Bikepacking for Nerds

Author: dhs

  • A shakedown ride, and lots of travel

    A shakedown ride, and lots of travel

    The past six weeks have been a whirlwind. I’ve been from Seattle to Orlando, Atlanta, Seattle, Mountain View, Seattle, San Diego, and back to Seattle.  There hasn’t been much time for biking.  

    I did sneak away to ride part of the Teanaway River Link Up in mid-September.  The winds were challenging, as were the climbs, but the part of the route I did was worthwhile.  I learned a lot about how my bike handles with a full load.Overall the fit and ride were dreamy – I was comfortable during two days in the saddle.  There may be minor tweaks in the future to the fit, but nothing significant.

    Bike in the middle of a fork of the Teanaway River
    Bikepacking the Teanaway Community Forest

    Since then I’ve been refining my camping kit and rethinking how and where I store things on the bike. I’ve purchased a Rockgeist Loop Bar Harness – my original plan didn’t work out, so I didn’t carry anything on my handlebars during the Teanaway Link Up. 

    Looking at the size and weight of the tubes that came with my bike I realized they are twice the weight (almost 450g) and size of a Schwalbe SV19F tube.  I replaced the spare tube mostly for the space savings. Riding a small frame mountain bike means I have limited framebag space. With a 3L Hydrapak Seeker bladder in the framebag, I can now fit a much smaller tube and mount the Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HV pump inside.

    I have also spent time thinking about my packing strategy. I always overpack for bikepacking trips. I need to reduce the volume and weight of my gear, especially since so much never gets used!  I’ve trimmed down my clothing for Baja to a little more than half of one 13L Rockgeist Microwave pannier, leaving the remaining space for toiletries, and first aid.  The other pannier will primarily serve as a food bag, with the hydration kit (filter, 2x 2L empty Hydrapak bladders, etc.), and an electronics kit (Kindle, battery pack, cables, 120V USB charger, GoPro charger, headlamp).  Ultimately, I’ll try to balance the weight left to right in the pannier bags, nothing is fixed in place.

    The heavier food, such as bagged cooked beans, peanut butter, etc, will sit on a fork leg, with the cooking kit on the other fork leg.  My cooking kit consists of a Snow Creek Titatnium Mini Solo, Trangia alcohol stove, Firebox Nano X Case Kit w/ stainless grill grate, Toaks titanium cutlery, and a pair of titanium tongs. This set up allows me to cook over the alcohol stove using the Firexbox as a windscreen, or with sticks, twigs, or charcoal to build a fire inside the Firebox Nano to boil water or grill on top of the fire. Or I can just make a fire because I want to sit by the fire and enjoy the evening.

    Finally, I’ve made a few route updates.  I met a former bike industry executive through Facebook.  She lives in Todos Santos and has offered me a place to stay for the night with a shower and hot breakfast. Bonus: She runs a dog rescue… lots of cute doggos!

    My proposed route, starting from San José del Cabo working clockwise. Each color represents a planned riding day.

    Second, I’ve decided to cut out the trip to La Paz, saving myself ~30 miles of highway riding. Instead, I’ll route from el Triunfo via Los Divasaderos to La Ventana, where I’ll spend two nights to get cleaned up and restock the bike.  I found a cute AirBNB there which should be perfect for my needs.  Then I’ll to Enseneda de Muertos (it has been renamed by entrepreneurs as Ensenda de Sueños to appeal to property buyers…) for a night, before starting down the coast past Los Barriles, through Cabo Pulmo, and back across the mountains to San Jose del Cabo.  

  • Taking care of the details…

    Last night, I wrapped the Jones bars and set up the harness with a dry bag.  Everything is starting to come together.  I may replace some Voile straps with hypalon straps and Austere Manufacturing buckles – mostly because I’m a sucker for the really beautiful design.

    I’m not happy with mounting the pump on the fork – I need a better long term solution.

    Next weekend I’m going bike packing in Roslyn with the new Bombtrack. This might be my first and best shakedown ride before heading to Mexico.  I’ve been working on minimizing how much stuff I carry with me on a trip.  At the same time, I’m expanding my carrying capacity for longer journeys like the Cape Loop. Inevitably, if there’s extra space, I’ll probably fill it.  Using a MLD medium dry bag under the Jones bars, and a pair of Revelate Polecat bags on the forks opens up a lot of possibilities to move bulky, light items to the bars, and heavy items, such as a 64 oz Klean Kanteen, low on the bike helps to maintain a low center of gravity.

  • Getting Organized

    Getting Organized

    My new bike arrived from The Pro’s Closet in late August. For months I had been eyeing the Bombtrack Beyond+ ADV. When I saw it on sale for 50% off MSRP, I couldn’t pass it up.

    Since receiving the bike, I’ve built it up with a mix of on-hand and newly purchased parts: 1

    Bombtrack Beyond+ ADV in front of a barbed wire fence and barn in Roslyn, WA.

    I’ve ridden ~50 miles or so, including about 7 miles of trails at Big Finn Hill / St. Edward State Park. The trails were a blast! Riding on 29X3″ tires reminded riding BMX bikes on the dirt trails along Cypress Creek, jumping makeshift jumps, riding up, down, and around dirt berms on the edge of our developing neighborhood. This is going to be fun!

    1. List updated 11/17/2023 based on changes/additions since initially writing this post. ↩︎
  • Bikepacking Baja

    Bikepacking Baja

    In December 2022 my family and I spent a week in Los Barriles, Baja California Sur, Mexico. We stayed at a house near the beach just up the hill from the Baja Divide route. At the time, I had been bikepacking for two years. Through the pandemic I watched a lot of bikepacking videos, including Ryan van Duzer’s series on riding the Baja Divide. On our trip home, I said to my wife, “someday I’m going to ride the Cape Loop of the Baja Divide… maybe next winter!”

    On the beach at Punta Pescadero along the Baja Divide route. (December 2022)

    Fast forward a few months. I got lost in travel, work, and family. I completed a few bikepacking trips over the summer, yet I had made no meaningful progress toward riding the Cape Loop. I didn’t have an appropriate bike or even a plan to tackle anything longer than an overnight trip.

    In late July we returned from our family summer vacation in Europe. I turned 50. Suddenly, I had a lot of time to think about the upcoming year and what I want to do. At the same time, a friend became quite ill, reminding me that you’re never guaranteed tomorrow. This was all the inspiration I needed.

    Sign along the beach road north of Los Barriles, BCS. (December 2022)

    “Steph, I want to buy a new bike, fly to Mexico, and spend 10 days riding and camping across the desert and mountains of Baja California. Alone. What do you think?”

    She said, “Yes!” Over the next four days I purchased a brand new 2022 Bombtrack Beyond+ ADV, and a round trip ticket to San Jose del Cabo for early next year.

    Let’s do this!

    Street sign outside of Los Barriles, BCS. (December 2022)