Bikepacking set up

In my humble opinion, bikepacking is the shit when it comes down to outdoor activities. I mean, you can cover more ground than backpacking so you can see more scenery, it gives you thunder quads and calves as a mountain man plus you got all the camping, exercising and nature packed in one neat package.

You might be wondering how the hell you bikepack. There is several ways to go about it. You can do bikepacking on the roads, which is more like a touring type of deal or you can take it off road and do more of a mountain biking type of bikepacking. Each of these awesome outdoor activities includes bike, bags, and human power.

I did not do yet any road touring as I do not have any road bike to be able to set up with bags, but I do some off road bikepacking namely fatbike bikepacking this time of a year (winter Hurray!). There is nothing more scary than sweating like a pig in 0F somewhere in the middle of the snow covered field while the wind start blowing pretty hard. For this particular reason you need to be packing and biking smart.

In the non-race scenario I rather take more stuff with me which I might not need than less and after be fucked in the middle of nowhere. I'm not going to go into what to pack with you in this post but rather I just want to show you my winter bikepacking set up. By set up I mean a fatbike and the bags.

I'm rocking out 9-zero-7 aluminum whiteout with carbon 9-zero-7 fork, GX-1 drivetrain by SRAM, 11speed, carbon handlebars and seatpost. My tires are 3.8" Bontrager Hodags tubless set up. I'm fully packed with revelate bags and pogies, which includes: visacha seatbag, handlebar harness (I use 20L Outdoors Research dry bag with it), 9-zero-7 specific Ranger frame bag, Gas Tank and Williwaw pogies.

I will do reviews of my bike and bags later on.

Link to 9-zero-7 bikes:
http://www.fatbikes.com/

Link to Revelate Design bags:
http://www.revelatedesigns.com/

Here are some photos:

 

 

 

Yay! Winter Socks!

VS.

Recently, I was browsing the Facebook (yes I do have one and no I'm not ashamed of myself) and I stumble across the post with outrageous claim as "The best cold weather riding socks period", hmm the best you say, than I have to have those miraculous socks!! I proceed on their website to find out that the pair of knee-high socks cost $58 bucks....$58 bucks!!!

Well, apparently these socks are made from merino wool and possum fur, the company is called Pearly's Possum Socks. I was very curious how you come up with this shit to make socks out of possum and charge 58 bucks for a pair, so i did my research.

Apparently the possum fur is from New Zealand Brushtail Possum and the craft of making all kind of clothing has huge tradition down under. Unlike the American opossum the New Zealand possum is very cute. It is also considered as a pest (so do fur handlers say).

Anyhow, I browsed through several reviews of these socks and find out only positives such as "best socks I ever have","I want to make a love to these socks!" or just plain "fucking awesome", " so soft and warm" or "I'm never going to take these off".

The idea of warm feet in -20 degrees and softness of the socks got better out of me and I decided that I have to try these socks. Fortunately, I was not ready to shell out $58 for a pair and i started my  hunt for the same quality for better price. After little googeling, I finalized payment of just $23 for the pair of merino wool/ possum fur socks, which should be the same pleaser as the Pearly's Possum socks.

I bought couple pairs directly from New Zealand with only $7 in shipping. It has the same consistency of 45% merino wool, 40% possum fiber, 10% nylon/lycra, 5% Isofil as the Pearly's.
I might just need to wait for a while to get it, as New Zealand is not exactly next door.  :-)

Here is the link for Pearly's:
http://www.pearlyspossumsocks.com/products/moto-pearly

Here is the link where I bought the socks:
http://www.possummerinonz.com/collections/footwear/products/possum-comfort-top-sock

I will be updating this post with how these socks stacked up against Alaska winter once I get them and wear them.

Alaska photos

 

 

45NRTH Wolvhammer

I have these boots for over a year and I cannot imagine winter biking without them. I'm not saying that your feet will not get chilly in 0 degree but you put pack of toe warmers in there and you are going to be toasty.
i was little worried about the bulkiness of the boots as compare to mountain biking shoes, but to be honest i do not even notice it.

45NRTH Wolvhammers are not the only winter boots in the lineup of the company. They also carry Japanther (Fasterkatt) and Wolfgar. Fasterkatt are more for fall riding and Wolfgar are full on freaking expedition to north pole in -50 degrees kind of fun.

