I've got an adventure pack that's been gathering dust. Bigger than what you're looking for but thought I'd throw it out there.

Gabe

Good luck td riders! After reading several books this past year I'm excited to see how things unfold with a tiny bit more route knowledge.

A wet tent with sleeping bag can be an issue, but there are so many factors to consider. For leisure trips I dry everything out before packing up but in fast tour mode, the tent/bivy is always wet at 5 am. My solution has been to pack the tent (tarptent rainbow) and sleeping pad (foam) in the bar bag, then stuff the sleeping layers between the pad and the bar bag. This is using a large sweet roll. On really bumpy terrain the bag does have quite a bit of play. For this scenario I put the sleeping bag separate in the seat bag. The solutions above using a drybag sound good for keeping it all together.

When I've used a harness system, it was with a sleeping bag/thermarest/sleeping layers all stuffed in a 13 liter e vent drysack, with a tarp stuffed elsewhere.

Find a way to pack your stuff at home without a high "cram it" factor and then you'll probably change how things are arranged from day to day based on needs.

One trick I really like if you have two roll closures on the bar bag is to put the rain jacket on one side and rain pants on the other. Easy access without messing with the balance.

Signed and shared on the fb.

Nice post. I like your idea of trip design. It is something I've subconsciously done as well for 20 or so bikepacking trips.

The part about who you're riding with is huge. I would say it's the first thing I think of before conjuring up anything. That helps to set up the distance, terrain, pace, etc. 80% of my rides have been with a partner or group, and all of those were 1 or 2 night trips.

Having never designed a longer group ride, I can see how it could be a black hole of question marks. How far can I go in a day? How far can we go in day? If we shuttle vehicles, how long will it take to ride between them? Will we even make it? If I'm asking myself this, should we do something really conservative? Should we go at all?

Your framework is helpful for communication to the other person(s) in your group. It's an informational map to let everyone know where you're coming from.  People sometimes need a way to do their homework well. When someone asks you what to wear/do when going out for the day, you can't really give an answer other than "it will be 37 degrees and a little bit windy" or "it's 50 miles with 4,000 feet of climbing."

Looking to sell my camping bike. Includes a frame bag made by Greg at Bolder Bikepacking. Bag is actually made for a large Lynskey, but allows for a water bottle on this frame.

I have some other bags as well if someone is looking for an inexpensive complete setup all made in Boulder: handlebar harness, seat bag, and gas tank.

Large frame, King headset, Salsa fork with 20 mm maxle, Thomson post and 100 mm stem, Bontrager bars, WTB cross country wheels, Deore 3 x 9 drivetrain, Paul's Thumbies, and bb7 brakes with 180 mm rotors.

The drivetrain is in great shape and has about 500 miles of riding on it.  The water bottle bosses are faulty on the down tube, but with a frame bag I never cared.

$700 with a WTB saddle (hard to give up a Brooks that's starting to get broken in).

PM me with questions.

Ha! Never noticed as a tent. I will always see it now, though. The new tent background is like the universal sign for camping, so that's cool. And clearly I need to try more wheelies when I'm bikepacking.

I also like the featured posts. Nice work.

Gabe

Nice work Mark. Now to yo-yo the CTR next year?

Agreed on the spot issue. I took a look and it had him going 32 mph on the side of a mountain, refreshed and he was going 63 mph! So close to the finish, but with bad brakes can only ride UPhill. Crazy.

Neil's got 45 miles to go!

Nice work Mark. No Princeton resupply this year i suppose. Keep it up and I'll look forward to hearing about this long summer of bike racing.

To all the other racers out there, stay strong and may the storms pass by quickly.  It looks like some smart decisions being made this year.

I run 32/23 and 36/19. I agree that the difference wasn't much, but enough to not have a perfect chain tension. In hindsight, my chainring was probably off center as well, which would compound the chain difference of 1.5 mm (which sounds low to me, but probably correct), so look out for that, too.

There are probably some tricks I don't know about regarding chain tensioning. Sliders and EBBs haven't worked for me... But not the topic here.

Good luck making a simplified drivetrain. Go with the wide swing in gear ratios, especially if your trip has big stretches of flat terrain.

I've asked this question on here before and in practice the chain length DOES change because of the angle difference between the chainring and cog. If your frame has track ends and you are using a bolt on or chain tensioner, you can make those small adjustments when changing gears.

When I had a dingle setup using sliding dropouts I could make one ratio perfect, but the other would be off.

The 26/25 ratio sounds pretty nice for climbing and singletrack, but I agree that the 30/21 is not a suitable "road" gear unless the roads are also steep with little amount of flats. 32/19 or taller might be better.

Can't wait to try the balm!

On another note, do you make some sort of skin protectant for wind, cold, similar to dermatone?

If you have not tried a Talon pack, you have to demo one overnight. I am glad I did.

Nice! Glad that worked out for you.  I saw at Wilderness Exchange last week they were selling Talon 11s for like $45!

