Over the last two months, I’ve been writing more about my Tour Divide race experience with the idea of possibly turning it into a book. As I go through the days, the lessons I learned, and the people I met along the way, I’m reminded of just how amazing the journey turned out to be. I don’t find myself writing about how the hours of gear research into vapor barrier socks or weeks of looking at various sleeping bags drastically changed the experience.
These realizations are a bit ironic because the sport of bikepacking involves lots of gear to get started. Your bike has to become your kitchen, closet, bedroom, hospital, and transportation. Many types of gear and supplies are required to make that happen.
It’s very easy to get sucked into the vortex of gear research and never find your way out again. Over the next few posts, I’d like to explore this in more detail to discover how other riders handle this challenge. If I had to distill it down to a single thought, it would be:
Without gear, bikepacking is impossible. Without the journey, bikepacking is pointless.
To get this started, how do you keep focused on the journeys and adventures rather than the gear? With bikepacking, is it possible to maintain that focus and stay away from the gear vortex?
