A very quick word on bikepacking luggage (very quick)

This week shit got real!

My luggage arrived and I could not be happier with it. As the Stache is a bonafide trail mountain bike, choosing luggage was actually quite tricky due to the compact nature of the frame and the tiny dimensions of the internal front triangle.

Firstly these dimensions are not friendly to big frame bags. With 2 water bottles in place there was no way that any type of frame bag was going to fit, so one was going to have to be sacrificed and there was no way to avoid it. With only 40cm of top tube to deal with inside the top tube area of the front triangle, my original plan of staying uniformly with the Apidura brand immediately fell to pieces. The frame bag I wanted to use from their range was 6cm too big in overall length, far from a huge measurement but these are finite dimensions and if there's no space then theres just no space.

So the search was on and one name kept cropping up as good value and great construction and so began the search for objective reviews of the Alpkit Possum frame bag.

Now the historic problem with Alpkit direct is that stock is always terrible in popular sizes and colours. This product was no different as my first choice (silver) to match the Apidura stuff I had already ordered was out of stock then Black (out of stock) both of which only said they were out of stock when I had gone to checkout. Very frustrating indeed! In the end I settled for the red colour as my bike has some red detailing on it which actually looks very cool when attached. The possum is well constructed and exactly the dimensions that were advertised so it fits under my teensy top tube perfectly. With deep full capacity access on one side and a thinner side pocket on the other its as simple as it is easy to access via the very good quality zips that can be opened and closed with one finger.

There will be plenty of time for colour shots. Here's some moody black and white for now.

The apidura stuff was a lot simpler but for one problem, the distance between the seat rails and the tyre. The seat pack I ended up with was the "small" version. You can see in the picture above that there is just a few inches between the tyre and the bottom of the pack. This just has an old jacket inside as a test so I expect when its fully loaded that it may be a little tighter in this area. I suspect that Apidura themselves knew the score here as the bottom of this pack is made from a different textile that seems to be a lot tougher than the material, easily 3 times as thick to take some serious abuse. But it fits, so panic over!

Lastly we have the handlebar roll; Apidura again for this one and it did not disappoint. The quality is fantastic and capacity is excellent for what is supposed to be a "medium" sized unit. It mounts at three points; two on the bars and one behind the fork cathead or steerer tube, depending on your frame. It doesn't seem to bounce around or inhibit any brake or gear operations.

I still have the bar roll accessory pouch to buy and a feeding bag for the top tube. These will both be from apidura as the accessory bag directly mounts to the bar roll and they feed bag seems like it will be a perfect fit.

I'll get round to taking better pictures and reviewing these products individually, but I just wanted to go over the basics in a quick blog entry as I'm off into the Highlands on Saturday to give the bike its first backpacking adventure along with my shiny new luggage!