What Bike to Buy??

[ReelSteel82]

Hey Everybody!

My name's Josh and I have Justin recently gotten interested in bikepacking. I went on my maiden voyage last month, an attempt a to the 90ish mile Talladega Traverse on a 1984 Trek 520, and I quickly learned that if I plan to take this seriously I will need to look into a specific bikepacking bike. I am a seasoned road cyclist, so the riding and climbing itself does not pose a problem, but I am interested to see what some vets would recommend for me.

Between school and work, most of my future runs will be of the overnight/long weekend sort. The terrain will vary from mostly gravel and dirt roads to some single track and trail riding. Since I am in Tennessee/NorthCarolina, there will be a lot of climbs. What would you recommend for me?
Thanks for your time!

[bakerjw]

Where are you located? I'm in the far NE corner of Tennessee and often ride over to N.C. or Va.

IMHO. The perfect bikepacking bike has a large frame triangle. Components come and go, but the frame is the foundation.

[ReelSteel82]

I will be aboveboard Chattanooga in Cleveland. There are a lot of routes from Bikepacking.com near there that I would like to do

[vermont]

Bikepacking.com has some excellent articles on the topic.  The Surly's and Salsa's seem to be the standards.

[RonK]

Well, you could do far worse than to buy a Salsa Fargo, which 1000's of others have chosen. If you can find one in stock that is.

[bakerjw]

Near Chattanooga eh... One word. Lynsky
I have a bikepacking rig built on a Lynskey M290 Ti frame that I got at a good price. It is a solid platform and being Ti will never rust and if ever cracked, can be repaired quite easily. I actually got 2 frames, Large and XL. Sometimes I can fit into an XL but not this time so the XL frame is just hanging around until I can get it up on EBay.

[ReelSteel82]

Ive been looking into the surly series and two real options have stood out.

1) Surly Ogre- 29er, triple touring rings, 27.5+ compatible, millions of braze ons

2) Surly Long Haul Trucker- drop bars, 3x10, up to 45mm tyres

What would you suggest for me? I was thinking that the Ogre might be a better choice because of the ruggedness and off road ability?

[vermont]

I owned and recently sold a LHT.  It is a touring bike designed for racks and panniers.  I had heard this and felt it, that is actually feels better with racks and weight on it.  Its designed for roads although it will handle anything you throw at it.  I took it down dirt roads and some jeep trails but not single track.  The angles are not right for lifting the front wheel over logs.  If you are looking for a road touring bike then it is a great option.  If you are looking for an off road touring bike then you should probably go with a bike designed for that instead.
My biggest complaint and the reason got rid of it is that is is very heavy and very slow.  My personal take is that it is too heavy for everyday riding and I need to keep the weight low for touring so got rid of it.

[trail_monkey]

Well, you could do far worse than to buy a Salsa Fargo, which 1000's of others have chosen. If you can find one in stock that is.

Exactly why so far I am riding somas. Both surly and salsa make nice bikes but I always hated doing what everyone else does.  I like being different.  😉 To the OP some bikes work better than others but any bike will work. I am guessing that Trek of yours has a cheap suspension fork? If so big gains could be made by throwing it away and putting on a rigid. Maybe, however,  your bikes in too poor of shape to put much money in as I believe that bike was lower end? Anyways don't go broke buying crap you can do without.  A nice backpack can hold a lot of stuff and cheap too lol.

[JellyRoll]

Near Chattanooga eh... One word. Lynsky
I have a bikepacking rig built on a Lynskey M290 Ti frame that I got at a good price. It is a solid platform and being Ti will never rust and if ever cracked, can be repaired quite easily. I actually got 2 frames, Large and XL. Sometimes I can fit into an XL but not this time so the XL frame is just hanging around until I can get it up on EBay.

I'm lovin' my ECR, but a Lynskey Ridgeline will be my next bike for sure. 

[JellyRoll]

Ive been looking into the surly series and two real options have stood out.

1) Surly Ogre- 29er, triple touring rings, 27.5+ compatible, millions of braze ons

2) Surly Long Haul Trucker- drop bars, 3x10, up to 45mm tyres

What would you suggest for me? I was thinking that the Ogre might be a better choice because of the ruggedness and off road ability?

I would definitely choose the Ogre over the LHT.

Like Vermont, I recently owned and sold off my LHT. They are great bikes, just not bikepacking-worthy. An LHT would make for a great gravel-grinder, but the frame is more designed for long days in the saddle on pavement than it is for handling in anything loose.

I had my eyes on an Ogre when I bought my ECR frame. I wanted the 29+ capability for my first attempt at touring (not racing) the GDMBR. I'm thinking a sweet Lynskey 29er with a good suspension fork and carbon everything else would make for a good steed.

As has been mentioned before, a Salsa Fargo would be nice, but someone somewhere in QBP or Salsa effed up and they didn't make as many as they should have this year, and are scrambling to get more available.

[THE LONG RANGER]

I currently have both a ECR and Ogre, and had a Cross Check.

If you're off-pavement most all the time, consider the ECR for touring, as it's one of the most stable rigs you can possibly imagine, and will roll over literally anything.

Think of it as an, "Long Haul Trucker of Bikepacking". You can really feel the long wheelbase while rocketing down steep curving roads. I've actually have made many PRs on my ECR with 29+/3" wheels @ 10psi going downhill on steep paved descents - it's just melts into the road. Nuts.

The Ogre is also a fine rig, and what I'll be riding on my next tour. It's more capable on singletrack and a bit more tech, where the ECR may just be a bit on the heavy side. If you could get the Ogre with 27.5" wheels and as wide as tires as you can, it would make a fine touring rig for sure. The wheel base will be shorter than the ECR I believe... although I wanna say both the newer ECR and Ogre are coming out with slacker head tubes.

No insider info on the Fargo, but it is a popular bike, so there's a chance it just sold out quick, and Salsa can just get a new order shipped out from Asia. Salsa seems to be investing heavily in its "Adventure by Bike" (tm) marketing. So funny to think I still have this internal image of, "Salsa Cycles" as the chili pepper riding a MTB. Oh, the 90's.

[Paul Izzo]

Have you tried Cross Check? I'm planning to buy it for touring. I'm still considering which one is better for heavy duty touring.

[JellyRoll]

Have you tried Cross Check? I'm planning to buy it for touring. I'm still considering which one is better for heavy duty touring.

The Cross Check is a street bike that just so happens to have a whole mess of eyelets for attaching racks and stuff. In my opinion, its okay for light touring, but if you want something that is absolutely bombproof, we would then roll it back to the LHT or Disk Trucker.

The LHT was built to be a heavy touring bike, and it actually performs better when loaded. If you want to do heavy touring/dirt touring then a Troll or Ogre would be excellent. The Ogre would be especially sweet with a good set of wheels by MikeSee, and some Schwalbe Marathons on it. For what its worth, I'd build any touring bike from the frame up, exceptions being the seriously high-end tourers like Tout Terrrain, Koga, Thorn, etc.