Rob English Custom folding 2-9. Alfine 8 (32 ring, 19 cog) with JTek shifter. Revelate bags, custom long narrow cuben fiber stuff sack from Zpack. Two bottles and bladder in frame bag, no backpack.
Pedaling in Place
Joe Cruz
Rob English Custom folding 2-9. Alfine 8 (32 ring, 19 cog) with JTek shifter. Revelate bags, custom long narrow cuben fiber stuff sack from Zpack. Two bottles and bladder in frame bag, no backpack.
How did you mount the Jtek shifter — or do they have a regular bar mount now, in addition to a bar-end?
Hey Steve—Rob English fashioned a custom handlebar mount for it. I’ll take a close up photo in a couple of days for you when I am back in NYC. But you can kind of see it here: http://joecruz.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/english29er/
Cheers, and thanks for visiting,
Joe
Thanks Joe — much appreciated. I’ve been mulling over something of the sort for my own Jtek + flatbar combination, but haven’t really come up with a good way to do it yet.
Hi Joe, loving your blog so far. How is revelate designs stuff when it comes to being waterproof? I am about to buy Viscacha and I am ordering full frame bag as well. Also what would you rather recommend (Harness or Soft Roll) when it comes to taking tent/sleeping bag in the front? Thanks!
Hey Damian, thanks for dropping in and for your kind words. The Revelate bags for sure are _not_ waterproof. They can shed a bit of light drizzle, but in any kind of downpour will get saturated and let in moisture. My usual strategy is just to wrap my sleepingbag in a grocery bag and stuff it into the saddlebag. The camera and electronics also go in plastic inside the front bag. Clothing is in the cuben fiber sack (which is waterproof), and everything else I don’t much care if it gets wet. I’m pretty sure Eric at Revelate doesn’t represent his gear as waterproof; but I think you’ll be really pleased with it. The Viscacha, especially, is a really refined bag.
I’ve only ever used the hardness system and it works for me. In the past, I’ve carried tent/poles/sleepingbag/pad in the front harness and clothing in the Viscacha. They’ve switched position in part because taking the saddle bag off and on if I’m staying at a hostal or something was a bit more fiddly than I wanted. Carrying clothing in the harness seemed a quick solution.
I sure like the look of the soft roll, but, apologies, I can’t say anything about it. Maybe if there is another reader who uses it, they can jump in here.
Joe
That’s a really nice setup. It’s always interesting to me (especially as a bag maker myself) how different each of our setups are. I’m mulling over making a Cuben Fiber sack to see how it works. Oh… really nice bike by the way. How’s the folding aspect of it work?
Thanks, wunnspeed, and thanks for visiting. The narrow sack was necessary to clear the front wheel, but it’s worked terrifically. All my clothing goes in there.
The bike really is fantastic. I’ve packed it to fly to races in its singlespeed mode and it’s a cinch for traveling to bikepacking destinations. You can get some sense of the “fold” here: http://joecruz.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/english29er/
Sorry to add another comment… sadly, can’t edit. Anyway, most of us bag builders say that if you really want to keep something from getting wet, put it inside of a dry bag or plastic bag and then put it in your bikepacking gear. The XPac is pretty water resistant but as they get dirtier and take on oil/grease they almost tend to absorb moisture. The one good thing is that as soon as it’s above freezing and the sun hits them they also shed moisture very quickly.
NIce bike. Glad to see the A8 trucking along. :)
Thanks, Vik! I’m looking forward to hearing about your spring Fatpacking trip.
Joe
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