Donnie from Velodirt and I were invited to give a bikepacking presentation at the Northwest Trail Alliance‘s monthly meeting. The slideshow and talk were great but one thing stood out to me during the Q+A session: an abundance of tough to answer questions.
“What’s the right tire size?” “What bags are you using?” “Where do I find routes?”
Of course Donnie and I answered as best as possible, helped by the wealth of knowledge in the room, but at the end of the night I felt like the answer I wanted to give most was “Go out and find out for yourself- make it an adventure. The most important thing is to go out and do it.”
For me, my gear choices in terms of bikes and camping stuff are bred from years of experience riding on and off road, touring, backpacking and bike packing. While there is certainly knowledge to be gained from careful research and probing questions when in the presence of authority, there is no substitute for experience.
I like to backpack and bikepack light and fast when possible, but I have good friends who want to take it easy and roll with cushier bikes and gear. You know what? It’s all fine. Find out for yourself what your optimal tire size is and how much stuff you need to pack to be comfortable.
These lessons apply to much of cycling and indeed maybe to life itself. There is no substitute for experience and all the research in the world is only a starting place.
A few years back, I had a customer come in looking for a bike, and one of the first things they said was “I was looking for a bike last year, but I never found the perfect one.” Think of all the time that person could have spent riding a bike that was 95% right, and instead he spent 11 months not riding. The same thing applies to touring, bikepacking and so forth.
Do your research, try your best to plan, but in the end the most important thing is to get out and do the thing you want to do.
