What toptube bag holds 1.5L? I must be using the wrong bags! Mine just about holds 4-6 granola bars, depending on the size.

Yes you are using the wrong bags. You could be using my gas tank, which holds 2 liters and weighs 4oz. 

So I took out the new harness/pocket setup for a test and it is approved for enduro level riding. Stable on any technical moves like drops, hops, jumps and rock gardens. All my handlebar setups have been this way but the new one is more secure and the webbing does not loosen up over time at all. It is overkill for gravel roads but the stability will mean less energy used on long hauls.

Ok here is the final piece in production. Its just the start, as I am about to finalize a logo and website. But I would put it up against any front setup in bikepacking. Right now I have one ordered by my boss, and two frame bags ordered as well. So if anyone wants a bag I am currently at less than 2 weeks wait time.

The one in the pics below is for a guy from Salt Lake City area who is putting it on a Salsa Deadwood. I will post some photos of that setup to show how it fits on woodchippers. No matter which bar one uses the pocket zipper works one-handed on the move.

I have been testing it for some time now. Not only is the setup uber stable, the front pocket zipper works on the move with one hand and even opens and closes without the other hand on the bars! I have taken it off 4 foot drops and it has no movement or sway. Lifetime warranty for the original owner. $120 for pocket and harness drybag sold separately. Production pockets will have Dimension Polyant X-21 cloud grey face material and XV-21 black sides and bottom (the prototype in picture has white vx-07 and some 400x300 diamond ripstop). The harness in first pic is production level.

It works with all types of handlebars including drop bars. Large drybags fit fine. Bar spacers are neatly covered in xpac material for a clean look.

I am also making the following:

Seatbags. $120. The only production one that is fully dropper post compatible. I tested 3 models so far for two years the most recent one is pictured below from CTR 2015. Final version is almost done and will of course be a "no sway" model, unlike every bag on the market save PR's Mr. Fusion. It works just as well with straight post setups too. No seatpost attachment means no inherent side to side motion.

Gas tank. $90. By far the largest tank in the world. Nothing else is even close. A small child can get lost in one. See reply #17 on page 1 of this thread. Production models will feature X-21 cloud grey material.

Custom frame bags. $150 and up. I am working on one for a Ti fat bike at the moment. Pix to come. See page 1 for some of my previous models.

I will be finishing the website shortly. All bags will be available via a shopping cart. For now anyone who wants one PM me lets talk about what you need for the upcoming season.

I have put 3 years and thousands of miles and countless hours into the research and development of these bags. They have finished 8 triple crown events without a failure. I dont like bags that move, so I made my own. Now I am making them for everyone.

Thanks for looking,

Mark Caminiti
Divide Bike Bags

Update:

Well I have a production harness/pocket ready to sell. A few orders from friends so here are some current pix:

Maybe a little background here would help.  I am re-reading Scott Thigpen's book where he keeps leapfrogging "the kids" as he calls them all the way to the end of the race.  It sounds as though Scott rides slower, but longer each day.  This got me wondering how time off the bike during the day compares between people that ride fast, but fewer hours compares with people who ride longer hours?  Are the absolute numbers for hours stopped similar between racers or might there be a bit more correlation in the time spent stopped as a percent of total time start to end in the day?

Maybe I just need to go back to worrying about mapping out all the water stops in NM...

I posted my thoughts about pushing it too far with lack of sleep in the race analysis thread. There is a point where returns are diminished and good sleep even in hotels not just the ground becomes paramount.

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/ultra-racing/tour-divide-2015-ride-analysis-site/msg80399/#msg80399

IMO it is hard to regulate pushing the sleep envelope. Once you go too far it is hard to stop yourself and back off. I screwed up twice and didnt see either mistake coming as my judgement was impaired due to lack of sleep. If I make it to Banff this June I plan to have a better plan.

So it is time to start a Triple Crown Challenge thread for 2016. Last year was the best yet for finishers of the three big bikepacking classics. I have heard a few rumors of folks prepping for the journey so lets get the excitement started. I am a maybe at this point. Like the last two years I am going to hit the 750 and see how things pan out.

