That looks very tidy. Are you planning on watching telly on your phone as you cruise along? 🙂

Depends if Adam is boring me 🙂 Phone is the secondary-nav as Ad’s Garmin does tend to throw electronic strops and turn itself off at inappropriate times!

Looks spot on! Always like matching luggage 😎 If the bottle position bothers you, you can can get adaptors that will allow you to lower them. I think Wolf Tooth make one, otherwise it’s easy enough to make one with a drill and a bit of aluminium like I did.

That’s an option. I check it out. Ta.

Looks good that Alex. Though not quite the bargain they once were, the Alpkit stuff is still pretty good value IMO and like you say, decent to deal with.

Some people use the Shimano Di2 battery holder to adjust the position of bottle cages. Might be an option if you can’t get hold of the wolftooth one.

Looks great! All you need now is a bar bag with a lightweight tent/bivvy, sleeping bag, etc and you’ve got a PROPER bikepacking setup 😀

If the bottle position bothers you, you can can get adaptors that will allow you to lower them.

I just got something cheap from Halfords to do the same thing. Also added a 3rd set of mounts under the downtube which I normally use for a tool/spares bag thing when touring.

Thanks all. Will defo look at an option to drop the bottle cages.

I fully appreciate we’re not really doing bike packing. And I’m extremely happy with that 🙂 Went tubeless today. No drama really but see if they are up in the morning.

I fully appreciate we’re not really doing bike packing.

You’re out on your bike.

It may be more “bike touring” than “bike packing” but there’s no rules really so I wouldn’t worry about it. I stopped in an hotel when “racing” the HT550 for example.

Mate I’m just finishing 3 months bike touring in Europe. One seat bag 11 litres total weight 2kg 😉 Hotels, B&B and homestay. I did the north to South Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 route MTB and one girl got everything in her camelback 😉 B&B, hostels. I just used a light weight 25lt back pack. Most people carry way too much. If your bikes well serviced good tubeless tyres then personally wouldn’t expect any mechanical problems in a week 😊 After three months no mechanicals or punctures. Worn out three chains, two sets brake pads and on second set of tyres but that’s over 4500 miles 😉

@whitestone – thanks. For me, it still feels like an adventure!

@pawsy_beat – fair enough. Although tubeless tyres are currently a bit of an issue. Amount of stans I’ve put in, probably less weighty to stick a tube in!

Realistically you can do without one of the water bottles, and if you flip the frame bag the other way around you’ll have less issues with the down tube bottle catching it.
Have fun.

I just did the capital trail fully self supported as my first proper bike-packing trip. Used the Planet X bags which, for the money, were great and held just the right amount of stuff and were stable and waterproof. Had a fantastic trip but my take a ways as a first timer were as follows… Gearing: on a loaded 29er 32×42 wasn’t low enough, for the ride we did i regularly found myself wishing for an extra few gears to spin up the steep grassy climbs on a loaded steel hardtail. Arse: fresh dry under shorts and bum butter every day. Water: I took a filter so I could fill up anywhere but in reality I was able to buy bottled water for my camel pack in pretty much every wee town. Waterproofs: a set of waterproof shorts or cheap trousers would have kept me a lot more comfortable one day.

Enjoy it, we had a blast.

Yeah gearing is the one thing I’m a bit worried about. 40/46 should be okay but there are some long climbs. A test pack weighs in at about 35lbs with two full water bottles. About the same as my FS and a full Camelbak. Still that runs on 32/46!

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48250253176_de9e14bfb7_b.jpg[/img]

5 days until we go. Forecast looking good at the moment. Shame I didn’t lose that half stone I promised myself I would 😉

That looks fab Alex. How are the ‘none tubeless’ tubeless tyres going? Are they staying up ok.

Front is brilliant. No issue at all. Rear is okay but would need pumping up every day. I’ve invested in a tubeless version just to take any anxiety away! Will fit before I go.

I did three days around Argyll last year in youth hostels.

Med alpkit drybag on a set of old tri-bars on the front. My 15lt day riding pack.
Mini_oab had same drybag on top of a pannier and a tiny hydration pack with tools and inner tubes.
Lights and pump were mounted on the bikes.

I really didn’t want a bag on the bars. Not sure why just had a feeling it’d make steering a bit harder and I already feel those bars are 400mm too short 🙂

Wrote a thing. Like all the things I write for my blog, it contains swear words. Or as I like to think of them ‘wordy punctuation’ – https://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=4403

^^^ enjoyed that!

Thanks 🙂 There will be another one when we’re done. More photos and probably more swearing.

Admitted defeat on the rear tubeless and bought a proper G-One TLE. Went up and stayed up first time. It’s 35mm not 38mm but I decided that at £15 cheaper, I could live without 3mm 🙂

Went for a hilly 20km ride. Including a bit of gravel and dirt. Things I noticed

– glad I have Hydro’s. It definitely takes more stopping
– Alpkit luggage absolutely rock solid. No issues at all
– Also glad I have the 46. At the end of a long day tho, I still might be pushing.

Still having packing anxiety. Weather looks a bit changeable near the end of the week so tempted to throw a bit more waterproof kit in. Ah well by Monday I’ll be committed with whatever is in there!