I've run a Feathered Friends bag for cool weather adventures and have liked it overall. I believe mine is a -9C rated bag with 900 down fill and believe it was about $500 USD. Very good warmth to weight ratio, compresses down to nearly nothing and I have had no issues with it over the course of a few years/~120 nights of use. I've camped a few nights in it below -15C and the bag was still pretty ok.

Check out Montbell sleeping bags as well (order directly from Japan if your lucky to know someone there, cheaper). I've had a couple of them over the years and think they are an awesome value for your dollar and I find their ratings to be very conservative. I've abused the living daylights out of their warm weather bag (+13C), sleeping consistently in the dirt, rain and dust and the bag looks like new after a few hundred nights. Never a rip, tear or zipper issue and even had a few sub zero nights in it under a tarp without too many complaints .

My take on it is Hbars + aero bars. I love the sweptback position and the amount of real estate the Jones offers, but don't really care for the more aero position for long distance rides. For the long distance stuff I mount an aero bar setup in a very relaxed, comfortable upright'ish position. Works fantastic on gravel; I rarely leave the aero bars but it definitely makes for a heavy front end and less than ideal for more techie single track.

I wouldn't sweat the bears too much along Hwy 40a too much. I've been in Hinton/Jasper most of my life and still rarely see much in the way of scary wildlife.

Well except that time when I was bluffed by a Grizzly mama on the GC hwy... Or the elk that charged me along the side of the Athabasca river while fishing in Hinton. Those weren't so scary as the black bear I nearly slammed into last summer on a trail in Jasper. 3 feet is close enough to a hungry bear for me haha :p

(I won't mention the time an Bull African Elephant poked a whole in my tarp in Zimbabwe either while I was making dinner :p Different part of the world)

Hmm let me think of all the DSLR stuff I've destroyed. 2 cameras, 4 lenses, 1 laptop and an uncountable number of SD cards. Gave up carrying a fancy camera after awhile and just used a phone

But I found mirrorless cameras to be more durable overall and sticking with prime lenses seem to last a bit longer than zooms. I've used a Fuji Xpro1 for quite some time and loved it overall. I was carrying it in a Revelate Pocket Handlebar Bag and it worked out just fine through Africa. Not a totally waterproof solution so when the rains hit I stuffed it into main waterproof handlebar bag plus kept it in a secondary dry bag. Worked just fine for gravel tracks and tarmac but I wouldn't recommend it for hardcore single rack if your crashing into things often.

Try looking around the bikepacking.com website; the owner of the website carries some serious photography equipment on his trips and I believe he was using a backpack for the camera with a feedbag for a second lens.

NZ is about the most expensive place in the world to do just about anything, heads up. Lived there in 2014/2015.

I would personally budget $15 to $25 NZD a day if I was free camping the whole time. It's actually a pretty friendly country to free camping overall. I personally camped out a bunch in the small town parks and often found free municipal campgrounds that were often very well equipped. Hostels are usually $20 to $35 NZD a night, but the quality is usually pretty high overall.

Food is killer expensive in NZ but if you shop the discount food piles and shop as much as possible at either the roadside food stalls or Pak'n Save you'll be alright. The major pizza chains also do $5 NZD pizzas as well. Show up to shops just before they close and they might give you all of their day old meat pies for free

Bike parts are pretty affordable in NZ overall. No complaints.

When in doubt, go with lower gearing. Blowing out your knees sucks and takes months to recover. I blew my knees out last summer and was basically out of commission for 3 months.

OP: Personally I wouldn't find the 30T/46T low enough for my bikepacking needs (knees?), assuming your running a 29" wheel or larger wheel. I would go with a different crank that would allow either a 28T or smaller chainring . Personally running right now a 20T/36T, though it's a on a 4.8" fat bike that is mostly used for heavy grocery runs in the Rockies...

Lived on the South Island for awhile and toured around quite a bit.

The heat is more of problem most of the time than the wet cold for most of the country at that time of year. That being said, I had a few cooler, wet days in Feb on the West Coast (5C, monsoon like rains). Also had a few days of just hanging out in a hostel waiting for the rain to end in Westport. I would advise a full kit of of good rain gear and decently warm sleeping bag.

North Island was generally very warm and I don't think I ever got rained on once in the 1.5 months I toured around. I loved the tracks around Taupo, Rotarua and on the Eastern Cape. Christchurch had a loads of good rides in the area too.