Here is my 2015 sleep dep story:
I rode the first day well until it rained. Then I kind of  just wussed it into Elkford and shared a room with another racer. I barely slept 2.5 hrs and bailed early at 2:15. For the next 3 days I barely slept at all, and by 5 am I was rolling off Huckleberry Pass into Lincoln. I was down for 1-2 hr laying next to the road after Eureka night 2, Trackleaders says I was stopped 4:10 night 3 and night 4 on Huckleberry Pass I was down with no bivy and was scared of the Grizz I could hear nearby and didnt sleep at all laying next to fire.
Rolling into Lincoln I was at 148 miles per day the first 96 hours and completely out of my mind.

I went into a restaurant on the right. The day before another rider attempting a Triple Crown, Alice Drobna, had warned me about how I was acting with no sleep. She was faster much faster, but I kept riding all night and catching her, and we would have some rather funny encounters. In Ovando she warned not to go out to Huckleberry as I was acting pretty much like a crazy man on meth in the store. Well in the restaurant I was scared. I didnt feel good at all coming off the Pass in the morning. Everyone caught me super quick. Lael Wilcox was somewhere in town so I thought for a second I could keep up will the top 4 women and the fast men around them like Elliot DuMont, but riding out of Lincoln I hit a wall. I could not think. I wanted to quit. I was scared to death and I told Elliot and Eleanor that on the steep hikeabike to Stemple. Elliot tried to calm me down by telling me I was a triple crown finisher and such and there is nothing wrong but I had not been sleeping and I was in a another whole world where the heat and the hill felt like death. I got to the top and for a second all seemed ok as Eleanor pedaled away.

Normally I would smoke that Downhill, but I couldnt ride the bike at all, Praying for dear life I would not crash and die on a road I would on any other day haul down. I saw a truck parked and could barely not hit it even there was 4-5 foot of room. Then I went through a drainage and flatted on sharp rocks on the g-out. I could not fix the flat in the heat with no sleep. I knew it so I just tried to glue the hole on the top of the tire and pump it up and make Helena to fix it properly. It worked until the bottom. As I turned to the next pass approach, It was flat again. I was out of my mind at that point, wanting only to quit and go to Helena and sleep. Brian Steele rides by and offers help but I am too far gone and about to freak out so i tell him to just ride on. I saw a guy in a truck going the other way. I asked him for a ride. I know its legit to head off route not on the course to bail  So off I go the other way to Helena. The driver offers to drop me off in Canyon Creek at the little gas station, but I stay on until Helena and go to the bike shop. I make it to in a hotel room down the street after they fix my tire. I wake at 7 in pain with a empty pizza box next to me.

I was able to sleep 12 hours and return to the course the next morning and I still finished with a 23 day time, but I continued to play games with the sleep monster and race people all night just to see their responses when they would see me again after leaving me in the dust time after time. But eventually it caught up with me again. Mike S and Eleanor finally passed me for good after I stay out all night time and time again sleeping in freezing conditions in a 6oz bivy with no bag or pad. I went 902 miles only sleeping twice. I only show 2 tent icons in that space from Wamsutter to Pueblo Pintado, and I only got 2 hrs sleep in Wamsutter to begin with I sat in the store and ate and sat in a hotel room and left at midnight and slept next to the road in the truck dust 15 miles down the road tired and hurting. I was hellbent to race those around me and ride solo and not ride hotel to hotel at all. For the race I only show 12 tent icons.

The same thing that happened in Helena happened just past Pueblo Pintado. In a place one would not want to just lay down right next the road on the reservation, I just laid in my clothes in the warm night air and slept 9 hours instantly after the heat and the sleep deprivation took me from expecting to ride all night on the pave to a deep sleep the moment I stopped to get some food out. Woke up with the candy bar in my hand. I was never the same the rest of race and tried to ride all night at the end but ended up with a 23d5hr or so which was better than I really expected but probably could have been much better had I just simply slept a little more each night at key points and maybe a nap in the day here and there.

I actually hallucinated way more in the AZT 750 once, but in TD the sleep dep was sometimes more about fear. Like I feared the grizz sleeping on passes like Union and Huckleberry in my sleep dep state knowing I could not react well to any encounter as I was tripping and had no spray or whistle or anything. So I would say that messing with the sleep monster is a dangerous idea on the divide and should be carefully considered.

