Joe: For sure.  That'll give me time to finish my handlebar roll and switch to tubeless.  Check your PMs.

Beam racks are just a bad design, IMO.  They're heavier and less sturdy than a standard rear rack.  Plus I wouldn't want to risk bending an expensive seatpost with one.

Do you have rear eyelets on your frame to put a normal rack on?  It's a hardtail, so it should be possible.  Even if you don't you could go with a Old Man Mountain rack.  I'm curious why exactly the Thule rack didn't work.

The other option, of course, is to go rack-free and use a seatbag instead.

Got back from the first overnighter with my new gear.  The bike itself I built up from half new and half used parts, starting with a Gravity frame/fork combo.  It was a great deal, and only cost $50 more than the fork costs by itself.  I'm 100% sold on 29er hardtails.

Picture is on the AZ trail north of Flagstaff . . gorgeous up there.  What you see is my entire overnighter setup, I carried no backpack.  At times I had 3 liters of water in the framebag and another liter in the seatbag.  The stuff sack + pad strapped to the handlebars works great, but I'll be happy when I have the convenient of a handlebar roll.

I use about 1 liter of volume for a day's food, so once I have the roll made, gas tank and jerry can, and an under-the-downtube toolbag, I should be able to go for 3 or 4 nights without a backpack.  I've become a big fan of having my back free and open to the wind - no more sweaty shirts at the end of the day.  If I need extra space I'll bring a small fanny pack that I can stuff in one of my bags after a day or two.

tracie,

I think I'm as much retail as most folks in this business - there are a lot of us one-man custom shops around.  But thanks!  Shoot me a message and we'll talk.

Back to N AZ bikepacking - I did my first trip of the season, a little overnighter around the San Francisco peaks.  I took the Aspen Asphyxiation route (more or less) but heading clockwise.  Lots of fun, and I got snowed on yesterday!  I'll keep riding and hopefully be ready for longer rides soon - that was 30 miles a day and about my limit right now (I started at 1pm on the first day and ended at noon on the second day, so barely a sub-24 ride).  I just need to build up a little more endurance.

Joe, if you want to get some bikepacking experience in on a quick sub-24 ride, I'm thinking of doing that one again in a week or so, but in the other direction.  It's a great little gear-test overnighter, and you could get some practice riding on trails.

I highly recommend a 29er.  Hardtail if you want suspension, and you can always put a thudbuster seatpost on it.  My first ever bikepacking trip was on washboarded dirt roads on a 700c road bike, and that sold me on the value of larger wheels.  I was more comfortable on washboards with that road bike than I ever was on a 26" bike.

Get a good wheelset and you shouldn't have to worry too much about 29er parts.  Sure, they are impossible to find in lots of the world, but the probability of a good wheel failing on you is pretty low.  Certainly lower than the odds of getting hit by a car.  If you have to switch to hitchhiking for a week while you get a wheel shipped, enjoy the cultural experience.

So I finally had some time to work on bags for myself again, and replace my perfectly functional, but not very pretty framebag.  Working on bags for myself usually means some R&D time too, and this was no exception.  I decided to try something new and go two-tone on this one, and add a pocket with a window for business cards.

I'm really pleased with how it all turned out, and it wasn't too difficult, really.  It took a little longer than a regular framebag, and sewing the clear vinyl is always a bit tricky (you can't sew the same spot on it more than once or the vinyl will rip, so you really can't make many mistakes with it).  But all in all, not too bad.  I did the two-tone thing by cutting the pieces a little larger than they needed to be, sewing them together with a flat felled seam, and then cutting my framebag shape out of the combined piece.

I did a couple of other new things - one was making the straps for the seatpost come out of the center of the bag rather than the seams.  I think it looks better, because the seatpost is such a small diameter.  The other is that there's a daisy chain on the bottom to hook things onto the framebag, and I'm making a small toolbag to fit under the downtube and attach there.  I've been trying to figure out how to make a bag that wouldn't slide down into the chainrings, and the daisy chain is the solution.

Interesting.  I was referred to the SLX specifically as being a little *more* durable than the XT . . . but from research and the comments here I'm gathering that's not the case.  That makes me think about the XT M756 as another option.

What I would really like to do is try a bike with hope hubs and see if the noise drives me crazy or not.  They're not *that* expensive.  But I'd hate to build the wheel and then want to get rid of it for the noise.

The golite cave seems heavy for a one person siltarp. Looks like 23 oz online.  My (homemade) pyramid tent weighs the same, and fits two comfortably with bug protection.  The advantage of pyramid tents is that you just need a single pole or you can hang it from a tree branch.  And they are roomy.  The disadvantage is condensation (something that I'm working on fixing right now, we'll see how it goes).

Tarptents are pretty nice too.

Regardless of what you end up doing, I would ditch the tyvek groundsheet and make a polycro one instead (AKA heat shrink film from a window insulation kit).  A 4x8 piece weighs 2 oz, it's 100% waterproof, and surprisingly durable.

