Inside The Gear Closet: Bikepacking Setups
Since its beginnings in 2019, one of the biggest missions of Outdoor Evolution has been to bring authentic, honest, and useful articles and reviews to our readers. Even before OE came to be, founder Darwin on the Trail was giving the outdoor community his thoughts on his favorite (and least favorite) pieces of gear on his Youtube channel. We’re excited to continue our tradition with a new article series: Inside the Gear Closet. In these articles you’ll find gear we like and gear we don’t like. Each review will be accompanied with some personal thoughts on that gear and some of the trips it was used on. Enjoy, and don’t forget to check out our actual Gear Closet, where we often sell lightly used gear at a great price!
Now, for the first time, we welcome you…
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First of all, welcome to the first of hopefully many articles in this new series. I'm excited to bring my personal thoughts on the gear I use to you all. I've never been a gear junkie in the way that I've seen some of my friends to be. Like every outdoor enthusiast, though, I use a lot of gear, buy a lot of gear, and thus think about a lot of gear. In this series, I intend to be brutally honest. If I am obsessed with a piece of gear, you will know. If I totally hate a piece of gear, you'll know that as well. I'll try my best to pick out my own biases whenever I see them. All in all, this is all about picking the right gear while still considering budget, experience, and purpose.
Even though I am a far more experienced hiker than anything else, this first article is about bikepacking gear! I have ridden two big bicycle trips - cross country tours in 2017 and 2018. Both of those rides were traditional road tours, all on paved highways and in the front country. So, I was carrying a standard road setup. I recently began to venture into the more rugged, backcountry, bikepacking style of bicycle touring. Suppose you want to learn more about the traditional differences between bicycle touring and bikepacking. In that case, you can check out the article our contributor Russ Rocca wrote last year!
So, here I am, freshly getting into bikepacking and trying to learn about the gear as best I can based only on my experience with bike touring and what I can garner from friends with more knowledge. It felt like talking about this gear for the first article in this series would be a great idea, considering how much I'm still learning about it as well. Figuring out what gear to get, especially for some activity you have limited or no experience with, can be really daunting. Hopefully, through this article, you can not only learn a thing or two about setting up your first bikepacking rig but also be reminded that all it takes to find the right gear for you is a little bravery and accepting the fact that not everything is going to work. That's the fun of it, after all!
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Let's Refresh: What's in a Bikepacking Setup?
Most of this article will go into the setup that I carried for a recent ride that Team OE took down in Southern Arizona, the Sky Islands Odyssey. More on that later. First, I want to get into the first bikepacking setup I carried on a ride back in September called the Craters and Cinder Cones Route. This will also give me a vehicle to lay out how a typical bikepacking setup is put together. The components of what you probably are carrying on any given bikepacking trip are usually pretty similar. Still, as with any gear setup, there is, of course, some variation. In general, a bikepacking rig will consist of the following.
What's on your Seatpost?
The bulk of your gear will probably go in some sort of bag attached to your Seatpost. Since this bag is carrying the most stuff, it is, in my opinion, the most essential part of your bikepacking set up to get right. I am well versed in balancing a budget with a gear setup. Obviously, in a perfect world, you would get the very best bag for each component of this setup. That is not a world I live in, and I'm guessing that most of you are also unfortunately not living in. One of this series's main goals will be evaluating where money can and should be spent in a gear setup. For the bikepacking setup, I say it's right here, on the back of your bike. Having a sturdy, easy to pack, easy to carry, easy to work with Seatpost bag is absolutely crucial.
What's on your Handlebars?
Some sort of bag strapped to your handlebars and head tube is almost always going to be something you'll be carrying. Of course, you could just put a front rack on and hang panniers off of it, but that's getting more into the road touring setup. Again - we have an article for that! The handlebar bag will usually be one of the smaller bags on the setup as far as capacity goes and probably won't have as much weight as other bags. Access to gear stored in the handlebar bag isn't as simple as other bags, so you're usually going to keep less urgent items like camp gear, sleeping bag, sleeping pad - things you probably won't need throughout the day's ride.
Frame Bag
Because the goal of bikepacking is to be lighter, more aerodynamic, and more streamlined, the main bags you carry won't have as much capacity as bigger road touring setups. This makes the frame bag a huge plus to carry. It fits right into the middle of your bike, and depending on your frame size, can hold a surprising amount of gear. This is the easiest access as far as getting gear goes. Perfect for snacks, tools, things you'll definitely need during the day.
Water
Yep, I'm giving water its own category here. I could usually pass a town or gas station every 20-40 miles on my road tours and thus never really needed to think about carrying much more than a bottle or two. This is not the case with gravel road bikepacking, where water carries can be more than a day long! Figuring out how many bottle cages to carry, where on your bike to put them, and the best storage for a water bladder is absolutely important when bikepacking.