If your riding some of trails in NZ, be aware that a large portion of the MTB tracks are very rocky and a rough time if your on a ridged bike

Couple wraps of electrical tape. Comes in lots of great colours

I survived for years with a 26" Troll. One bike for all riding.... Well until I discovered 29" is just a heck of a lot nicer. Which was great for awhile but then the fat bike bug bit me and I'm now convinced that 4.8" rubber is a around good time....

Is everything the bike industry creates a good thing? Not usually, but a lot of technology that has come out in past few years is pretty sweet. I'm thinking that 27.5"+ will become the industry standard and fat bikes are about the most versatile bikes mankind has ever created.  I can't wrap my head around why we keep reinventing the bottom bracket a 100 different ways though....  Or why we can't just have 1 or 2 hub sizes and call that good enough.

It's your call if you want to change up your bike but I'm just saying I don't miss my Troll in the slightest

That was one of the best reads I've had in awhile!

It's no issue at all running 2 different braking systems. The only real negative is carrying 2 different sets of spare parts.

I ran a disc front/Vbrake rear across Australia

1. What is your level of experience?
- Experienced, maybe highly. 1000+ days of bike touring/bikepacking?

2. How long is your average trip?
- 6 months +

3. What footwear do you bring on a bike packing trip?
- Shimano MT34 SPD shoes in size 10.5. Affordable, easy to find and last a long time... Good on bike, fantastic shoes for off bike/hiking. Usually carry a pair of 3rd world  $1 "market sandals" for camp or town.

4. How much time do you spend riding, how much time walking/hiking...on an average day?...at extremes?
- 6 to 16 hours a day of forward motion.  Should be riding, sometimes pushing, (thankfully) rarely disassembling the bike and carrying it up a mountain....

5. What sort of issues do you have with footwear?
- Durability. I kill (murder? lol) a pair of SPD shoes every 4 to 6 months. Rebuildable shoes would be awesome.
- I have huge arches and require supports.
- Shoes that are not wide enough. I have to go up a size and be in the "wide" size just to make a shoe fit comfortably.

Checked out your webpage.

2 minute feedback with minimal knowledge of your product. All totally neutral  and meant to friendly advice. Its not necessary to answer the questions in response.

- Strange name for a product.
- Decent website
- Well done budget video
- Very minimal information on the actual product.

Questions:

- It's rain pants but what makes them so special?
- Why is it an improvement over existing products?
- What materials are you making them from?
- Sizing?
- What features make them suitable for the bikepacking crowd?
- How do you deal with the full length zipper keeping water out of the pants?
- Are there drawstrings at the bottom of the pant to prevent the pants from getting sucked into the drivetrain of a bike?
- All the video mentions is a rear pocket for storage. What other pockets are there?
- And lastly, cost...

Ride the setup you are most comfortable with and don't sweat over the wheel size. If your happy on a 27.5"+, ride it. Pain in any part of your body will prevent you from riding at your best and will easily negate any benefits that a different setup provides.

Personally considering debating riding my fat bike running a 29+ wheel set for a Divide ride. It's comfy and it works for me, not to mention it's the lightest bike I own by far...

Pretty much as long as nobody thinks your a threat in Japan, nobody will care. I got to a point in Japan where I just slept in public spaces like park shelters and in bus stations/public bathrooms if the weather was terrible (often). It's so easy to find free shelter that I didn't carry any tent/bivy even when bad weather was coming.

Enjoy the tour. I loved living in Japan and road touring there is top notch!

If your coldest normal winter temp is -5C I wouldn't sweat over your brakes too much.

I've run Avid BB7's in sub -40C and they have been totally fine, if not a pleasure to use

Older post I realize but I have something useful to say

I ran 3 of the very first Sparwood tires (Oct 1 2015?)  when they were finally released to the public. I got about 4200 km on the first set before they were wore out and got another 3000 km on the second tire (used as a rear). Never had a single issue with the tires. Actually loved them for off road touring in Southern Africa, rolled amazingly fast on nearly every surface and very good in sand for a 2.2 x 29" tire.

This however explains why recently nobody has these tires for sale at the moment; Teravail must have pulled them from the lineup for awhile to repair this defect. Hope they get this issue fixed.

what size wheel?

Forgot to put that in. Needing a 29" rim.

Looking a Rohloff in 135 mm, disc brake and preferring a bolt on axle. External gearbox would be nice and a full wheel build even better in 29" with a 30 to 45 mm rim (2.2" to 2.5" tire).

Go with friction shifters regardless of what drivetrain you go with. Bulletproof and works with anything.

Look into the Stans Hugo rims as well. Really good stuff.