the wilderness on bike (I've gotten decent at managing the plains self-contained)  Several rides I'd like to conquer would be the Tour Divide, Leadville 100, TransAm and something, anything up in the Pacific Northwest.

Cheers

[Jarek]

Hi everyone, I'm Jarek from Poland.

I've been bikepacking for over two years which was a natural transition from all day adventure riding that I've always enjoyed.

I have been following the forum for a while now, decided to finally join the conversations! 

[Desert Urinator]

Greetings.  I'm located in Southern California but I also travel to CO and AZ for adventures. I'm into the desert but also the woods. not much of a beaches/coastline guy.

Currently I have:

26" hardtail Leader with either VooDoo steel rigid fork or Rockshox Reba (frame is a little small for me but it's a good bike for twists and turns) I sewed up a bag for it along with a smartphone holder. (in the pics)
29er full sus GT Sensor (great for distance rides but not much room for frame bag)
700c Scattante xc350 cross bike, aluminum
700c MASI XC Comp kind of a gravel touring bike sold as a cross bike (CroMo)

I'm about to sew a bag for my MASI. The frame size runs a little big but I got the 58 on purpose to have a bigger triangle for maximum bag size.

I just signed up on this board because I'm gonna have a lot of questions about gear for this build-up of the MASI, but here is a pic of the Leader...I never quite finished everything and have since switched to a Thermarest Neo Air.

But I'd like to get the size of my sleeping bag and tent down a little. I currently have a couple of REI 2-man tents and probably need a 1-man tent. In the pics of the Leader, the bag on the handlebars is actually from a small sleeping bag (not warm enough for desert winters) but it contains my tent and the tent's rainfly, with the poles in the frame bag.  So I may be able to get by with a 2 man tent. I've switched to an 800 lumen LED headlight.

Another thing I wanna concoct/devise is some kind of fold-up light weight fire container. In the Anza Borrego desert, you're allowed to camp for free anywhere in the desert wilderness, but, fires must be in metal containers. For car camping I simply bring a big metal tub.  But I'm trying to think up some kind of light weight portable tray or support, maybe made of a grill-like material instead of solid galvanized sheets...would love to hear ideas...would be neat if I didn't have to switch over to a trailer setup.

EDIT: ughhh sorry guys......not sure how to reduce the display size of the pics....(Aside from resizing the actual files)

[Nicolas72]

Hi bikepackers,

my name is Nicolas from Belgium, I registered to bikepacking.net due bikepacking is my way of travelling since two years during the summer time.

Last year I did the trip along the Loire river in France with touring bicycle and Ortlieb bags..it was a bit too heavy by the way in my 2015 trip I change bike and bags and bought a race bike (CAAD 10 Ultegra) and used revelate designs bags as shown in the picture (Damn it..how to insert a picture?!?).

I departed from Dinant (South of Belgium) to arrive in København in Denmark.

This year I will change bicycle and use my 29er mtb (Sobre Dad) for the comfort of large tyres.

I subscribe to bikepacking.net to learn tips from olders bikers and exchange about bicycle materials and destinations.

If some of yours need infos about Europe facilities don't hesitate to ask..I am not a travel guide but I'll do my best! ;-)

 

[munky]

Hi everyone! Munky here. I've been a rock climber for nearly 20 years and since having kids and getting a little older I've slowly looked for other hobbies to fuel my passion for adventure and personal limits. I still climb but not nearly as much as I used to. Bikepacking was a natural pull for me. I've always gravitated towards long, big adventures over short bursts of getting rad. I currently ride a 2015 Salsa El Mar set up ss with 100mm of suspension. I also own a Surly St(craggler) that barely gets ridden because I prefer my El Mar as both by trail bike and "cross bike". I started doing a few 40 mile races this year in WV and had some good results. I might look at doing a few long tour/races this upcoming year. We'll see. I've never been too competitive with others but instead have always set huge challenges for myself. I'm leaving tonight for my 4th tour. 400 miles, 42k of elevation, gravel, pavement, and a little trail, back to my hometown where I grew up. It's basically a W-E traverse of the Appalachian range from southwestern WV to northern VA. Wish me luck. It's going to be cold.