Interesting thoughts.  Am I going to put 50 lbs of gear on the bike?  Probably not.  My backpacking base weight is around 10 lbs, unless I add packrafts or ropes.  So most bikepacking trips won't involve that much gear.  I do have dreams of a traverse across Sedona including 2 or 3 technical spire climbs, which would require a hell of a lot of gear.  But not *that* much more than a bikepacking setup, and it would be a (long) day trip if it ever happens, not an overnighter.  I doubt I'll ever do technical climbing + bikepacking together.  It'll be hard enough to find someone to do that day trip with me.

This is on a hardtail 29er, by the way.  And I've had great success with my previous hand-built wheels (or even machine built wheels after I've trued them).  So I have confidence in the builder.   

What about the centerlock versus 6 bolt issue for bikepacking?  Anyone have any opinions?  Should I just get an SLX hub, slap an adapter on it and forget about it?  I don't think I'm gonna be changing rotors in the middle of a bikepacking trip anyway, and i can't imagine the adapters fail very often if at all.  This is what happens to bike mechanics going bikepacking, you try to cover every contingency . . . probably a bit much.

So I'm looking to build a rear wheel and looking for a hub.  The Shimano SLX series was recommended to me as the most reliable cheap hub, only occasionally having freehub problems (and I spin a high cadence; I go *easy* on my drivetrain).  I already have a Flow EX rim (32 spokes), which I could use for this or save for the front wheel later, when I get the funds to build it.  My questions are:

-does 32 versus 36 spokes matter much anymore?  I wanted to do a 36 rear, 32 front originally.  But I already have the 32 hole rim and my rear wheel needs replacing more than my front.  And requiring 36 holes limits my hub options quite a bit.  Sheldon Brown has some great advice on this but I'm not sure it applies to a Flow EX (being such a strong rim) and with disc brakes, where both wheels will experience torque.

-I want a 6-bolt hub, not centerlock.  Am I being too picky here?  I'm not the kind of person who is going to change rotors very frequently, so the multiple bolts doesn't bother me, and I'd rather not add another part to my bike that I can't carry the tools to work on.

Basically the SLX hubs come either in a 36 hole, centerlock hub or a 32 hole, 6-bolt hub.  So I have to compromise on one of these.  Right now I'm leaning towards going 32 hole 6-bolt, because the flow EX seems like such a strong rim.  But I'm curious what advice seasoned backpackers have on this.  The two I'm looking at are:

The M529 (32 hole, 6-bolt)
The M675 (36 hole, centerlock)

EDIT: Answering some of my own questions here - the M529 for some reason I thought was part of the SLX lineup.  Maybe I saw a listing that said SLX for it somewhere online, or maybe I've just been looking up too many hubs.  Either way, it doesn't come with the same recommendation that my friend gave me.  Interesting.

So I've only ridden part of the AZ trail north of town, and it was great, but just 5-6 miles of it.  I've done a lot of research, though, trying to come up with things to ride this month in Flag (once my semester's over and sewing is my only job, I should have time to get out more.  One more week!).  So here are my ideas:

One route I want to do is a loop around the San Francisco peaks.  Most people would probably do it in a day, but I'll probably take two - it's about 50 miles and I know a spot to camp on the north side of the peaks with water potential and a view of the North Rim.  A nice overnighter that I could start and end at my house.

The other is the Casner Dirty Century.

Map: http://caltopo.com/map?id=0G0O

And some pictures:  http://forums.mtbr.com/arizona/rr-casner-mountain-dirty-century-618999.html

I'm really excited to ride that telephone line road (first two pictures I believe).  Sycamore Canyon Wilderness on one side of the road, Red Rocks Wilderness on the other.

A third option for a few more miles is to head down the Casner route but instead of heading east towards Sedona head west and connect with the Coconino Loop over to Williams and then back to Flag.

Another groundcloth option is polycro, AKA heat shrink film.  I highly recommend a groundcloth and cowboy camping for Arizona.  One of the perks of the desert.  I use an 8x5 piece cut out from a window insulation kit (Frost King).  15 bucks from Home Depot and you get enough to make four groundsheets.

It's surprisingly durable and mine weighs 2.5 ounces and packs down to smaller than my fist.  Lighter than Tyvec and totally waterproof.

I've had good luck with a topeak rack (the explorer 29er disc) and some MYOG panniers.  The panniers have a foam pad in them and straps to secure them down to the rack.

My recommendation, regardless of which rack or panniers you use, is to get different bolts.  I've never bought a rack that came with bolts worth using.  Your bolts should be:

1) stainless steel
2) long enough to extend at least a little bit past the frame
3) long enough to add locknuts if you can fit them in there (I have a nut on my non-drive side, there's no room on the drive side.  I use lock washers (split washers) on the drive side instead)

The most likely mode of failure for a rack is for the bolt to shear between the rack and the frame.  If you use the stock bolts, which are usually flush, you'll be left with a plug of metal in your eyelet, not field repairable.  If your bolts are just a little bit longer you can go at them with a leatherman and replace them yourself, without needing to drill them out.

