Surly

The bikepacking steed is nearing completion. Here’s an image from a recent trip I took whilst location scouting for a couple nights. 

Weaving together my interests in nature, cycling, camping and bushcraft has proven a fruitful experience. The possibility to cover more ground and still ensure my trips are human powered has a lot of appeal to me.

So the bike itself is a 2002 Surly 1×1, and my first bikepacking rig, of which I scored a few months back. I recently upgraded the crank, chainring and sprocket to a Shimano SLX M7000 system up front and a Shimano DX sprocket at the rear, running single speed gearing at 32/18. It’s proving pleasant thus far and most hills are now manageable, in comparison to my previous set which were 38/16, as seen in this image. As you can imagine this made long steep climbs a struggle at times. Now the compromise is spinning out on descents and a slower rolling speed on flats. However I feel the pros outweigh the cons here. Another notable upgrade is the addition of some Ergon GP5 grips. The grips that came with the bike were minimal at best and I got rattled to the bone on corrugated tracks. But wow do these new guys make a difference! So very comfortable. Regarding the bags, I’m nearly there. I will cover this aspect of the rig in more detail at some point down the line. Any other bikepackers out there? Feel free to share any tips or suggestions if so.