Riding Bikes

In a couple weeks I’m heading down to Las Cruces NM to ride the Monumental Loop. It’s roughly 250 miles and mostly off road. Currently packing and unpacking and repacking trying to figure out what to put where. There are resupply points along the route but it’s recommended to carrry 4 to 6 liters of water with you. It’s going to be fun and I can’t wait to get going.

 

A good start is bikepacking.com. It will give you an idea of what’s needed. Keep in mind that’s what’s needed isn’t the most expensive things, just things that do the job about the same as the most expensive things.

Watch videos on YouTube about cheap, light camping gear that you can buy on Amazon. My current stove, tent, and sleeping pad came from Amazon.

This website also has some good articles about budget gear and what you will need:
Bicycle Travel - Exploring Wild

I will post more pics of my gear and how I pack it as I finalize everything. I’ll also share pics of my bike fully loaded.

 

The bike is a Surly Wednesday, it comes with 26x3.8 “fat” tires. I had a wheelset built for it because I wanted to be able to run 29x3” tires for bike packing. The front hub is a dynamo hub, as it spins it generates power for charging devices.

I’ll start at the front:
The small gray colored bag is my toilet kit. I have a trowel for digging a hole, some TP, wet wipes, waterless soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, and some empty ziplock bags for packing out the used TP

The big white bag has my sleeping bag and down coat, as well as leg warmers, a long sleeve merino wool shirt and merino wool long johns for sleeping, plus an extra shirt and extra pair of shorts.

There are two small bags that mount on the rear of the handle bar. One holds a 32oz water bottle. The other has a tent repair kit, a charger with 4 USB outlets, electrolyte powders, energy gels, and my headlamp.

The small black bag behind the handle bars has a couple pair of hand warmers, my various charge cords, and 2 battery bricks. That way one can charge while I ride and I can use the other for charging my gps, etc

The small black bag by the seat is where I keep my tool kit and also a small bottle of sun screen

The large black bag in the center has: 2 bottles of tires sealant, 2 spare inner tubes, peanut butter, Nutella, water filter, packs of tuna, protein bars, and a soft water bladder that holds 2 liters of water. Also the long blue bag along the bottom edge is where my tent poles are

The black bag behind the seat has: a pair of rain pants, a thin rain jacket, camp pillow, sleeping pad, sleeping bag liner, tent and ground cloth, cook kit and 3 dehydrated meals

Total water capacity is just over 6 liters. This is my first big trip and I know I’m taking more stuff than I’ll need. But I also don’t want to be in the position where I have to get to a spot to resupply. I want to be able to stop and camp if I want to stop and camp and not have to worry about what I’m going to eat.

 

Back before Thanksgiving I spent a week in New Mexico riding the Monumental Loop. It’s a figure 8 route that begins and ends in Las Cruces. I left on a Monday morning and was back in Las Cruces on that Friday afternoon. It’s about 250 miles and I completed it in 5 days. The weather was great, 60’s during the day and down around 30 at night. No chance of rain so I didn’t even pack the rain fly for my tent. Nothings beats staring up at the stars on a clear desert night.

 

Back around the first of the year I slipped away to the desert again for a few days before I put my new truck on the road. I feel there’s a lot of value in seeking out quiet and solitude from time to time. I always come back feeling refreshed with a clear mind.

 

I don’t mind them for what they are. I don’t ride on the fat tires much, I prefer to ride the 29x3 I have but when I went on this last trip my front wheel was getting rebuilt. I thought I wanted a dynamo hub on the front for my bikepacking trips but after two hubs last year I gave up and had it built with a regular hub.