A bikepacking we will go…..

[Dale Wambaugh]

I've been wanting a bike that I can do long rail trail trips with. Specifically, the Iron Horse trail parallels I-90, running 100 miles from Cedar Falls, near North Bend, Washington, through a 3 mile tunnel UNDER Snoqualmie Pass and finishing at Vantage, Washington on the Columbia River. The western side of the trail is mostly fine packed gravel, but the eastern side is subject to 8+ feet of winter snows and is paved with much larger gravel and rock.I have run a good portion of the west side with a hybrid and 1.5" hybrid tires, but I wanted something more robust for the rougher parts.

I'm also enamored with the idea of doing hybrid bike/hike trips, using the bike to get access to areas with roads closed to vehicle traffic, stashing the bike in the woods and continuing the trip on foot. It's almost open now, but the Suiattle River road was closed for years after a flood and was one of the major access points to the Glacier Peak region. Walking 12 miles of gravel road doesn't appeal to me, but that can be covered in an hour or so with a bike. The final twist is to do a bus/bike/hike trip using commuter buses with bike racks to get close to a trailhead road.

So last week a found a Novara Bonita mountain bike at Goodwill. I have short arms and legs and a long torso, plus some arthritis in my neck, so fitting a bike is a challenge. This is a women's model, but it fits me very well. It has a slightly shorter top tube and it sweeps up at a steep angle, so I can sit up enough to see where I'm going and have a good reach to the handlebars. I wanted a little more height on the bars and swapped out the stock WTB stem for an adjustable model from Zoom. I could do without the suspension fork, but It's there and the 26×2.1 WTB Weirwolf tires work for me. The disc brakes are a nice plus. It is a nice bike for $40 :)

I changed the women's specific saddle to a Selle Royal Viper model and added the Axiom Journey Disc model rack, a bell and a taillight. I have a Fenix clamp mount that I'm going to use with a 250 lumen flashlight as a headlamp, as well a hiking headlamp mounted on my helmet.

And for the packing part….

I'm not a performance biker and the rail trails suit me just fine. The typical bikepacking frame and seat bags don't do much for me and that's why I added the rear rack. I was enamored with the idea of the Arkel Dry-Lites pannier set, but I decided that I wanted just more volume and found a pair of Hyalite roll-top waterproof panniers on an STP coupon deal for $78. They are rated at 2685ci/44L and 3lbs vs the Dry-Lites at 1708ci/28L and 14oz. That's a ~2lb weight hit, but I'm finding volume to be a challenge when I'm used to 45-65 liter backpacks and I would be hauling near identical gear, other than a couple tools and a patch kit. With this setup I can also add a dry bag to the top of the rack and I'm keeping the option of a small dry bag on the handlebars in mind.

The other thing that came up is the bottom pannier hook mount on the Axiom rack is about 9" from the top vs 12"-13" on many other racks. The Hyalite uses locking clips on the top with an adjustable clamp to stabilize the pannier rather than a bungee cord with a hook. I think locking top clips are a better bet on rough ground and there are no straps or other loose bits to get in the spokes. The Hyalite's have a basic compression strap as well. These bags will fit our other bikes too, so I took the leap.

I'm looking forward to a multi-day rail trail trip!

The bike:

The business side of the Hyalite pannier. I did opt for the red color.

And a detail of the mounts:

[John Almond]

It looks like that will suit just fine for rail trails. I ride a six speed beach cruiser on my trips here in FL, and about the only thing that I would recommend for an heavier bike with wider tires is a good ratio on your lowest gear for moderate hill climbs. I prefer a 1-to-1 or lower, since I'm not going to be going fast anyway.

Shimano mountain bike cassettes with their superlow 1st, coupled with a BMX front sprocket does me just fine. They can be had for cheap and are super under-specced and over-built (the bike shop guys say that I should be getting 1,500 to 2,000 miles out of a drive train,and I've found it to be closer to double that).

Looking forward to seeing what your trips look like!

[Curt Peterson]

Hi Dale,

I have the same mind about getting to trailheads. Eager to read your reports!

Two quick things:

1. I live right by the Cedar Falls Trailhead of the Iron Horse. If you need a shuttle for a trip down from the tunnel let me know. Happy to help out.

2. I may be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure your fork is on backwards. Actually it looks like the lower fork is correct but it's inserted backwards?? Not even sure that's possible as I haven't taken a fork apart, but it looks goofy to me. Might want to dig up the online manual and see if it's installed correctly.

Have fun!

-Curt

[Dale Wambaugh]

I know what you mean about the fork, but the brace is supposed to be on the rear on this one. Note the offset is correct at the axle. The brace is part of the casting rather than being bolted on. Having the brace to the rear really cleans things up when using rim brakes and knocks stuff off before it goes under the fork.

Here's a screen grab from the Novara catalog:

A closeup helps. I like disc brakes except for the mess at the rear hub :)

Note the mess on my Raleigh M-60 with RST fork:

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