Other Bits and Pieces
Remember how I just mentioned that the frame bag has the easiest access for grabbing things during the day? I take that back. Various smaller bags like gas tanks, jerry cans, feedbags, and fanny packs provide quick, easy access to things you'll constantly be using. They aren't necessary if you're riding really light, but I find them very useful and worth the small extra weight and expense.
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My bikepacking setup 1.0
So, onto the first bikepacking setup I carried, back on that trip in September. This kit was mostly made up of borrowed gear (always try to borrow gear when just trying out a new gear setup for any sport!)
My bike is on the left, with a view of the five main components of my bikepacking setup. My buddy’s bike is on the right - note how different two bikepacking setups can be!
Frame Bag
Rogue Panda Designs Custom Frame Bag. This was my big bikepacking purchase as soon as I knew I wanted to get into it. I am lucky enough to live in Flagstaff, AZ, where Rogue Panda Designs happens to be located. I was able to ride right to their workshop, where the owner measured my bike, took down my specs, and began making me this custom frame bag. A long, eight weeks later, they called me, and I rode over to pick it up. This bag is awesome. It is actually bolted into my frame, so I have no worries about the bag coming loose no matter how rough the roads I'm riding are. My bike has a pretty small frame, but I still found plenty of room in the bag to carry everything I needed. It will surprise you just how much you can fit into one of these bags. Durable, strong, straightforward, and practical, I have zero issues with my RP frame bag.
Handlebar Bag
Ortlieb Handlebar Pack 9L. Most of the gear I carried on my road tours was Ortlieb, inarguably one of the industry leaders in all bike bags. This helped me put a lot of trust into this Ortlieb bag and the Seatpost bag I carried (see below). Let me be clear here, I did not like this bag. I intend to be honest in this article series, and I will not hesitate to let you know that I don't like a piece of gear. The main issue I had with this bag was nothing to do with the bag but rather my bicycle. I ride on a bike with drop bars, and cramming this bag with a roll-up clip on both ends in between my drops proved rather tricky. I couldn't fit nearly as much in it as I wanted to, not due to the bags carrying capacity but just what could fit between those bars. Only my quilt and sleeping pad fit, forcing me to pack way more gear in my Seatpost and frame bags than I would have liked to. Attaching the bag to the bar was also not the easiest, and I don't like that you have to struggle with taking all of the straps on and off every day.
Look at how sloppy that handlebar bag is!
My custom frame beg fresh out of the warehouse - in all her glory!
Water
I mostly stuck with my tried and true water setup: two bottles on the front fork, a bottle on the frame (below the frame bag), and a 2L bladder. The bladder was carried in the frame bag when full, which definitely killed my frame bag's volume for other items. I would have liked to had a way to strap it to the outside of my bike somehow
Seatpost Bag
Ortlieb Bikepacking Seatpack. Another Ortlieb here, and sadly another disappointment in my mind. This one wasn't quite as annoying to use as the handlebar bag. I think many of my issues stemmed from putting more gear in it than I would have liked due to not being able to fit that gear in the handlebar bag. In addition to that, I found it difficult to just pack the bag while it's still on the bike. Ideally, this is pretty feasible for your Seatpost bag. I found that usually, I needed to fully remove the bag from the bike to unpack and pack it up; not the most convenient.
Smaller Bags
I used a Revelate Designs Gas Tank right on my top tube for my snacks and a Revelate Designs Jerrycan on the front end of my Seatpost for tools. I was pleased with both of these. The Gas Tank was a little small, and I would have liked to fit my cell phone in it, but it couldn't quite zip up with it in there. This, of course, is probably a product of them making the phones too damn big these days! The Jerrycan perfectly fit my multitool, tire wrench, pressure gauge, 4 oz of chain lube, and a small rag. Exactly the tools I needed! All my bulkier tools easily fit into my frame bag. My one issue with the Jerrycan is that it was hard to tighten it up to the bike, especially with the frame bag. It sometimes would bounce around and loosen up. I was always able to tighten it, and it never fully fell off, but it was still the smallest of thorns in my side.
This photo really exemplifies how bulky that Seatpost bag is. Ideally a Seatpost bag is much shorter in length and less saggy onto the rear wheel.
As I mentioned, this setup was carried on my very first bikepacking trip, the Craters and Cinder Cones Route, which rides around the area North of Flagstaff, including Kendrick Peak, the Colorado Plateau, Sunset Crater, and into the Inner Basin of the San Francisco Peaks. The riding itself was really challenging; I just wasn't used to the specific difficulties of gravel road touring. My technical skills were certainly lacking, leading to hike-a-bikes uphills and riding the brakes really hard on downhills. It was a lot of fun, though. I definitely came out of this ride eager to make a few upgrades on the bikepacking set up right away. In many ways, a big purpose of that first trip is to test some things out and see where you want to make the upgrades. This is why I encourage borrowing gear. It was great to come back, return the gear I knew I wouldn't really be wanting, and begin the process of upgrading.
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My bikepacking setup New.0
Now we get into the setup I carried on my recent ride of the Sky Islands Odyssey. Having had the first ride and enough time to upgrade some gear, I was excited to try out the new setup and see if I couldn't improve my bikepacking skills a little bit in the process.
