Just wanted to see what the consensus was around these two materials.  I've always understood titanium to be the material of choice if you can afford it.  I know you can't really weld it if it breaks in a 3rd world country, but the odds of titanium breaking (as long as the welds are good) is almost nill.  Of course steel can be welded and is a little softer on the body.  Sound off!

In an icon: 

We didn't do what we set out to do.  We were just way too naive about weather and the snow levels that late in the season.  But we did have an incredible 9 days!  We just didn't do any actual bikepacking and honestly, I'm glad we didn't.  Here's the breakdown:

-Flew into Redmond, got a car, drove to Hood, bagged it via the Old Chute
-drove back to Bend, picked up my bike from REI (shipped) and my friend's bike (rented from Pine Mtn Sports; asshole got a deal on a full-carbon Santa Cruz 29er while I was knockin around on my steel Marin Pine Mtn 29er 1x9), went and camped for 2 days near the Deschutes
-day 2 (literally, 36 hours after landing) we rode about 30 miles of Phil's Trail system - freaking awesome!  We had such a blast.  It had rained just enough to make it nice and tacky and the snow level was up by the top of Whoops so plenty of trail available.
-next day we relocated to McKenzie River Trail and rode that from the southern terminus to Blue Pool; it was pretty mucky but gorgeous, of course. 
-next day we drove to North Umpqua Trail and rode the Mott and Panther sections.  This was my favorite part of the whole trip!  SOOOOOO epic, fun, and well constructed.  Less mucky than McKenzie.  However, I can't imagine bikepacking that trail with any more than 10 lbs of gear.
-after that we drove back to Bend, returned/shipped the bikes, and drove to Mt. Shasta.  We bagged that via a Cassaval Ridge-West Face variation on the 8th day of the trip.  Finished the trip off with plenty of beer and good food at Deschutes Brewery.

I'm bummed we didnt get to bikepack as we had prepared for that.  But being our first time to this mountain biking mecca, I'm glad we really got to hammer the trails with the bikes fast and naked.  I did come up with what I believe to be some very good routes for accomplishing the original plan so if any of you want to have a look at the files, let me know.

But to all of you Oregonians.... I hate you.  You guys are too nice, build way too many awesome trails, have way too much beautiful and diverse terrain, and you've filled just about every unique business opportunity there is.  Shameless plug: if any of you want or need someone to run biking, hiking, or climbing tours for a tour company in Oregon, let me know!

Thanks everyone for the advice.  Would love to show off the good trail systems we do have in the Southeast if any of you are ever out this way.

Selling my Novara (REI Brand) Reason 1 bike.  I LOVE this bike but have two others and a few bills so it has to go.  This is a Reynolds 520 Steel frame, hardly a scratch on it.  Never ridden off road; bought and built up as a commuter bike.  I've outfitted it with some pretty good equipment.  Price is $400 FIRM.  The wheels ALONE are worth $680 new and only a year old.  Also including rear rack, basket, and some panniers.

List of components:

Steel Novara Safari touring fork
Steel Novara Reason 1 frame (size large, 19")
WTB Laserdisc Trail 29er SS Wheelset
WTB Pathway 700x32 tires
Avid BB7 disc brakes
Avid Cleansweep discs
Ritchey headset
Ritchey stem
Topeak Super Tourist DX Rack
Topeak MTX rear basket
Novara Round Town Panniers
Shimano M520 pedals

Some photos at http://atlanta.craigslist.org/atl/bik/2363034830.html
Original URL: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:K7r5FhpwM8gJ:www.rei.com/product/745582/novara-reason-bike-2007+novara+reason&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com)

Email me at dgjessee@gmail.com if interested.  Local sales only, sorry.

Hey guys,

My friend and I had originally planned a pretty sick bikepacking trip from Bend to Mt. Hood (climbing it), then south to the Three Sisters basically along the Sierra Cascades+McKenzie River Trail (climbing the sisters), then back to Bend. All the snow and rain we're hearing about is pretty concerning to us. WE NEED YOUR BETA!!!

What are the bike trail conditions between Bend and the Three Sisters?  We're looking at everything from Metolius-Windigo north to McKenzie Hwy.

Any reports on the McKenzie River Trail?

And thoughts or ideas on the snowpack on the Sierra-Cascades Route from Hood to McKenzie River?  We're supposed to be going from May 13-22 but we don't want to get stuck in snow on a high pass.

Alternately, what are the conditions on any of the Oregon Three Rivers routes? (besides McKenzie since I just asked that)

Please let us know!  I have to ship my bike tomorrow (Wed. May 4) to get it there in time with cushion.

THANKS!

Daniel

what size is the bike?

I hope all of you have read "Into Thick Air"

I saw that - freaking awesome and about time someone tried to woo us adventurous types :-)

But I am stuck on Delta... boo.  I priced out UPS and because of the discount my company gets for shipping, it's costing me $35 each way, insured to $2000.

From the back of this months ACA http://shipbikes.com/ no idea if this is a good deal or not but it seems to be worth looking at.

Wow! Now I have to admit this seems like a FANTASTIC idea!  Kudos to the genius that came up with this one.

All good suggestions. Per the art vs. bike value, I think I could probably claim as much value for the art as my bike is worth. However should the box pop open on the tarmac and a bike pops out under the wheel of a 737, I dont see the airline offering to refund my claimed amount.  Now if they just lost it you might even get a pretty nice settlement!  SLR equipment and Monets aint cheap.

I will probably do the shipping thing - I was really just more interested in finding anyone else who'd tried the art thing (I have a friend who's done it twice saying both camera and art and had a customer tell me they use the camera story for going to Europe).  My route is a big circle so I can pretty easily ship it in a Thule box, pick it up, do my adventure, and then ship it home from the same spot when I'm done.

So Marin is taking her first flight this May.  She's a little nervous, but not nearly as much as me.  I'm weighing my options on how to buy her ticket.  Oh and she's a bike... I've heard lots of rumors.  Because I work at an outfitter with a great UPS account, I can get a pretty superb shipping deal through them.  However, I have also heard of lots of people checking their bikes (In hard plastic travel cases of course) on their flight and telling the airline it's camera equipment or art supplies.  Since for some weird ass reason the airlines HATE bikes (maybe they consider it competition, especially with the likes of us long-distance riders) they don't charge a special fee for these sorts of objects, but charge inordinate amounts for bicycles, like $200 each way for Delta.  

I want to know A) if the odds of this little fib working are really high; and B) what any of your thoughts are on the convenience of shipping vs. taking the bike with you on the plane.

Sound off!

Thanks, but not too sure if this is the info I need.  Do either of the websites say that it is legal to ride the GR10?  I'm trying to translate but my Spanish isn't so good and Google Translate isn't helping much.

Hey everyone, wanted to see if any one had ever heard about anyone bikepacking the GR10 route along the French/Spanish border.  It runs from the Atlantic Coast to the Med and all I've read involves trekking, but curious if it was "legal" to bike it?  Any ideas?

Thanks!

-Plotting my next adventure while recovering from the last crash