Overbiked and slow vs underbiked and fast?
(Dithering over whether I should dial in my rigid MTB for touring or try to use my carbon roadie for a ~6wk trip this winter. I don’t expect a real answer, just something else to talk about ITT.).
What’s the terrain? Also, what’s the largest width tires your road bike can clear? Does the road bike have enough gears / ratio?
Tool Kegs
Anyone using tool kegs or something like the Wolf Tooth TekLite Roll-Top? If so, which ones? What do you store in it?
More generally, what do you store on the bottom side of the down tube near the bottom bracket?
What’s the terrain? Also, what’s the largest width tires your road bike can clear? Does the road bike have enough gears / ratio?
Mostly paved (and most of the pavement is…mostly there. If I bring the rigid MTB I’ll dabble in dirt roads, if not, probably not, or much less.). I believe manufacturer spec on the road bike is 32 but it’ll probably take 35s. Cheap alloy wheels with quite a few spokes. I think I’ll be okay with the gearing on most pavement, yeah.
I’ve also thought about trying to rig a Bob trailer to the road bike. Sounds crazy but I’ve heard of it being done and working well, and it might take some weight off the frame.
It depends, for the last trip I used a Zefal tool bottle that cost only a few £ and think it contained:
- 2 x tubulito MTB inner tubes and repair kit
- multi-tool
- Pedros tyre levers
- Wolf tooth WT-1 chain lube (0.5 oz)
- curved needle and thread
- tenacious tape
- quick link
- Nitrile gloves
- batteries (for powermeter)
- zip ties
- kitchen towel (doubles as padding)
This was stored on the downtube but for trips where water is more sparse, have a 64oz klean kanteen metal bottle.
This past weekend, I did a 3 day bikepacking trip in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. I hadn’t spent much time in this part of the country before, and I was surprised at how beautiful it was. I’ll definitely be back in the future.
130 miles and 13k feet of climbing. A mix of weather - from below freezing and snow to 70F and Sun. A mix of trails - from graded rail trails, to chunky 4x4, to sweet single track.
There were enough sources of water along the trail where I had to carry a max of 4L on the bike at any given point. Helped lighten the load vs desert riding, but my bike still probably weighted 60+ lbs.
Everything went well - my bike, equipment, fitness all worked out. A great three days on the bike 
Chiming in to agree with @spinout, panniers are the way to go imo. While I have limited experience with bike packing I did not enjoy the “sway” a rear pack created despite doing everything I could to mitigate the problem.
I used an alloy tailfin rack with panniers for my 2nd trip which was much longer and with more rowdy terrain. The bike felt stable the entire time.
(resurrecting an old thread)
@MikeMunson Saw your post about an outdoor ride and shaking out your racks. What are you using? I’m intrigued by the new Tailfin Journey.
You do not need bib shorts if you are not riding far each day. Anything up to about 60 miles per day and just ordinary underwear works great. Change of underwear for the evening if going for more than a long weekend.
lightweight bivvy tents are compact and under 1kg. Down bag and lightweight inflatable mat.
Lightweight stove just for hot drinks if you want them. Smoked sausage and cheese and baguettes work well on short trips. Longer trips depends whether you pass resupply.
Touring can be a lighter more compact setup. You ditch the sleep system and use your credit card for bed and breakfast. I have toured with total carried weight down to 4kg including one set of spare clothes and evening footwear.
If you’re somewhere warm enough a down blanket is lighter and smaller than a full bag.
My 3 season bag is too much in summer so a blanket that has side poppers to make a foot pocket is perfect and leaves space for a beer! I can also forgo the jetboil if I’m not having porridge for breakfast.
