Bikepacking…What to Get.

Do you want to carry your gear on racks or bags (and no rack hardware) like the Revelate Designs LLC offerings. If racks, then you need a bike you can fit racks on. It took a very helpful conversation with the owner to get the right OldMan Mountain rack for my bike. If you buy your Trek from your local bike shop, they should be able to help.

You might look at bikepacking.com for ideas on tools to carry.  I cannot imagine that you would need much more than what you take for a long day ride.

Bigger tyres are not going to make a difference in terms of moving gear, rather your choice of bike and hence how wide etc its tyres are is very much reflective of the sort of riding you wish to do with the bike.  So the starting point should be that.

Then you need consider whether you want to go the bikepacking route and bikepacking bags or whether you want to go the pannier/rack route, i.e., more “touring” style.

Then you need to consider how far, number of nights you are likely to ride in any one trip and how remote your riding will involve. Given your two bike choices, I note that both bikes have suspension fork without braze-ons so that makes using the forks to carry gear that more involved.  Of course if you are only planning overnighters or the like this may not be an issue.

I would consider the following before you worry about a few tools. Tools can be sorted later on.  For what it is worth my bikepacking gear list which includes my tools can be found here [needs editing and updating but].

This is my bikepacking bike so my lighter touring configuration, a Salsa Mukluk

and my touring bike in remote touring configuration.

This illustrates to different approaches to “touring”.

@Andrew: Still riding Brooks saddles? At least that’s what they look like.

And is that some kind of third wheel on your Surly?

Tools: Fix it Sticks replaceable version, a small  plier-based multi-tool, tire levers, chain tool, pump, patch kit, spare tube, Kevlar emergency spoke, duct tape, zip ties, and a couple spare 5mm bolts and  8mm/10mm open end combination wrench or one suitable for any standard head bolts on your bike.

Which bike? The one that fits.

@andrew Only reason I’m looking so hard at Trek vs any other brand is because my local bike shop carries them (not sure what they’ve got from Salsa I know the brand and I know they have it I’ll look next time I’m in). The Trek 1120 looks like a killer touring/bikepacking bike for going base camp to base camp and for longer trips. I love the look and idea. Just haven’t seen any field reports on it yet. Voile straps and dry bags…looks like it can hold so much gear.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Lot to learn. If anybody knows any trails in the Adirondacks that are great bikepacking routes let me know where they’re at!

I got the Trek 1120, lots of fun. the racks make it easy for an ultralight backpacker to just strap on dry bags with existing gear and go.

The fat tires are awesome for comfort and in 4 to 6 inches of snow it’s a blast.