I was just having a little fun. Don't forget, this all started with you asserting that I am a dishonest journalist, so take it all with a grain of salt. And you now see the challenge with "reviewing" anything. It's all so subjective. I have a friend with a Deadwood that never sees anything but flowy singletrack. Another has one that is almost always on pavement and gravel. To the OP, I was merely suggesting that - within the scope of what the Deadwood was designed to do - it's pretty awesome. There's the rub. When you pluck a bike from the box and pair it to a rider, as you do in a bike shop, you have to understand what the bike was intended to deliver, and how that benefits the pair of legs sitting on it.

I said basically what you are saying in my first post here. I will go into a little more detail off my one cruise on this bike. I didnt feel it could handle more than easy flowy trails because the there was way too much exposed seapost when fit correctly and the realtionship of that seat height to the bar height was IMO not thought out well and seems to be thrown together and not refined. It put too much weight on my hands and not my feet. So it felt like it pushed a lot in corners. It always looks like to me this bike is too small when fit right. Maybe thats how it is supposed to be and one gets used to it. Not sure I had only one short ride and I havent asked anyone about that from the company.

The guy who bought one from my shop put a layback Thomson and has 12-13" from post clamp to saddle  rails. It doesnt fit him that well IMO. 6' guy on a large IIRC.

edit- measured my bike and compared to a pic of deadwood i rode. my bar height is way higher so it seems this type of bike takes some getting used to. Apples to oranges? I felt the same way on a friends ti grinder but it was too small so I thought that was it. The hoods felt comfy but low for me but for someone who rides say a low flat bar setup the feel may be the same. I guess thats why I perceive the pushing in corners. It takes time to adjust.

Now you are just being rude man. Ok. I get it. Disagree with with someone and insinuate they may not have a neutral opinion was not nice. I apologized. Make a joke at no one in particular and get personal attacks. Cool. Its the internet. You have that right.

I see that disagreeing with u guys that this bike is anything more than a gravel road tourer is gonna get ugly. Seems like I have hit a few nerves. With just a differing opinion. I said I was sorry when I felt I was too harsh. Now the line is being crossed Flounder and Smithhammer  u are making some pretty aggressive personal attacks. Weak. 

Hey man dont act like i speak for a shop just because I happen to be temporarily working for one. U dont like my opinion be a man and just agree to disagree. I can voice a strong opinion here u just dont seem to be able to handle it. The joke was aimed at no one it was a joke.

Once in a while i get this way and tell it like I think it is. If u knew me at all u would realize i have a valuable opinion just like anyone else here. I sold Geronimo Pain cream for 5 years here and there are 100's of satisfied customers. I have helped many riders many times online and in the races.

U just want folks to agree all the time and be all nice. Bikepacking.net could use a little more disagreement.


edit- maybe I should have not posted again after my first counterpoint/opinion in this thread was attacked instead of just accepted as another perspective. I usually dont anymore. Because it always turns into a biggest johnson contest of which I am usually just as quilty as everyone in escalating things. No one is wrong here. It is just differing opinions.

Smithhammer u made the first reply to the OP and I then added my .02. When I felt I had may have gone too far with Flounder I apologized. Back off.

Well I went out today in 6-8" of powder and rode the Spark. Brands trails in Moab, a relatively flat area with easy to moderate ST. In the snow the trails have suprise rocks that are rounded and slippery. My minions just ate it up breaking trail. I dabbed a bit on deflections and my 1x was not enough gear but I thats the same story on a fat bike.

The Deadwood in stock form would have been miserable and the instant deflections on woodchippers and half knob tires would have been scary. A fat bike with stock cockpit would have been tough to handle. The best bike would have been a 26" bike with 2.5" tires set up techy. You know like they used to sell? Way back in lets say 2011 before social media changed the world.

