Planning on getting into bike packing and want to ask about bike options. Having watched ‘The Tour Divide’ movie, in which most people were riding hardtail 29er’s, with the odd single speed thrown in. I was wondering whether a hardtail 29er is the way to go?
I currently ride a Zesty 314, but didn’t see many riding full sussers in the race. I suspect this was because of the terrain, as it did look like it is mainly fire trails and roads.
There’s a lot more to bikepacking than the TD. Are you after a bike for riding the race or do you want a bike for general bikepacking trips? May not necessarily be the same thing. In my case I have a custom frame, yes Ti 29er hardtail, but with various features to help with bikepacking whilst still essentially being a comfortable (ish) but fast race machine. Bikepacking without the racing can be done on anything, especially now that local companies such as Wildcat Gear are making custom bags to fit any bike frame. Check out the Bear Bones forum for tons of UK bikepacking chat.
You can do quite a bit with your Zesty. Tear your eyes away from the fine looking hunk in this photo and have a look at the bike and what is packed onto it.
I would say the biggest thing would be to decide on what kind of bags you want for carrying the gear. I sold a perfectly good full-sus frame to buy a hardtail for bikepacking…turned out there was a 3 month wait for the frame-bag I wanted! I ended up buying a saddle-bag and bar-bag which would have fitted on the frame I sold. 😳 Saying that I now have a small, non-custom frame bag and 2 water bottles fitted inside the frame.
I could comfortably carry everything I would need for three days with this setup…except water. I could soon buy a filter of some sort if I’m going to be away from civilisation though.
Bar-bar: Tent, sleeping mat and sleeping bag.
Frame bag: Mealtime food and a few snacks.
Saddle-bag: Spare/off the bike clothing, stove and a square of bubblewrap for sitting on and for padding the bag out.
Backpack: 3l water, muesli bars, jacket, AA Charger for GPS, phone, small camera, toolkit and a tube (running tubeless though).
1.5l of water on the frame for cooking with. I think a travel tap would suit me instead as I never need more than 500ml at a time.
Here’s a link to lots of different bike setups over on MTBR.
All have loads of info. For routes, Bear Bones and Bike and Bivi will be best as they’re UK based.
If you’re looking for a 3-5 day route, look into the Woodcock off-road coast to coast. It isn’t one you want to do when first getting into bikepacking though. Start off with one nighters until you’re comfortable with your kit.