Or: there’s more than one way to crack a nut.
I’m just back from a short but sweet stint in the Cibola National Forest, a rugged swathe of land just outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thanks Jeremy and Tim for a great ‘night out’ – pics and words coming soon.
In the meantime, listed below are our respective setups for a night of potentially cold-weather camping. The ride encompassed the whole gamut of terrain; technical singletrack, mellow forest roads and a pavement blast.
The three of us ran markedly different rigs, but that didn’t stop us all having a great time. Choose where your priorities lie, accept the inevitable compromises, and then get on with the ride…
Trad: Jeremy’s Rivendell Hunqapillar, complete with Schwalbe 2.3 Moto Aces, saddlebag, Nitto rack and… front basket. (Especially speedy on road, Jeremy wasn’t expecting the slabby singletrack, but coped admirably)
Tech: Tim’s Raleigh XXIX with Reba front shock, garbed in Revelate bikepacking bags and water bottle/Anything cages galore. (a nice all round setup for both on and off road bikepacking, particularly effective over rough forest tracks)
Fat: My Surly Krampus, fitted with 3in Knards and the Troll’s hand-me-down Porcelain Rocket gear, with an Ortlieb bar bag and a King Kage top cap cage mount. (a veritable rock-muncher, comfortable, yet surprisingly smooth rolling on pavement too)
Shall we start a fund for Jeremy’s frame bag?
Framebags were discussed in earnest around the campfire…
I’m curious how Tim attached all that hardware to his fork. I assume screw type hose clamps? Does the bottle cage and the Anything cage share a clamp? Has it been durable enough for him? At least till the Anything cages break. 🙂
Yes, good old hose clamps, including one on the headtube to mount a kind of elongated water bottle to use as a bag support.
The Anything Cage/water bottle cage combo works nicely. I don’t think Tim has had problems with them so far, but his trips are a few days at a time, rather than multi-week rides. Maybe mounting them on a suspension fork helps soak up some of the vibrations, too.
And yes, the hose clamps double up – you can see it a bit more clearly if you scroll down this post:
http://whileoutriding.com/2012/04/24/lost-and-found-bikepacking-around-hermit-peak-nm/
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