This was just an unloaded shake-it ride, to see if the hardware is secure. I’ll put a load on them for the next ride. I bought a used Blur when I started biking again, in 2014, and 6 months later realized that what I was sure was a scratch in the aluminum pivot brace was actually a crack when it doubled in length. That bike had a bunch of XT and XTR parts on it with a 3x9 drivetrain, so I replaced it with a new Anthem Advanced and held onto the parts, pondering how I could use them. A couple years later, I fell and tore my AC (shoulder), and while I was recovering I did a deep dive into bikepacking, and ended up picking up a Surly ECR because I could use my Chris King headset, 3x9 drivetrain, brakes, Thompson seatpost and stem, etc. Then I bought a full set of Revelate bags. I used it a couple times, but am short of biking friends that want to bikepack, so I need new friends 
, and this bike is as much a project of figuring out and spending money as anything. But the Eastern Divide Route travels along some of the roads/trails I ride from my house, so I’m determined to do trip when it cools down a little at the end of summer. I never rode the Surly enough to justify (to myself) going tubeless (having to add fluid every time I want to ride it?), but that was a catch-22 because I didn’t have enough confidence to go for long rides with tubes, and I had heavy 3" Knard tires on it. So, I finally put some 2.4s on it and went tubeless a few weeks ago…motivation to use it at least every couple weeks.
So anyway, I was looking for a rear rack that is set up for 3-bolt (I have a set of Salsa Anything Cages and bags) and/or panniers if I want to really load up for a trip. Keep in mind that this is a Surly, so it has more rack connection points than I could ever use. That was a hard combination to find together, but I finally ran into the Tumbleweed Macro Pannier Rack for the back, and bought one of those. Fits fine, sufficiently strong and stable, they have adapters so you can attach to seat stays. I like it, and will probably work on using the Anything Cages and bags in the 3-hole, and for testing strap my Revelate Pika to the top (I bought my Revelate bags like a month before the market exploded with front and rear cradle systems with easily removable bags, go figure).
seat bag to the top. For the front, I have a Revelate Sweetroll, but wanted to go more cradle system so last year I saw a Bikepacking.com video of Neil reviewing the Rogue Panda Blue Ridge harness, and bought one of those. It’s really solid, have tested it loaded for a couple short rides.
I’ll mention also, that since I retired, a new group I ride with sometimes there is a guy that also recently retired and he has been outfitting his Specialized hardtail for bikepacking. So we’re going to hopefully put a trip together. He might be in Colorado right now. He went with Old Man Mountain Divide rear rack (with small panniers) and their FLiP cages attached to the suspension fork with the Old Man Mountain Axle Pack Fork Mount Rack. He’s averse to having the weight of bags (beyond just feedbags) attached to his handlebars. He seems very happy with this system in his test runs. We’ll see what he says after his big trip.
Speaking of which, I like to take 3 hour rides by myself in the nearby National Forest in FL, and have bad shoulders, so Camelbacks have never been a viable option for me (but I bought a USWE pack this year and it is a game changer, for me, though I still don’t like the heat on my back May-October). I’ve had Revelate Feedbags pretty much permanently attached to all my bikes since about 2015, including my Anthem and current primary bike, Pivot Trail 429. I’ll pull them off sometimes for flowy singletrack group rides where water is readily available, but otherwise always carry 2 or 3 full bottles. Nobody else seems interested in this tactic, but I’ve gotten myself in a real bind a few times far from pavement in the summer, and I don’t have any trouble staying ahead of my friends on the twisty singletracks (though it is more fun without the extra weight).
Hope this helps. Time for a recovery spin.
@MikeMunson thanks for all the details! I intentionally switched from running to cycling in 2019 when I was in Tampa. I totally understand always having at least two full bottles.
I’m in Virginia now and I think I’ve got my 15yo onboard with bike packing part of the C&O Canal with me. I’ve never done a bike packing trip but have plenty of camping experience. He’ll use my Apidura Expedition Saddle Pack (14L) and I’ll probably get a rack / pannier system for my bike so I can carry most of our stuff. We’ll likely Amtrak to Cumberland, MD and spend three days bike packing to DC. Will definitely post if / when we pull it off.