A FS 29er with 100-140mm travel is so much more versatile than any bike out there today. Tour Divide. Enduro race. Micro hucking. Triple Crown. It does it all. Like say the new Pivot mach429 trail or Yeti sb45c. Or even the shorter travel ones like my Spark. Or longer travel ones like the new Evil the reckoning. The range of my spark for my ability is 23 days in the divide and a 8ft drop. And thats not pushing it 100% thats screwing up in the TD twice and hucking a drop I am comfortable with riding at about 85% my skillset. Imagine my bike in the hands of a real pro like say Tomac in his prime. He would win Norba xc and dh races and huck 10 footers all day and win the Kamikaze all on the same bike. No way the Deadwood has anywhere near the range of a capable fs 29er. No way.

I have an opinion on this. Just like anyone else. IF one already has a good bike these fad bikes are just that. A fad. 3" tires should have actual knobs on them like they did 15 years ago. When those tires were a fad. Gazzi's sucked. So do these 29+ tires compared to a good 29x 2.3- 2.5 knobby in just about 95% of conditions. Like have said 4 times already YMMV.

I enjoy progression too. Bearded hipster bikes are not progression.

You guys can keep disagreeing with me all u want. I will stick to my guns and say too much variety is not a good thing. The Deadwood is a nice bike, but a regular 29er outperforms it on roads and trails IMO and the 29+ rigid is only something we think we need because they tell us that. I am just as guilty as anyone of wanting one, but I still feel my regular bike just outperforms it in all arenas.

Like I said before YMMV. The shop I work at rents all these Salsa bikes, so anyone can go back to back with regular bikes to see how they stack up. I have found my basic 29er to be better at the Divide and the trails, so I am having trouble justifying a purchase of one.

Well one thing u guys are not seeing is that it is nearly impossible now for the average bike shop to not only stock various types of bikes, but now no less than 5 different wheel size configs. Add to that the accessories and the repairs and what I have been seeing happening is the average customer is now looking for something that is basically never "in stock". Shops now have to have huge pockets and groups of investors to just appease their customer base. Social media marketing is killing the industry as far as the LBS is concerned. They wont be able to compete with online stores like Chain Reaction, which sells Shimano at dealer cost or better.

Lately it seems that everyone wants something so unique no shop can cover all those bases. I am not some pro-LBS anti online guy. I just recently got this job and wasnt paying attention to all this new size stuff. But now I have seen it from the shop side and since I am a business owner I wouldnt want to own a shop in 2016. Its a headache to predict what customers will want this year. 6" travel 27.5+ bikes. Really? Boost spacing for 27.5? New fat bike hub spacing every year? Go Pro accessories? All that is marketing being shoved down our throats.

Madison Ave is so good they got everyone including me wanting various bikes for overlapping niches. For example a fat bike when there is nowhere to ride one. All these fat bikes will be sitting there most of the year. No groomed terrain and other users groups dont want these bikes on the winter trails. Fat bike appropriate riding terrain is a unicorn. But we need 4.8"s anyway 3.8" is not enough to ride a packed road.

We have a joke at the shop where we just say Boost all the time (my car has boost - lol). It is making fun of all these new standards. Even mechanics cant keep up with all the new concepts.

edit- Smithhammer u may be right i am taking this too seriously. I realize that. But is it because I am trying to get my bike bag business off the ground and all these new styles make it hard to dial in a front end bag that fits all handlebars. I have had a few local requests for custom work and I have decided not to make the bags because each concept requires a whole new prototype, template, design, etc.  Only one person so far has requested a bag that is somewhat "standard" and they still want it to fit woodchippers AND riser bars but somehow hold a really wide tent stuff sack for both bikes. Everyone else sees something on Ebay that is not easy to reproduce quickly and thinks it can be shit out in two seconds. So I am focusing on a front harness that fits drops, woodchipper, Jones, riser, flat, etc. PITA. I want it to be the most stable ever and have the front pocket zipper work one handed while moving and not damage cables. All these different bars make it so hard to pull it off.
 

Well Christophe an enduro bike just set the fastest time in the history of the CTR last year. With a dropper. The Deadwood would not be able to do that.

A guy last year had a fat bike in the TD. Kept up with me for a day. Quit the next day (day 2). He was so strong but he chose the wrong bike.

Tomac was just so badass I dont think it mattered what he rode. You could probably do better than me with the woodchippers on a long tour as u have a lot of saddle time with them. I just feel that would hurt too much to get good at it on trails. But for TD I am seeing the light as anyone with them last year who knew how to use them was way ahead of me for the most part.

