Personal setups » 29er Singlespeed Bikepacking Setup
by donmeredith74The weather borked my trip this weekend so I decided to geek out and document my setup.
A – Frame bag and gas tank from Epic Designs.
B – Mountain Laurel Designs Grace Duo Tarp
C – Thermarest ProLite 3 short sleeping pad
C#2 (should have been D) – Thermarest pillow
E – SealLine 10 liter dry sack. Already has Marmot Hydrogen sleeping bag & Mountain Laurel Designs Serenity net tent stuffed in it. I also had shorts and a capilene silk weight t-shirt in the dry bag.
F – Silnylon bag for dinner and breakfast.
G – Vintage Camelbak MULE bag & bladder.
H – Snowpeak 600… switch between this and BackpackingLight Trapper’s Mug depending on the trip.
I – Fuel canister and Snowpeak TiMax stove
J – Snowpeak french press – luxury coffee on bike and kayak trips!
K – First Aid Kit
L – MSR towel, mirror, three small droppers with Bronners, sunblock & eye drops.
M – Old DAC tent poles re-purposed to serve as tarp poles.
N – Tent stakes (2 MSR Groundhogs, 4 MSR needle stakes, 4 Ti J-hooks)
O – Granite Gear zip up envelope that I keep all the miscellaneous small stuff in. Brunton Wind, Gerber LST knife, small aluminum whistle, Petzl e-Lite.
P – Simple tool kit: pump, chain break, ratcheting driver with a few different insert bits.
Q – MYOG Bear bag & line.
R – MYOG reflectix cozy for meals
S – Paper & pencil (pens always seem to fail)
T – Wet Ones
U – MSR HyperFlow water filter
Here’s a shot of everything packed and on the bike.
Its a tight fit getting everything packed using the Camelbak. You can see that I had to strap the sleeping pad and pillow to the back of the backpack which would be a real problem in the rain. There’s also a little too much volume close to the seatpost with the dry bag. My leg hits the bag as I’m pedaling. This wouldn’t be a problem on short trips but I can imagine it would be annoying on longer trips. I could solve all these problems by getting a seat bag from Epic Designs or by using a proper backpack like my modified GoLite Ion or MLD Burn.
Total weight for the setup ended up being around 8lbs on the bike and 7lbs in the Camelbak with 1L of water.
Don Meredith
http://lightpack.blogspot.com
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Nice use of the dry bag as a seat bag. Is it pretty stable?
I like the lettering system on the first photo. Great post.
The dry bag is very stable as set up. You need to roll the top down really tight so its a tight fit around the seat post. Couple that with cinching down the back to the seat rails with a velcro loop and its a solid set-up. The only gripe I have is that it rubs your leg as I mentioned in the post. For the time being it works and its beyond bomb proof.
thanks, this helps new dudes like me out. Are those moded STB cranks?
Yeah, STB cranks and ISAR ring and cog. LOVE them both.
Great set up and clever use of the dry bag. I agree with ScottM on the lettering system on the first photo. Nice and clear. Curious what program you used to create those on the photo. Photoshop?
I used PowerPoint. Import the photo, add circles with letters, select all & export to photo.
You could add another dry bag to the handel bars to take some stuff out of the mule. But I do love the use of one on the seat post.
I’ve used the same drybag on the seatpost set-up. I also had a little leg rub, but it was not bad. The nice thing about it was the stability. Most seatpost bags/panniers have the mass over the rear wheel which makes the bike handle funny. With it at the seatpost, the mass is essentially right under your center of mass, so the bike’s handling is more neutral.
I really, really like this setup …very clean. Guess the sleeping pad an pillow are probably not heavy enough to be a bother on your back. I might experiment with this myself as I don’t really enjoy having a bar bag.
However …any leg rub is too much leg rub. Could you put something firm and narrow in the end of the dry sack to prevent rub?
I just ordered a Sealline bag. I’m hoping I won’t have leg rubbing issues. Could you slide the bag back a little bit more (which will move the bag up the seatpost) to alieve this problem? If not, I think I will wrap some cordage around the tip to compress the sack more to provide more clearance. Nice build, by the way. Mine will also be for a 29er singlespeed set up.
The rub actually got worse the higher I mounted the bag. It also tended to ‘wag’ a lot more because more of the bag is cantilevered out. I eventually got a bag from Revelate and haven’t looked back. 🙂
very very nice setup! clean and practical.
how did you feel w/the weight of the mule? would you prefer to move that weight to the handlebars?
DJ – Since this photo, I’ve added a Revelate seat bag which gives me more volume and less weight in the MULE. I carry the sleep pad on the frame and skip the pillow most trips unless I’m going for luxury sleep. I avoid putting gear on the bars at all costs.
DM
Thank you! I haven’t bought an item yet, and still trying to decide my setup for bp this summer.
See a lot of stuff on the bars, but I’m riding somewhat technical singletrack, so not sure I want anything on the bars, nor too much weight on my back.
DJ – the trails I’m riding are tight and twisty as well. Gear on my bars blocks my view to some degree and makes the handling pretty wonky. I’m probably carrying 3-5lbs on my back at this point including water.
cool.. thanks for the info.. made 2 purchases today. bought a camelbak mule on a holiday sale, and a 3lb, 2 man tent. found a 3lb sleeping bag also, but packs down pretty small (water bottle height). should fit in the mule, and w/100 oz of water, i may be around 6lbs on my back. only planning overnights, so should be ok. going to try to strap the tent to the seat as well. thanks for your replies and pictures of your setup. gave me some great ideas.
DJ – Sounds great! You can get lots of info at backpackinglight.com as well if you haven’t found that one already. Get out soon and let us all know how it went. I’m hoping to get out for a couple of nights sometime this week.
DM
great kit load out
great blog
Thanks for the read
Great write-up, Don. I realize this was years ago…do you still rock the frame bag on your Black Sheep? Thanks for laying everything out so clearly in this post – really helpful for us newcomers. 🙂
Yeah, I still prefer a frame bag. I have a proper seat bag now.