I would also bring an extra p-clip (find in the electrical section of the hardware store), bolt and nut in case one of your seatstay bolts shears.

Nice!  That route looks incredible.  And it uses the Burr Trail Road, too! 

I run my 29er as a 2x8 and I really like it.  My 24t front chainring is pretty much all I ever need for singletrack, and I go up to the 34 for roads.  I would need a pretty epic tailwind, downhill, to need more than the 34.  That said, I run a higher cadence than most.  For some reason my bike has a really direct chain line from most of the cassette in first gear, there are only 2 that I really can't use.   Not sure why that happened in this particular case.

I replaced the third chainring with this bashguard:

http://www.amazon.com/Nashbar-Mountain-Bike-Bashguard-110MM/dp/B004UMEFA0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398804292&sr=8-2&keywords=nashbar+bash+guard

Not the lightest, but cheap.  Bought it with a new second chainring after I busted it in two rides.

What about a fanny pack?  I used to make fun of them until I realized how good they are for climbing.  Easy to rotate around yourself for quick access without taking it off, keeps your back free and nimble, etc.  I could see a similar usefulness for bikepacking.  I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to make a climbing-specific one that'll do double duty for biking . . . whenever I get a break from making bags for customers.  We'll see when that happens.

An important consideration with down versus synthetics is the temperature - a down bag will always be lighter than synthetic for a given temp rating, but as the temp rating goes up the gap closes.  This is because they require the same amount of interior and exterior fabric (actually down needs a little more, for baffels), so the insulation becomes less important.  For this reason I do a synthetic quilt in the summer and a down bag in the winter.

That said, down packs into smaller spaces than synthetic, so for bikepacking it can be the way to go in the summer too.

Custom bikepacking gear maker!  That's the new one, which is quickly starting to take up a lot of my time.  My other job is as a part-time math teacher for a community college, which is a great schedule - I only work two days a week, the rest of my days are flex time.  The overall pay isn't too great, but the pay-per-hour is quite good, and I get loads of time off.  My sewing business is pretty flexible, so I can take 3 and 4 day weekends pretty much whenever I want. 

So I've put a wee bit of money towards all the places mentioned so far in this thread in the last couple of months.  Here's my quick review:

Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics is my go-to, with the best prices for just about everything.  They are a really friendly mom-and-pop business.  But they don't have Xpac.  If they had itI might not order from anyone else again.

Rockywoods has Xpac and pretty much everything, decent prices and pretty fast shipping (although I'm only two states over).  If you want everything for a framebag from a single outfitter, they are the only game in town that I'm aware of.

Quest is super friendly and another mom-and-pop outfitter.  I tend to use them more for lightweight backpacking gear, as opposed to bikepacking gear - you won't find big zippers on here, for instance.  But they do have Xpac as well now.  And they have Jr. Ballistic Nylon, which I like to use where bags contact the bike frame.  And if the shipping costs less than what they charged you, they'll refund you the difference - not a lot of places will do that.

DIY Gear Supply is a great place for thread.  They have Gutermann Mara, which is a great all-purpose thread, and Gutermann Tera, which is a really strong black thread, good for bikepacking gear.  All of their threads beat the pants out of anything you'll find at Joann's, they cost 3-4 bucks for a large spool, and the shipping is cheap.

And I would also advise VX21 instead of VX07.  The difference in weight is negligible, but the difference in durability isn't.  VX07 weighs 4.8oz per square yard, VX21 weighs 6.0oz.  Most framebags use between half and two thirds of a square yard.  Either way, definitely less than one ounce difference.  Maybe 10-15 grams heavier for VX21.

[dirt bridge]

Ok, new idea for you here.  If I had the time I'd want to join you on this one.  More epic, and it involves getting across the Grand Canyon somehow, which seems fitting if you're really going to connect the whole journey.  The AZ Trail north of the GC would be the coolest (in the temperature sense, I've never ridden it), and the views from the north rim are spectacular.

Then, rather than connecting across the res (which indeed would be blazing hot and no fun), I would connect through southern Utah dirt roads.  From the end of the AZ Trail you could head up House Rock Valley Rd and then Cottonwood Canyon, which would connect you to Kodachrome basin.  Another option to get to Kodachrome basin is Skutumpah Road, which goes across a dirt bridge.  No, I'm not kidding.  It's over Bull Valley Gorge, a fun non-technical slot canyon with a truck stuck in the top of it.

The problem is getting back south to Durango to start the CT.  Not very easy, there's Lake Powell in the way (and the Maze farther north).  The Burr Trail would take you down from Highway 12 to the lowest crossing of Lake Powell I know (a ferry, make sure it's gonna be running!).  And the Burr Trail is one of the coolest dirt roads I've ever ridden.  From there you could connect through Natural Bridges and the Abajo Mountains to Monticello.  Not sure about from there to Durango, but at that point you're pretty close, and the route until then has stayed at a higher (read: cooler) elevation.

The other problem on this route is water, you'll need to research it well.  I don't know much about water sources on any of the routes I've mentioned.