Hello! Just letting everyone know that I am realizing a dream this year and racing Tour Divide! I am super excited and cannot wait. We start Friday morning and I am heading up to Banff tonight. If you are interested you can track me at trackleaders.com and find out more info including call ins at bikepacking.net in the ultra racing forum. Thanks for your support!!!

Howdy!


 Friday night, listening to Earl Sweatshirt, drinkin some Dirty Bastard. Been thinking about this one for a while. A little rough draft for ya! Let me know what ya think.

Catching up with....

 Long time no posts. If you haven't noticed blogging is not my thing. I apologize. So, I am going to play catch up and blog myself into the present! It might take a couple of posts but I will get you there, I promise.

     My last post was congratulating Hamish on his Tour Divide finish. Sounds like he had a good time and his frame bag held up just fine. My buddy Patrick and his friend rode the GDMBR in fast touring mode. They had to dodge the flooding up in Canada but, they made it through with no problems and had a grand old time. Here are some pics.

     

  

     Looks like he had an awesome time. I am super jealous! Anyway, he used some bags I made for him. The dual compartment, horizontal zipper framebag which you can see pretty well in the pictures. Also this cuben fiber Fannypack(seatbag). Here is a better picture.

     This is 2.92 oz. hybrid cuben with a protective layer of 50 polyester on the outside. I used it on the High Country pathway bikepacking trip in the spring with Bob and Stickboy. It is definitely showing some wear after Patrick's trip but is still going strong in Morroco! I have some lighter 1.43oz cuben I intend to make a full kit to test out myself here sometime soon. I'll keep ya posted. Drop me a line if you are interested.

     He also used a handlebar harness I made specifically for Jones loop bars which we both use. It's pretty simple and works well. It is made from some Dyneema x grid fabric and Dacron for stiffness. I don't have a good picture of it but, it's a work in progress anyway.  I can definitely stitch one up for you that will look good and work great!

     That's it for now. Until next time. I promise it will be sooner rather than later.

    

Congratulations to Hamish Mckee! He finished the Tour Divide in 26 days. I made him a framebag and sent it to him all the way down in Australia. My first international customer and my first Tour Divide customer. I told him I was jealous and he said not to be because he just started mountain biking not too long ago and was undertrained. Well it looks like he was in good enough shape to ride 2700 miles over mountain passes and through empty grasslands. Good job Hamish!!

St Fatty's day and 2 Frame bags ready to ship!

Howdy folks!

Had some fun this past weekend at St Fatty's day fatbike race down in Gaylord. Weather was nice and sunny but still cold and snowy. Perfect conditions for a fatbike race. Looked like people had a good time even though the course softened up a bit and gave people a run for their money. Anyway, I got to party with Scotty Q and his lady Christina. We were also blessed with the presence of Mr. Bob and Mr. Pat Smackenfanny from Ann Arbor. Fun times!

Anyway, I have two fatbike bags for sale. One for a large Pugsley and one for a large Mukluk. So these bags have a flared front for more capacity, vertical velcro divider, drive side mesh pockets and non drive side map pocket. These sell for $120, so if you are in need shoot me an email.

So the black bag with the gray spine is for the large Pugsley and the gray with black spine is for a large Mukluk.

Here's some random pictures to check out.

 

Stickboy, Alaska and some new stuff

 Stickboy, Barking Bear and Quiring way up there in Alaska!

 I haven't heard the full report yet but, something about frozen zippers was mentioned.

 I am totally jealous!

 John's new seat bag ready for RVing around the countryside.

 That's a recycled sail. Save the planet!!

 Screw computers these are my kind of accessories!!!

The Man himself!

Materials

Just wanted to tell y'all about the materials I use in the construction of my bags. Dimension Polyant X-Pac laminated fabrics are pretty much the standard for bikepacking bags as well as backpacks and other uses that require a lightweight, waterproof fabric. DP makes fabric for sails and uses that technology to create high tech fabrics for the outdoor industry. 

The X-Pac fabrics are a 4 layer laminate consisting of a nylon outer layer (which is different for each fabric) with a DWR coating , 22 degree polyester X-Ply, 0.25 mil PET film and a 50 denier polyester taffeta backing

This is the outer surface of the VX07 a 70 denier double rip-stop nylon the lightest version I use.  4.9oz a square yard

This is the inner layer

This is the VX21 with a 200 denier nylon outer layer. I use this the most because of it's combination of light weight and durability. 6.2 oz a square yard

And the inner layer

This is VX42 with a 400 denier nylon outer. This stuff is very durable but weighs a bit more than the VX21. 9.3 oz a square yard

This is dyneema gridstop

This is 1680 denier ballistic Cordura. I use it to reinforce areas exposed to abrasion.

These are #5, #8 and #10 water resistant zippers. I forgot to take a picture of the water resistant sides.

Here are the zipper slides.

And here is some of the Velcro hook and loop that I use. This is the 2 inch but I also use 1inch, 1.5 inch and 4 inch. 

Hopefully you learned a little bit about materials. Let me know if you have any questions.