Good evening all,
Newbie to the forum and to bikepacking and wanted to get some advice from you all. Im looking at getting a do everything bike, from carrying my fishing gear (to fishing spots), commuting, bike packing, on/off road riding and hopefully some trips abroad. Im quite mechanically minded and im usualy working on motorbikes but i know buggah all about bicycles.
Im not a huge fan of buying things brand new and much prefer the idea of polishing turds. The idea i have atm is to buy an old cromoly framed mtb, attach a modern more suitably geared drivetrain, fatter larger and lighter wheels, new set of forks which can be fixed for on road and soft for off and some general weight saving mods (inc a diet). Also will need to think about racks and bags down the line aswell.

Firstly, is this an achievable goal or am i completely off the rail? Does anyone have any ideas of a suitable bike that is a good starting point and will accept these sort of changes? And even better have one for sale.
What do people think about this plan? Should i just buy a modern bike and tinker with that?
Im wondering if anyone else has gone down this route and can share their experience aswell?

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated,
Matt
(Based in north wales)

Hi Matt and welcome to the forum. Doesn't look like your asking much to be honest but don't forget that older cro-mo frames are truly dated now. Even our Reg has an Orange frame that's got discs

Plenty others will be here shortly but getting a 10 speed drive train off ebay shouldn't be too hard and most people on here will always have something out of the spare parts box to sell you at a decent price...

Anyway. Welcome. Shafiq

I’m going to do the traditional thing and suggest (one of) the bike(s) I use…
You could do a lot worse than a Salsa Fargo for your needs. I have one and it’s my most used bike and it can be tweaked for lots of uses - a superb do it all utility bike.
If drop bars aren’t your thing then you could look for something from Surly such as an ECR, Troll or Ogre.
Genesis do some similar bikes too - Longitude I think.
Go too old and your aim of fitting properly wide tyres probably won’t work out and you might end up with a 26er - nothing wrong with that per se but not very forward compatible.
If you didn’t mind about an aluminium frame the Pinnacle Ramin series bikes are well regarded and probably very suitable too.

Welcome!

Pretty well any of the modern 29er hardtails will (almost) fit the bill: Cotic Solaris; Genesis Longitude; Stanton Sherpa or Switchback. I say almost as those are optimised for off-road use so if you were doing a lot of road riding you'd want something along the lines of what's called a gravel or adventure bike. There's quite a bit of overlap between the two styles so ultimately it comes down to personal preference.

Bikes are pretty adaptable and you could have one frame with two sets of wheels and just swap over when your riding majors towards on/off road.

Not sure on your budget but this could be an option for new
https://bikepacking.com/news/on-one-bootzipper-release/

I’ve not owned an on one, so it’s not a personal recommendation

I'll add that you may find it's ultimately far cheaper to buy a full bike for more rather than a cheaper bike with the intention of upgrading it with forks, drivetrain etc.

A couple of generic points;

There is a bike and parts shortage at the moment. Not only is availability patchy, most of the chunky discounts have disappeared. I know some folk who have bought a whole bike just because be they couldn't get a specific spare part.

There is a constant flux of "standards". Be aware that older frames may not fit newer parts (and vise versa). Folk on here are a good, pre-purchase sounding board. Buying a complete bike does remove the incompatibility issue.

Other than that, I'd say that almost any bike can be used for bikepacking. My advice is to spend your money on the lightest, most compact camping kit you can afford as that will be easier to carry on most bikes including, if necessary, in a small backpack.

What is your budget and how important is value for money?

Stealth advert without the stealth

I am selling a medium Genesis longitude ( good to 5 ft 6- 5 ft 10/ 11 ish)It takes 650b+ tyres( set up tubeless ) and also 29 er wheels
Steel framed 10 speed ( double so 20 gears )
It has suspension forks that lock out and also some rigid ones ( aluminium)
It's a perfect bike for bikepacking and versatile ( rack mount for fishing gear etc ) I just replaced it with a titanium one as my 50 th birthday present or I would have kept it.
Price 3-450 depending on spec which is a pre shortage price / valuation rather than an eBay price.

Bearbonesnorm wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 8:55 am I'll add that you may find it's ultimately far cheaper to buy a full bike for more rather than a cheaper bike with the intention of upgrading it with forks, drivetrain etc.

This was my first thought. Given the state of the supply chain at the minute I'd get a full build with stantdard, erm, standards.

voodoo_simon wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 8:23 am Not sure on your budget but this could be an option for new
https://bikepacking.com/news/on-one-bootzipper-release/

And On-One were my second thought. Maybe the Big Dog for a sus fork

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBOOBDSX/ ... ntain-bike

OP if you're completely sold on gettng an old frame and building it up with bits then the Charge Cooker steel frames are a good "do everything" option.

Lazarus wrote: ↑Thu Mar 10, 2022 12:11 pm Stealth advert without the stealth

I am selling a medium Genesis longitude ( good to 5 ft 6- 5 ft 10/ 11 ish)It takes 650b+ tyres( set up tubeless ) and also 29 er wheels
Steel framed 10 speed ( double so 20 gears )
It has suspension forks that lock out and also some rigid ones ( aluminium)
It's a perfect bike for bikepacking and versatile ( rack mount for fishing gear etc ) I just replaced it with a titanium one as my 50 th birthday present or I would have kept it.
Price 3-450 depending on spec which is a pre shortage price / valuation rather than an eBay price.

This sounds ideal !

Last year i bought a new Cotic Solarismax frame for my birthday.. and straight away hit the covid parts supply wall. What i ended up doing was sourcing a full 2nd hand bike and cannibalising it for the Cotic, after much searching i ended up buying a hardly used Boardman 29er with full Sram GX 11 speed drivetrain, guide R brakes with Mavic wheelset. So if you can i would try and get a full bike than going the custom self build route.