Metal Cat Bikes

The stuff. When it’s all laid out, it doesn’t look like much for a few weeks of living off the bike. But when I’m pushing it up a moutain road, it feels like a ton.

All the bags were made by Lane and Monty at Oveja Negra in Leadville. I’m testing them for the Dirt Rag, and I like them a lot.

I’ve never cared about how much my race bike weighed. I’ve always felt that the main difference between a 20 pound mountain bike and a 27 pound mountain bike is about $2000, and the fact that a heavier bike won’t break when you hit a rock the wrong way.

But this is different- when the dry weight (no food or water) of the whole setup is pushing 50 pounds, I’ve been doing everything I can to save weight. I even bought a kitchen scale to weigh crap. And I’ve been debating the little things- do I need a wool hat if I have a jacket with a hood? Probably not. Saved 150 grams.

At the same time, everything isn’t as race optimized as it could be- for example, I can only afford to own one tent, and I like camping with Colleen, so I have a two-person tarptent instead of a lighter one-person.

The rest of the stuff is a result of the way I’m going to be racing- I’m navigating primarily with GPS, trying to go as fast as possible (and make it to the finish), and not staying in any hotels.

Anyway, here’s the list. From the back to the front. I’ll do a final weighing at some point, but it’s around 45 pounds with the 3.0 Knard tires, which means it’d be right around 40 with some normal 29er rubber.

Seatbag:

• Rivendell wool shirt
• Smartwool tights
• Socks
• Mountain Hardware Thermostatic jacket
• Outdoor Reaserch Helium rain jacket and pants
• Space for food

Framebag:

• Park MT-1 (the most underrated muti-tool ever)
• Pliers
• Brake pads, spare bolts, needle and thread, sidewall boot
• Chain lube
• CO2 (to reseat a tubeless tire)
• Soap, A&D, Pepto, toothbrush, toilet paper, bandaids, Neosporin
• Four-liter water bladder
• Steripen Ultra (not pictured)
• Space for food

Handlebar Bag:

• Revenge of the Rattlesnack bandana
• USB Battery (buffer battery for dynamo hub)
• iPhone charger
• Headlight
• Mountain Hardware PL-100 gloves
• Space for food

Dry Sack on Handlebars:

• Big Agnes Horsetheif sleeping bag
• Tarptent Double Rainbow
• Thermarest Prolite

Not in bags:

• Lezyne mini-pump, with Gorilla Tape wrapped around the handle
• Shutter Precision hub dynamo
• Exposure Revo dynamo light
• Sinewave Revolution dynamo USB charger (also on the magazine test, and working great)
• iPhone with Gaia GPS (primary navigation tool and camera)
• Modified Lifeproof/ King Cage iPhone top cap mount
• Two Fish bottle cage on the top tube
• Two 29er tubes strapped to the down tube

And the bike:

• I9 Torch Single Speed Hub laced to Blunt 35s (built by the same handsome fella who’ll be riding them)
• Jone’s Loop Bars
• Shimano XTR Trail brakes
• Thompson post and stem
• Hope bottom brisket
• Shimano SLX crank
• MRP Rock Solid fork (not in the picture)
• Chromag Trailmaster saddle (finally found a saddle that fits my ass right)
• Surly Krampus frame
• Knard 29×3.0 tires (which might be changed to 2.4 Ardents so that I have some mud clearance)

And that’s that. I’ll go into some more detail about some stuff in the next few days, but when I get to Banff next month, this is what I’ll roll out with.