Bikepacking Gear is Nearly the Same as Canoe Camping Gear

If you’ve followed this blog for awhile, you’ll know that in addition to canoeing and kayaking I love biking and specifically bike touring or bikepacking. You may even remember the April’s Fools joke that I did on this topic. The joke was that this website was going to change to a biking website, but I digress.

This year, in leu of a big paddling trip, I did a long bikepacking trip across the proposed Minnesota ORV Border to Border Route. I basically used the same gear for this trip as I would have for canoe camping. I made a video about the gear that I used. There were a lot of new items that I tried on this trip. Some worked. Some didn’t. And some old gear that I’ve used for years finally got to me and needs to be replaced.

I’m going to add my general thoughts about all the gear below. If you’re interested in seeing a full list of all the gear, let me know and I’ll post one.

The Route

The Border to Border Touring Route is mainly a gravel, forest service road ride with pavement mixed in. It’s about 30% pavement and 70% unpaved. It runs from St. Vincent in northwestern Minnesota to Silver Bay on Lake Superior. It’s over 700 miles long when you count all the loops and spurs. I rode a section of the route that took me from the western side to the eastern side taking the roads that looked most interesting. The route I took was 625 miles including town stops and campgrounds that weren’t on the route. I skipped the loops and didn’t do the Ely loop because it was mainly pavement and would have skipped some of the best parts of the route. It would have been fun to go to Ely though.

Overall if you are looking for an established gravel route to do a long bikepacking ride on, then this is a good option. I’d recommend it. The best part was from Blackduck to Silver Bay. It was worth doing the section from St. Vincent to Blackduck, but I wouldn’t ride that section again. I would ride Blackduck to Silver Bay again.

Here’s the route on Ride With GPS: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44087416

Just for fun, I made second route that runs from Silver Bay to Blackduck that could be used to make a Silver Bay/Blackduck loop: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/44959710

The MNDNR is still working on the final management plan for the route. After that’s complete, they’ll publish the final maps and sign the route. My Ride With GPS route and the route I rode is based on the proposed route.

The Gear

I made a long video about all the gear I used on the trip. You can watch it below. If you make it to the end, I owe you a big pat on the back. I’ll summarize each category below if you want to read it and don’t want to watch my video.

Bike

It’s a 2023 Rocky Mountain Solo C50. Love it. This is the best fitting bike that I have ever owned. It’s $1000 off right now. If you’re looking for a carbon gravel bike, it’s a good deal.

The only things I may change on the bike are the gearing and seat. I’m currently running a 1×11 with a 42t up front and 10-42t in the back. It was geared a bit high for loaded riding. I may convert my Rival setup to 1×12 using a kit from Ratio and go 38t (or 40T because I do like having a higher gear when riding unloaded) with a 10-52t cassette. The seat is fine, but I’ve had more comfortable seats in the past.

Packs

I used typical bikepacking packs from Arkel, Revelate Designs and custom gear from Rogue Panda.

For my next trip, I’m considering replacing the seat pack with a Tailfin AeroPack and a couple of small panniers. I’ll also likely switch to a half frame bag with bottle mounts in the frame and off the fork. I already have an Apidura Racing Frame Pack for this bike, but I may go custom with Rogue Panda for a better fit and more volume. Rogue Panda makes great gear and this is the second bike that I’ve outfitted with their bags. For the front, if I run packs, it’ll likely be a Cyclite Aero Bag. This would hold my camera, but I wish I didn’t have to order it from Europe with the high shipping costs. I’m considering a larger top tube bag to carry all the snacks I eat during the day.

Or I may just keep things the way I have them, because it’s nearly dialed. If I keep things the way they are, I’ll likely change my two feed bags to Rogue Panda Happy Jack Snack Sacks.

Why change things up? For the types of roads that I like to ride, I don’t really need a full bikepacking setup and the bikepacking setup makes it more difficult versus panniers to pack everything. There’s also a gain in aero efficiency getting gear off the fork and handlebars.

I rode Pirelli Cinturato Gravel M tires in 45s, but the route didn’t need anything that wide. In retrospect, I would have ridden 40s instead and saved a little weight. I rode tubeless. I do love those tires though. They have worked great for all the riding I did in the last year. I rode over 2,000 miles which is a big biking year for me.

Repair Gear

Luckily, I didn’t need to make any repairs. I didn’t cover everything in the video that I carried, but I’d carry pretty much the same stuff again.

Bedroom Gear

I tried a bunch of new gear and I think that for shelters on my next trip I’m going back to a Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2. It provides so much more comfort at the end of the day. Either that or I’ll switch to a tarp versus what I ended up using. The tent would add less than a pound over what I carried.

I’m also sick of quilts. This trip was the last straw when my 20°F Enlightened Equipment Revelation failed to keep me warm in the 30°Fs without having to layer significantly or wear all my clothing to bed. Plus, I’m sick of the hassle of dealing with setting up a quilt right just to get everything working to keep you warm. I’m looking for a light 20°F sleeping bag to replace the quilt. I think I’m going to get a Thermarest Parsec 20°F Sleeping Bag. It weighs 28 ounces versus 21 ounces for the quilt. That’s a half a pound that I’d be willing to carry just to not have to deal with the hassle of a quilt anymore. If you have any suggestions for a bag, leave them in the comments.

My Nemo pad and pump bag were champs, plus my Nemo pillow was as awesome as always. I think it’s better than the pillow I have on my bed. I should probably just use this pillow at home, too.

Overall, I’d carry about ~1 pounds more in weight to improve my sleep. It would have been worth it to me. Plus when I started to train this year, I was about 20 pounds heavier than I was when I started the ride. So, adding that ~1 pounds wouldn’t have been much compared to all the weight I lost.

Kitchen Gear

This is dialed for solo trips, except I want a lightweight coffee mug to add to it.

For food, I tried a bunch of different Good-to-Go Single Serving Meals. I plan on doing a write up of all the different meals. Their long trail kit is a good way to go to try a bunch of their food.

Clothing/Closet/Camp Clothing

Everything but my bike shorts worked perfectly for me.

I would like to find a different pair of pants for camp. There’s not a ton of options out there that weigh just 3 ounces for a pair of pants. If you have suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Bonus points to those that can find a 3-ounce pair of pants in khaki.

Bathroom Gear

This has been dialed for years. No need to change anything, but I would like to try a backcountry bidet. I like to try new products, and since I’ve never used a bidet in my life it seems like something I should try in the woods while out on a trip. Dontcha think?

Electronics/Office/Den/Study

This was all good for the trip. I was a little annoyed about having to recharge my bike computer, phone, and rear radar all the time.

Art Gear

My camera gear was pretty much what I needed. If anyone is interested, I can update my new approach to camera gear while on paddling trips. My old video is here.

I also carried a watercolor sketching kit that I used to journal. It was about perfect, but I would like to find a better case to carry the gear in. I used a Ziplock bag.

Wrapping Up

That’s my gear wrap up for my current bikepacking setup. If you’ve wanted to try bikepacking or touring, most if not all of the camping gear you use for paddling trips will work just fine. Almost any bike will work, and for bike bags you can improvise a lot of them if you just want to give bikepacking a try. I find that it’s a really good compliment to paddling trips.

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