I know everyone has their own ideas but I was thinking about this the other day. I watched Ride the Divide for the first time and started dreaming about riding a long distance route like that and then started thinking about my choice of bike and bikepacking bikes in general and ambitions for a winter build……

Anyway, I think that most bikepacking routes (like the TD) tend to have very little singletrack which means a full suss bike is probably a bit much and I’d be looking at a hardtail or fully rigid frame that was reasonably light….
As I already own two 26er bikes, I’d do the build as a 29er with rigid forks as I could always take my hardtail for a more technical route.

So, I start thinking that what I need is a 29 inch wheeled, lightweight, flat barred bike with medium/low gearing but fast enough on hard packed tracks with the ability to take luggage. The more and more I thought about it, the more and more it started to sound like my Specialized Sirrus hybrid!

Do I already own a bikepacking bike in disguise? I guess all my waffle has kind of made me think that I’m overlooking the blatantly obvious thing of just chucking some wider tyres on the hybrid and getting on with it.

Thoughts?

£50 for tyres compared to in excess of £500 for a 29er. Sounds a no brainer.

Got to be worth a shot - fit some decent CX tyres and off you go. I used 35mm Small Block Eights on my Roadrat on this years WRT and they were fine. Griffdowg had 40mm Smart Sams on his Salsa Vaya.

You can ride pretty much anything on any bike if you're careful with speed and choice of line.

I've pretty much decided that with a few small change overs in equipment my 853 Inbred does pretty much anything rather well, even with 26" wheels.

It's played at long travel hardtail with beefy wheels and 130mm forks (I now have a Kona Dawg for playing)
goes bikepacking with faster tyres, rigid forks and bottle cages on
is my regular trail bike with bigger tyres on

next month it's getting skinny tyres and bigger chainrings and pretending to be a cx bike at a triathlon

Pretty sure Inbreds aren't the best bike at anything but that's maybe exactly why they are so good. If I was starting from scratch I think I'd just get a 29" Inbred but I have too much emotional attachment to this one.

I'm the limiting factor in how good either of my bikes are :(

restlessnative wrote:I'm the limiting factor in how good either of my bikes are :(

Know how that feels. Last week in Slovakia we had a minibus lift to the top of the Jasna ski resort (where the chair lifts start) and I rode my Boardman FS down a hiking trail on a rocky hour long descent. Loved every minute but I was left feeling that the bike deserved a better rider with more courage than me! There was loads I should have done better but as you get older with more responsibilities, you take less risks....