[Feywer96]

Hullo there everyone~

I go by Feywer. I'm actually an Occultist, and I come from three other forums which have nothing to do with bike packing *laugh*, but my brother and me like to go bike riding and adventuring, and it was him who told me about this site, and I thought that I "might as well" "add another forum to the list" and learn accordingly more about from the experiences of others from the discussions pertinent on here.
I'm 19 and I live in Northern California. High School Graduate, no job; me and my brother want to live sustainably and not within modern society, having seen how horrible it can be, and our own personal views on the population and state of the earth, and also just being cynical - being the age we are, we find ourselves at the point when we either have to "conform into society", or "do what we want to do"; and for my brother, that consists of bike-packing and adventuring. I want to do the same, but perhaps not at "nomadic"; meaning, I still want to have at least *some* place I can go to at the end of the adventuring bike day and call 'home'.
I'm also studying anthropology, and I have an interest in the local native american tribes in my area, and so when I ride my bike and traverse the land and thus become more acquainted with it's features, I feel like I'm learning about it firsthand in a way; as much as I can besides contacting them (which I'm in the process of doing) - but anyway!

Sorry for my long introduction; I hope that I'm received well. I hope to learn from the people here and their insightful discussions thereon c:

[Chippertheripper]

Hey folks, I have the fever.  The fever only an epic journey can cure. 
I'll be dipping my toes into the water in 2016 with ragbrai (I'm actually not bikepacking, but "vacationing") and a 50mile xc race (as my premier event). 
I've raced various motorcycle disciplines since 09ish and will be making a regular return to bicycle racing this upcoming seasonS.  I dabbled a little this year, but haven't devoted a full season of bicycle racing since 2003. 
I have a lot to learn, but I'm an ambitious little bugger, and also being a former bmx kid. 
Cheers.

[bon]

Hi I'm Bonnie!  I am new to bikepacking. Up until now I have only raced ultras such as the Leadville 100 and the Tuscobia 150. I am finding that the more time I spend on a bike, the longer I want to stay on the bike so overnight biking for days is becoming my sweet spot. I am incredibly excited to take on the Tour Divide this year and anxious to learn all I can.
Thanks!

[wet__burrito]

Hello my name is Brandon from SF

Ive ridden across the country and have done all sorts of wacky tours here and there. Been really into bike packing as opposed to road touring.

I work as a messenger and a bike mechanic.

Looking for fun California routes that link up as much DIRT  :headband: as possible!

Feel free to let me know what you got. Currently planning to do Quentins route to Shasta.

B

[tinshedchris]

Hey all,

Name's Chris, lurked here for a long time, then took a break, now I'm back.

I live a stone's throw from the Continental Divide in Rollinsville, CO and I'm the service manager at Tin Shed Sports in Nederland.

I've tried my hand at almost everything involving two wheels and have settled on the "getting lost in the woods" style of things.

Look forward to exchanging info with y'all, rather than just lurking in the shadows.........

[12:00 RIDER]

First post.
I used to ride bmx decades ago, but then got involved in football and Olympic lifting which consumed my time.
Recently decided, in order to save my body from 1/2 marathons and its training, that I'd get a bike.
Bought a Specialized pitch in December, rode through the mild start of winter on the flat land around Chicago.
Fell back in love with it, joined MTBr forum and then... stumbled onto BIKEPACKING!
It instantly has consumed my thoughts.
I've spent hours of my days researching stuff.
I would like to pursue this and as a teacher I have some nice chunks of time to actually do it (minus football season).
I always loved camping and being outdoors, and imo this seems like the perfect way to see the world (the drummer from my fav band, Rush, raved about biking being the perfect way to travel).
Hope you all will bear with me as I ask some questions that you probably get tired of answering.
If anyone here does rides with noobs to show them the ropes, I'd be willing to hire you as a "guide" so I don't die lol!. I'm thinking about trying to do something in early August.
thanks for reading and for your help.

[T_Samael]

Hello,
     I'm really excited that this is a thing! I've been a commuter off and on for the last few years and while it's done a lot of good in my life I'm getting so sick of constantly battling taxi cabs and pickup trucks. I find that in order to breathe some life into my relationship with cycling I should get off the roads and back on the trail. I've also been wishing I had the time for a through hike and a bike tour. I think mixing the two should make it a lot more doable, all while getting a brake from cars. I don't currently have a MTB but was already planning a build, so I'm thinking I might gear the build for this sort of travel. I've become fascinated with IGH and was planning on a build with one for winter use, but after reading about issues with long term touring and the Alfine line I'm not sure I could afford to bikepack with an IGH haha (I'm too poor for Rohloff) so I think I'm at a crossroads. Anyway, I look forward to digging through the info here and learning some things!
-T