I am inspired to redesign mine as well. I will be sewing loops in as well.

That is pretty well executed....nice job!

Long Haul Greg - That is quite a load. Can you comment on the weight?

As per seatbags in general what is the max weight you would carry? I would like to ditch the panniers for touring but sometimes I need to have 4-5 days worth of food and having a rack means I can just bungee it on top. Could you strap an extra 4-5 pounds to a seatbag?

The seatbag looks great.

In the background their is a ladder. Is the cat real? Is the beaver real?

I loved it. Penned up a review...enjoy:

http://bicyclehobo.com/review-reveal-the-path/

I am a bicycle tourist...mostly on road but I prefer riding an MTB. I travel with a minimal amount of gear and the advances I was seeing in 'bikepacking' bags really attracted me. I started searching for more info on 'bikepacking' and I stumbled upon this AWESOME community. I think I followed a link from MTBR to originally get here.

I return a couple times a week and look at the DIY sections. Some great info and sharing.

I am also looking at sewing the 'stabilization' cord/bungee. My sewing skills are very limited. If I do it I will hand sew it and just 'over engineer' it with so many stitches that the hulk will not be able to pull it out.

I am penning up a new article that has a different hobo shower that just uses water and some dr. bronners. I am using an empty 16 oz plastic peanut butter jar that doubles as my cup, measuring cup, bowl, and kitchen container [keeps the cat stove from being crushed].

So this is a 24 oz can of Budweiser in the Jandd chalkbag....err...feedbag.

It could take a smartwater 1l. bottle or a 24 oz. water bottle with a clif bar or two jammed in.

I bought a Sierra Designs Arrow Rock 30 down bag recently that is warm, under 2.5 lbs and packs down to 16 X 8.

I don't know if that would be too warm or not...I see some good deals for sierra designs down bags on Moosejaw and campsaver...sub $200 down bags.

They are as tall as a 24oz can of Budweiser and wider. You could carry a  24oz to 1 liter bottle and have some free room [width] to stuff a couple energy bars. I will upload some photos this weekend with different sized bottles.

Thanks for making the effort  to share this...wow!

In addition to the worry of it actually breaking is the worry of it 'just becoming loose and rotating or dropping'. I have read a number of accounts of this happening on boards around the web. I was considering a seatpost rack for a while but have given up. I am trying to pair down my touring gear so that I can go rackless. It is proving to be a challenge, and then there is the added cost of the bags.

I recently bought a Thrunite Archer 1a - 178 lumens with one aa and 4 modes.

http://www.thrunite.com/en/ProductsView.aspx?id=138

I am really happy with it so far. I was riding around NYC with it the other night and I put it on "flash" and cars were pulling over in front of me as if I were the police. No exaggeration.

I am trying to limit all of my gear to aa batteries.

I worked for Red Bull for a year and a half. I love what they are doing with their media program and their support of guys like Danny. This is nothing short of amazing. I'm at an age where I haven't thought of playing with a lot of the toys that are featured here in a long time: plastic soldiers, hot wheels tracks, etc.

Thanks for posting this.

Fantastic! I Settled on a used bike through the bike shop today, Put in my two weeks notice at work, and started sewing up some saddlebags for the trip. Thank you all for the help!

What did you get?

Agreed Fatcloud!! Anytime I hear the term 'putting in notice' I get all itchy.

Ok...I'm sensing used is out, unless you stumble onto a perfect deal from someone you know and trust.

I would start looking at bike shops in the are for 2010 and 2011 year models. Chances are if it's been sitting there for a while you may get a deal.

Note that it's summer time and bike shops are moving bicycles right now. I'm in NY. During February a bike shop is not as busy as it is in June. You will be able to negotiate more in the off peak seasons depending on where you are.

Also know that most bike shops don't make their living on selling bicycles. The markup on a $600 bike is probably less than $150 [any bike shop owner/employee can feel free to correct this statement]. For that $150 they need to store the bicycle, assemble the bicycle, and then keep it clean on the sales floor where it takes up valuable real estate. Don't begrudge them for not wanting to lower their price because they aren't making too much off of it in the first place.

Accessories and service is where they make the profits.

I am with the Sawyer Squeeze folks. Minibull designs makes an adapter that allows you to screw a platypus bag or water bottle onto the 'clean' end.

https://www.minibulldesign.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=208&idcategory=

It's 15 bucks but if makes backflushing easier if you are using the platypus bags.

I would say we need a little more info about what your riding needs are but I'm going to take a crack at this right now:

If you are looking for dual suspension and disc brakes I think that you need to raise your baseline price.

If you are okay with a hardtail with rim brakes and an older fork, and you know your way around a mechanic stand, and you are not in a hurry, you can get a very nice old hardtail on ebay for less than $600. I am riding a 1994 M2 Sworks outfitted in that I paid less than $800 shipped to my door. This bike retailed for approx $3k in 1994. The person who auctioned it was upfront with many photos and made himself available to answer questions. I have ridden this bicycle across the country twice.

If a hardtail works for you, and you are willing to look at bicycles manufactured before 2000 there are usually a couple of really nice Bridgestone MTB's on ebay. These are Grant Petersen designed frames [rivbike.com] and are very nice all around bicycles. Specialized made a number of 'handmade in the US' frames for their Sworks line in this time frame, and all of the Cannondale frames in this era were hand welded.

The Cannondale M800 circa 1990-92 is a really aggressive frame that I see on ebay quite often. Some of them have a 1/4" headtube that may be hard to source parts for.

I would also look in craigslist. I lived in Boulder, Co for a couple years and there were more than a few pros selling unused factory race frames every winter. Depending on where you live you can find a really good deal.

Make sure to ask a lot of questions to see if the person really 'knows' the bicycle and can accurately describe it's condition.

Good luck and tell us what you end up buying.

Riding on the Interstate in Montana is not illegal. We do it all the time. In Wyoming it is illegal.

If you are heading east out of Laramie, Wy it is legal to ride RT 80 for about 4-5 miles as it is the only paved road...just wanted to make a note of that.

The race coverage here is great....thanks!