Anyway back to the Wolvhammers, if you are considering to buy those I would recommend two sizes bigger boot than you usually wear. The reason for that is that you need to have a space for socks or toe warmers. I was little hesitant at first thinking that my feet will be loose in the boot, but with couple socks it fit perfectly. Even on the warmer days when i only use one thin sock i do not have any problems with loose foot in the boot. I'm using crank brothers candy and it is one smooth ins and outs of the clip.

Wolvhammers are also great in a hike-a-bike situation. I had to on multiple occasions walk through knee deep snow up and downs, while pushing the bike and I can tell you these boots are rugged and can take a beating. One thing I did not truly try is to see if it is waterproof. I had couple incidents where I had to bike through the overflows, but I never fully submerge it. On those wet occasions I did not experience any wetness inside my boot.

One little negative about the boots which i noticed is that in faster speeds, let's say about 15mph, and about 15 degrees i can feel the air breathing on my toes which will start to make your toes little chilly. So if you are planning to ride in cold temperatures in high speed or windy conditions than maybe you want to consider wearing over boot cover or toe warmers on the top of your toes (that is what i do).

Otherwise, I'm absolutely satisfy with these boots and i really do recommend for comfortable winter biking from 0-33 degrees. If it's colder than that you should go with Wolfgar and if it is warmer than that go with Japanther (Fasterkatt).

Here is the link for 45NRTH website:
http://45nrth.com/

The CLYMB

If you shop outdoors gear than you probably came across  The Clymb. I really do like the idea of discounted outdoors gear especially when the quality is good, however everything has the pros and cons.

As i said i love The Clymb and i spent shit load of money buying any unnecessary crap i can think of for my ventures, but this website is very smart to trick you into the impulse buying ( as you could tell by visiting my storage). Here are couple hints from my own experience:

Never buy anything without checking the price on the other websites. Yes The Clymb has very cheap shit but some of the stuff might be little more expensive than you can find on Amazon or Backcountry (you know, the goat website) or whatever other website so check, check, check!

The cheapest gear usually is the one with odd colors or odd sizes so read up on the reviews, because that xxs salmon color fluffy cardigan might just fit you fine!

Buy everything in one setting as you might get free shipping. The Clymb has a flat fee of $7.98 per order but usually they have promotions for free shipping over x dollars. Do not make a mistake of buying $20 worth of bike tools on Monday and $31 bike shoe covers on Tuesday as it might just cost you extra $15.96 for two shipping as you could get it for free as a part of the "free shipping over $50" special.

Don't be scare to return stuff. Yes, if you are not able to find any reviews about the gear you want, and it is "one in the life time hey honey i have to have this" type of situation, than buy it! The return policy is pretty smooth and easy going. I'm usually very annoyed by hustle of returning anything but even i went on the buy and return spree couple times on the Clymb. Try to fit into the size 28 hipsters skinny jeans for 25 bucks seemed like a good idea at the time.

Here is the link: http://www.theclymb.com/

What the future holds

....and by future i mean good part of 2016. Here is couple things which i would like to do:

Frosty Bottom- i really love this snow bike race. Not only it goes right outside of the house where i live but also it is shitload of fun. I did this one last year and i had a blast. It is or suppose to be 50 miles race but last year it was only 44 miles so lets see what is the race course like this year.

If anybody is interested here is the link: 

http://www.chainreactioncycles.us/events.html

 

Little Su 50k snowbike race- i have never done this race, partially because im scare shittless of cold and remote areas. This race has a big brother called Susitna 100 which as it says is 100 miles race out of Big Lake, Ak. It is somewhat remote race on partially maintained trails. It involves a lot bike pushing, all depends on snow condition.

Here is the link: 

http://www.susitna100.com

 

I'm already signed up for those two above so here is a my work/wish list:

Kenai 250- is bikepacking endurance race on freaking beautiful Kenai peninsula. I already did part of this course last summer as the 90 miles Soggy Bottom race. Oh and that reminds me that i need to do it again!

https://kenai250.wordpress.com

 

Soggy Bottom- as I said I did the petite version last summer which was 90 miles from Hope to Coopers Landing via Ressurection trail. It is a phenomenal ride! The classic longer course is 110 miles which i planned to do this year.

http://aksoggybottom.com

 

Denali Hwy- Paxton-Cantwell-Paxton- this is not any official race this would be more bikepacking opportunity to have a fun with bunch of friends. It would be 260 miles self supported ride, but more about this later on.