The new and improved setup - all ready to roll in Patagonia, AZ at the start of Sky Islands Odyssey!
Seatpost Bag
Revelate Designs Terrapin 14L. This was my big purchase heading into the second bikepacking trip. I had seen my buddy use this bag on our previous ride and found myself getting jealous of how simple his Seatpost setup was. Oh, man, was I glad to have it on the new ride. First of all, this bag can fit a lot of stuff but still pack down really small. There's a cool little nozzle you can turn on the side of the bag that allows you to squeeze out any excess air when rolling it up. I couldn't believe just how small I could get this bag. Easily my favorite thing about this bag, just like the Pronghorn, is it's attaching system to the bike. It comes with a separate "cage" system that permanently stays on the seat post. Taking the bag in and out of the cage is as simple as unclipping the rear straps and sliding it in. The tightening straps to keep the bag close to the seat are also awesome. No worries at all about this bag falling off or even coming loose!
Handlebar Bag
Revelate Designs Pronghorn. This was my number one important upgrade, as you could probably guess from my review of the last handlebar bag I tried. I was able to borrow this one again, so I still haven't fully committed to what to carry on the front of my bike. The Pronghorn is a leading candidate now, however. It only has one roll-up clip, rather than two, so I can get it really compact when I pack it up. This allowed me to fit way more gear in it than with the Ortlieb. Quilt, sleeping pad, and all of my clothes easily fit into this bag! Easily my favorite thing about it, however, is that it detaches so easily from the bike. It comes with a separate clip system that holds the bag in place and permanently stays on the bike. All you have to do to take the actual bag off is unclip the straps! I am a big fan of this system.
Check out how much tighter the bag fits in the handlebars now; this photo also perfectly shows those convenient straps for easy attaching/detaching
See how much more compact the seat post bag is, as well as it’s ability to stay erect over the wheel
Water
I used the same bottle cage setup of two on the front, one on the frame but switched over to Blackburn steel cages. These don't leave the nasty black lines on my water bottles, and I managed to hold them pretty well, although one did bounce out on a particularly washboarded road. This is an easy fix, though - simply bend the cage further to make it tighter. It's steel, so good luck breaking it! One bonus of the Pronghorn on the front is that the straps are ideal for strapping a full 2L water bladder. I didn't have to mess around with squeezing the bladder into my frame bag this time. It could go right on the front of the bike with my handlebar bag!
Smaller Bags
I still went with the Gas Tank/Jerrycan combo this time. I secured the Jerrycan a bit more to the bike by strapping it under my frame bag's lacing. It did still manage to bounce around a bit, but not quite as much.
Frame Bag
As you may have guessed, I made no changes here. I am sticking with the Rogue Panda bag going forward and still couldn't be happier with it. It was kind of annoying to have to unlace the entire top of it just to get it onto the car rack, though. An easy solution to that is probably to switch over to a roof rack system.
Me and my new bikepacking setup, victoriously at the end of the ride! This photo also really features the Gas Tank and Jerrycan on the front and back ends of the top tube respectively
This ride was definitely a lot harder than the first one. It was 60 miles (one full day) longer and thus required me to be more aware of food and water the whole time. Some of the roads were downright impossible to ride, and I found myself hike-a-biking a lot more. Still, I was really excited by how much my gravel riding skill seemed to improve by the end of the ride. Plus, Southern Arizona is just flat-out gorgeous. The best sunsets in the world, if I say so myself!
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Future Bikepacking Upgrades
All gear setups are ever-changing. I don't believe anyone will ever find a perfect gear rig that they'll stick with forever - where's the fun in that? As for me, I have plenty more bikepacking and touring in my future. After the Sky Islands Odyssey ride, I'm still eager to continue improving the rig I have set up now.
I'm going to try out the Swift Industries Zeitgeist on the front next. I've seen it in action a couple of times now, and I like the bag's size and packability. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Pronghorn and very well may stick with it for the longterm. But it's at least worth a shot to try the Zeitgeist. As I said, it never hurts to try something out (especially if you borrow it!)
I may try to switch over from the Gas Tank to a traditional feed bag. This will give me more water storage (and easier access to that extra bottle). Plus, the Zeitgeist may provide similar storage that a Gas Tank has, so I hypothetically wouldn't need it anymore.
The most important thing is to keep getting out there and keep trying new things. Gear is supposed to be fun. In our community, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to have the perfect gear. There's definitely a competitive spirit to gear setups, and I've never really liked it. So you brought out a piece of gear, and it wasn't as good as somebody else's. Who cares? If you had fun, learned a bit, and stayed true to yourself, then it was a good trip. Plus, it's always a great excuse to try something new next time.
I hope you all got a thing or two out of this article. We’re looking forward to bringing you more of these in the future here at OE. If you ever have any questions or comments on gear or just want to chat, always feel free to shoot me an email!
--Einstein