Recently, I've been taking a different approach than no backpack, which is to put everything for a day ride in a backpack and everything for an overnight on the bike.  It makes for a remarkably light bikepacking rig for technical singletrack and lots of hike-a-bike.  Sounds like I need to venture south this winter.

I have a Talon 11 m/l, but it doesn't fit very well.  If I had to choose, I'd go for the stratos because that built in cover sounds cool.

Mark-- if you want to borrow any bags let me know (or maybe trade for some Geronimo  :  ).

The list:

Wingnut adventure pack-- haven't found a configuration I like yet other than empty, with maybe a jacket and pants
Talon 11-- room for bladder, rain gear, maybe some food.  The separated sleeve for the water bladder is nice.  I think it would fit someone with a smaller frame better.
Camelbak Octane 18x-- pretty sweet for 3l hydration, filter, rain gear, some food.  Actually more comfortable while expanded than all zipped up.  Was my go to pack for everything until it wasn't... funny how things change.
REI Flash 22-- current experiment in gear acquisition.  Has been good for rain gear and other items up to 4-5 pounds.  Not great as a hydration pack.
Sea to summit backpack-- lots of room and almost always my go to for bikepacking "without a pack".  I use it to keep my gear together at the beginning and end of the day, but almost totally useless as a primary backpack.

Still looking for the bag I can wear for 16-18 hours a day and not mind the stress on shoulders, neck, hips, etc. after many days out...

Ha ha, now that's the spirit!  Long hours= less comfort items needed.  Most of my bikepacking this summer has been 12 hour days max, hence the stove, tent, and extra crap like chairs and flip flops.

For the Vapor Trail ride this year, I did exactly the "day ride with a few extras", but I would not have been able to stop moving, much less sleep outdoors.  With a sleeping bag and a bivy, I could have made the night no problem, just not comfortable.  22 more ounces for that= yes.  But then the pad, a wool base layer, a stove, more batteries, first aid... yes, it all adds up.

Many of the extra gas tank and feeder bags add some weight to your setup for the sake of comfort and convenience.  A 1 pound backpack can save a pound of bags on the bike but I hear you on the 50+ lb. bike being hard as hell to push up steep hills.  1.5 L water,  filtration, food, tools, and rain gear had my bike at 40+ pounds. 

Agree, my next bikepacking trip will be with no saddle bag and no backpack.

I've made this happen before on a hardtail with frame bag, CDW medium bar bag, and some mountain feedbags.  Lost that bag and now have a Revelate large sweet roll.  Super volume!  I've packed it with all camping items AND a backpack.

The fun is optimizing your setup to the terrain.  I've found with a pack I do prefer a maximum of 10 pounds or so:  3L water, filter, rain gear, maybe a pound of food.

If having a lighter bike helps with tech why do DH bikes weigh so much. To me it seems like the opposite. Weight helps with stability.

Your never going to convince me to put the full load of bikepacking gear on my back. For me it's all about balance and an even distribution of weight. Going lighter is always better and having the weight spread out with some on the bike and some on the back.

Not a fan of going without a backpack either.

I agree with the ride quality of a well balanced weighted bike, sometimes I think it's better than a day-ride bike.   

But, if I had to choose between seat bag or bar bag only, for sure I'd put the weight in the front.    Brings up suspension fork complications, though.

Good blog post.  Each bikepack trip this summer has seen different configurations for me.  One weekend I carried everything on the bike for singletrack and no hike-a-bike while another I moved 3 liters of water, toiletries, and rain gear to my back (more HAB on that one).  In both cases I used a tent, sleeping pad/bag, Katadyn water filter, and lightweight cook kit.  Even with 8-9 pounds off the bike, it was still heavy.

More recently, a group of us did the Vapor Trail, but with no camping.  We rented a cabin half way through the route and the plan was to make 55 miles the first day, sleep in beds, and ride the other 55 miles on Sunday.

As usual, my plan was to go without a backpack and so I loaded up 2 mountain feedbags, a gas tank, the frame bag, a tool roll, and the seat bag with food, rain gear, a leisure pair of shorts and shirt, toiletries, flat kit, and the water filter to make the trip.  I had 2.5 liters of water capacity, but never carried more than 1.5 liters.  The total gear weight was only 4 pounds, the flat kit was 2 pounds, and the bags weighed around 2.5 pounds total.  At the end of the second day, with only a few calories left and a full water bottle, I lifted my bike.  Not light. 

Every one of the 4 people on this trip packed differently.  One guy had every bag imaginable strapped to his bike, plus a backpack.  Another the same, but no backpack.  The third had only feedbags and a gas tank on his bike with a heavier backpack.  And then me.

On the next trip of this nature, I will definitely be going with a backpack.  The points in the blog post are valid for me as well, as bike fit is something super important to get dialed in with or without weight on your back.  When you have to shlep the bike up the sides of mountains you really notice the difference of 10- 12 pounds that often times carries better on the back.

Couple other pics from yesterday.  Thanks, Joe.  I was trying to work off an ipad, but the computer made it much easier.  First pic is of Nate.  The next one is Danny and Joey.  Brady-- yours didn't take!  Looks like these folks are going to finish up today!!