I will be adding more stuff here along the way. I'm not going to mention here the usuall suspects as local mountain bike and fatbike races, triathlons, swim meets etc.

Anchorage

Anchorage, AK is absolutely great place to live. Well i said that about any other place i lived before. Usually, any place is great if you are willing to give a shot and make the best out of it.

Anyway, Anchorage has definitely lot to offer for people who love to be outside day or night, rain or snow, drunk or sober or what have you. In my world, it is a great place to be a cyclist, swimmer, hiker, camper, beer enthusiast and lot of other things. 

Anchorage bowl has a crap load of bike trails paved and dirt one, which will make you busy through out the whole year. Over the summer i usually hit the singletracks in Kincaide park or hilltop and over the winter i usually snowbike on the "big 3" paved trails: Coastal, Campbell creek and Chester creek trails.

View of Anchorage from Flattop

Sunrise over Chugach mountain

Reindeer pet

Nope not a pet 

Who is JJ?

Hello!

My name is J and i currently live in Anchorage, Alaska. Im not going to share much of worthless details about my past life, however i will post about my daily grind, random gear opinions, travels, racing and other crap on this blog. This blog is designed as a connector with my family and friends, memories and experience vault, as well as a means of sharing any info, which may be in interest of a public.

Here it goes

Garmin Edge 520

This is my first Garmin ever, as well as my first GPS bike computer ever and I fucking love it! I was so sick of switching my wheel base non gps bike computer from one bike to another so I decide to get this rather pricey Garmin ($300).

However, pricey might be, it has everything you dream of. It comes with three mounts, one extended upfront mount for your handle bars and two little plug in discs to put it on your stem or handle bar. I’m not going to go into any of the technical details as I’m not really savvy in that area but other than the expected features like any other GPS computer is expected to have this Garmin Edge 520 also have the following. Edge has a base map which you can replace with detail map of your area with navigation, very cool. It does not have an option of memory card so you have to do it by direct upload to Garmin. It also links to your phone so you get texts and calls while you’re putting hammer down on the bike. Even your sweet darling can check on you online to see if you are on the path which you told her/him to be and not banging neighbor’s wife/husband. For the Strava maniacs, it has Strava integration so you can splurge yourself in KOM’s live and see how you stack up against your buddies while riding.

There are couple things about this little machine which pisses me off. Well it might be a strong word but couple things could be better. I bike in the dark a lot over the winter as I lived in Alaska and we do not get much light from October to March. The lightning system on Edge 520 is cool in the sense that you can set up longevity of the light before it turns off ( 5sec to 1min), but  I cannot come up with how you turn the light on without switching screens. To be clear what I mean: you are biking and your edge is in whatever mode you have it in so you have the info which you want on your screen. Well, you wish to check the “info” so you wish to turn the light on, you do it so by pressing any button, but when you press any button it will either switch the screen or count another lap or whatever else which you do not want to happen. You just want to turn the fucking light on! It does not have designed button which would just switch the light on (well at least I don’t know about it). Secondly, you cannot set up your riding profile/screen with temperature, which you could see just like you can see average speed or whatever. Some of you will think why the fuck you need to see temperature on your main screen, well I really would like to know what is the actual temperature at given moment to kind of link it with my tire pressure, snow condition, clothing/gear and my comfort for future rides.

I have one other thing to complain about and it is regarding the extended handle bar mount. In simple words it broke! Well the inside mount disk broke so it does not hold my Garmin anymore. It is not a design fault or Garmin fault it’s all my clumsiness. I went out for little snow bike ride on rooty single tracks the other day, while I was going through one of those quick downs and quick steep ups ( I called it rollercoaster) my front wheel hit a hidden root. My body swung forward and I quickly rebalanced it back but my jacket caught on the extended mount and ripped the Garmin out. And that’s how you break a shit! The inside disc is removable but the question is if it is replaceable, so now I’m hunting down if I can just replace that little disc and not all extended mount. (Will update later with results)

Well this is my personal observation so far about Garmin Edge 520 and I have shit load of features to explore on this little gem, but if you are interested in full blown top notch review here is the link:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/07/garmin-edge-520.html