Bikepacking

The problem with a lot of bicycle hitch racks is that they don’t fit 5″ fat-tire widths or you can only get them in a 2″ truck-sized size hitch. I recently bought a new car with a towing hitch, so I could get a hitch rack capable of carrying a …

The Revelate Designs Tangle Frame Bag is a bikepacking bag that sits in the unused space on your bike below your top tube. It’s called a half-frame bag because it doesn’t fill the entire space in front of your seat post, leaving space underneath for bottle mounts. Frame bags are a great …

Bikepacking is an emerging sport that combines bicycle touring and backpacking. It’s different from conventional paved bicycle touring because it favors off-road routes over gravel and dirt roads, ATV and snowmobile routes, XC ski trails, logging roads, and even hiking trails where bikes are permitted to travel. Instead of road …

Bikepacking is gaining popularity with more and more backpackers because a bike can take you farther and faster into backcountry areas that are inaccessible on foot. Bikepacking also lets you use all of your existing backpacking gear and get even more value out of it. Like backpacking, there are 10 essential …

The REI ADV 3.1 Gravel Bike is a 30-speed adventure bike specifically designed for riding on gravel and packed dirt roads. While it doesn’t have a mountain bike frame or suspension, it’s outfitted with some of the same components that you find on mountain bikes like disc brakes and low-pressure …

Frame bags or panniers? Those are basically the two options you have for hauling your gear on bikepacking trips. If you prefer panniers, Arkel’s Waterproof Dry-Lite Saddle Bags are hard to beat. Weighing just 19 oz (540 g) per pair, they can hold 28L of gear. Specs at a Glance MSRP …

“Did you get any bites?”, I asked my fishing and bikepacking buddy Ken. “Yeah, mosquito bites,” he replied. We were bikepacking in northern New Hampshire just a few miles south of the US/Canadian Border in an area called the Republic of Indian Stream. Largely owned by lumber companies, it’s crisscrossed …

The Salsa EXP Anything Cradle is a handlebar rack the keeps your gear away from your bars and cables so you don’t have to worry about crowding or kinking. It’s also compatible with drop bars and Shimano STI levers as long as you limit the length of the dry bag …

The Diamondback Haanjo Trail  is a 22-speed aluminum bike designed for riding on unpaved gravel and packed dirt roads. It’s a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike with low pressure knobby tires for traction, hydraulic brakes, and drop handlebars. I got the Haanjo Trail for bikepacking in …

A moose trotted through my camp while I was eating dinner. Startled the hell out of me and him. I’d heard some commotion on the river below the embankment where I’d hung my hammock, but ignored it while I sat there cooking dinner. The moose popped out of the forest …

The Arkel Seatpacker 15 is a waterproof seat bag that has plenty of space to store camping gear for bikepacking trips. It slides on and off a clever aluminum frame that clamps to your saddle’s rails and holds it securely in place without any bouncing or tail wag. The frame has …

My buddy Ken and I took a three day bikepacking and bikefishing trip into a conservation area called the Second College Grant in Northern New Hampshire, about 65 miles north of the White Mountain National Forest. It has two excellent trout rivers in it full of native brook trout, the …

The Platypus Tokul XC 8 Hydration Pack is a great water and load hauler for off-road gravel riding and mountain biking. While it can be used for multiple sports, it’s optimized for cyclists who prefer a hydration pack over water bottles and has plenty of well-organized storage for a pump, …

The Portland Designs Works Bindle Rack lets you use a waterproof stuff sack to carry camping gear behind your seat on bikepacking trips. I like the Bindle Rack because it’s a reasonably economical way to get into the sport of bikepacking without a huge upfront expense and because you can …