I didnt mean to offend u at all. Maybe I came across a bit harsh. Sorry.

I dont hate the press. I have read your site many times and used the info even when deciding to purchase stuff. I just have a strong opinion with this type of bicycle being good on trails. I completely disagree. Just like my xc race bike it takes modifications to make it somewhat plausible. In the hands of an expert rider these bikes can ride ST, but the speed is so much slower on the downs its like pulling teeth to just ride it at 50% of ones ability. Like I said above YMMV.

I dont see where any bike with these types of bar setups will EVER ride singletrack effectively at the kind of speed it takes to have fun on trails going down. Yes someone can do well in the CTR or AZT on one of these because climbing is 96% of the deal timewise. I just feel that my body is all I have and beating it up just to say I rode the race or tour on a 29+ rigid is foolish IMO. My hands were destroyed after CTR this year. I would be retiring if I rode a 29+ rigid last year.

edit- It is the marketing that is pissing me off not so much the press. One does not need to have a fat bike or 27.5+ bike or 29+ bike IMO. It s the bike companies telling us we need this. They replaced the 26er with the 27.5er  just to sell more new bikes. Thats all this is about. We are being led. Not leading. And you sir are eating right out of their hands. Thats okay. I just dont buy it.

Can you expand a little more on the water in NM? Grants / Pie Town / Church / Beaverhead / Lake Roberts off route / Silver City (Pinos Altos) ... ?

Between Grants and Pie Town u have the ranger station at mile 15.2 of the alternate and old cabin on right at mile 190.1 on main route (both on map 5).

Between Beaver head and Pinos Altos u have the creek dam deal at Black canyon campgrounds at mile 124.6. And u have the creek crossings at 8.9 and 9.2 of the cdt alternate (map 6).

I may actually buy this bike for the 2016 TD. So dont think i dont like it a lot. I am just trying to offer an opinion based from a technical riders standpoint.

Who said shady? I just get real tired of folks who get to ride bikes for free all year and then tell the rest of us its so awesome, like Francois from MTBR and anyone from MBA. In the real world bikes need maintanence, they crack and break and fail. Yes all the brands too not just some of them. The public never hears about most of that because all testing is done in the style like u test bikes. Of course u will say this bike is better than the Fargo, but that is just another Salsa. How about a comparision to the Stache or the Krampus. Well that is because Trek and Surly wont give u a bike for free to test. You are sponsored by Salsa and no doubt bought your new bike at employee pricing rates.

I am saying that all freelance MTB journalists do this. Those companies should let me ride their bikes for free and give a real honest opinion. They dont do that the only give them out to fanboys who will shower their bikes with praise.

Here in Moab we always see folks showing up with these plus bikes with and not liking how they perform unless the rider limits the riding scope quite a bit. Gravel grinding and singletrack are two entirely different animals. I have yet to see a bike that does both well.

Riding technical singletrack is not where these bikes shine. At all. Salsa only has one frame that fits that mold and its the Horsetheif. It doesnt take months of riding them to see that. Maybe the Pony Rustler will fill that category too, but us non-journalists havent seen that one just yet.

More than a few bikes suck these days. Saying otherwise is not credible journalism IMO.

I ride a Scott Spark 900sl. I cracked it the first week I had it in the 2014 TD. It took 15 months to find that crack. Its great at triple crown racing but not burly enough for that or tech ST. I ride it real fast and it only shines when heavy tires, a 120mm fork, a short stem and riser bar are used.  I broke the stock carbon rear rim too. And Scott has poor CS in the sale follow through and in the warranty situation. The story is always about how one has to wait for a boat from Europe for a bike or replacement frame part. Like most folks besides Enve who sell carbon hoops they will not back them when they fail. Also, the Stock Fox fork had failed bushings at mile 2000 of the 2014 TD. Fox laughed at me even though I was a shop team sponsored racer who just finished a triple crown effort. They wanted 240 USD to fix a fork I broke using lockout on a dirt road. Bolts cracked as well on the Spark rear Tri. The whole experience has been filled with good race efforts but poor lifespan for a 9200 retail bike.

That is a short impartial review of a bike.