Look closely, there's two Cleaveland Mountaineering frame bags on this trip in Australia. One on a Yeti and one on a Specialized Epic.
http://blog.neilennis.com/?p=3711
Custom bikepacking gear sewn in Grand Junction, CO.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Spring Break
Spring Break - a bit of backpacking with my lovely wife, some sewing, homework, and even mechanic work on the air brake system of a huge front end loader.
First the part you all care about:
A Tour Divide bound frame bag for an XL El Mariachi, made tough with #10 WR zips all around, heavy VX51 fabric, fully padded tube panels, and a custom dual compartment with the lower diagonal pocket meant for carrying a bladder. There is a hydration tube exit port at the front below the top tube, or of course it can come out the zipper opening too.
Here is the only other frame bag I've made like this one.
Wifey and I went for an overnight hike earlier this week, to Rattlesnake Arches and beyond. Last September we got engaged on this trail, and never made it all the way in to the arches.
How to make a two person 800 fill down sleeping bag for $13:
Take your homemade quilt and your Mountain Hardwear Phantom 32, and buy another #5 two way separating sleeping bag zipper. Sew the zipper onto the quilt, and poof - there you have it. Cheap and easy.
After hiking to the arches and attempting to sleep on one sleeping pad, the next morning we descended into the canyon and hiked down to the Colorado River.
We did bring two sleeping pads, but I still need to sew a sleeve to hold them together - cord didn't work.
Sorry, no pictures of the front end loader mechanics.
A few weeks ago I rode to the end of Butterknife, and rode up West Bangs Canyon Rd to the Tabeguache Trail. After riding up to there in perfect dry trail conditions, I got on the Tabeguache which was in the shade and covered in mud and slush. A couple hours of muddy slushy hike a bike is refreshing. Then wifey was nice enough to pick me up in Whitewater so I didn't have to ride US 50 back in the dark.
First the part you all care about:
A Tour Divide bound frame bag for an XL El Mariachi, made tough with #10 WR zips all around, heavy VX51 fabric, fully padded tube panels, and a custom dual compartment with the lower diagonal pocket meant for carrying a bladder. There is a hydration tube exit port at the front below the top tube, or of course it can come out the zipper opening too.
Here is the only other frame bag I've made like this one.
Wifey and I went for an overnight hike earlier this week, to Rattlesnake Arches and beyond. Last September we got engaged on this trail, and never made it all the way in to the arches.
How to make a two person 800 fill down sleeping bag for $13:
Take your homemade quilt and your Mountain Hardwear Phantom 32, and buy another #5 two way separating sleeping bag zipper. Sew the zipper onto the quilt, and poof - there you have it. Cheap and easy.
After hiking to the arches and attempting to sleep on one sleeping pad, the next morning we descended into the canyon and hiked down to the Colorado River.
We did bring two sleeping pads, but I still need to sew a sleeve to hold them together - cord didn't work.
Sorry, no pictures of the front end loader mechanics.
A few weeks ago I rode to the end of Butterknife, and rode up West Bangs Canyon Rd to the Tabeguache Trail. After riding up to there in perfect dry trail conditions, I got on the Tabeguache which was in the shade and covered in mud and slush. A couple hours of muddy slushy hike a bike is refreshing. Then wifey was nice enough to pick me up in Whitewater so I didn't have to ride US 50 back in the dark.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Everything Bags!
We're now testing out Everything Bags mounted to undrilled and suspension forks.
Large P clamps are hard to find - we had to order them in bulk from Grainger, so you can get them with your Everything Bag order for an extra $10 per bag.
They're great for extra water in the desert, stuff sacks of camping gear, a Thermos on a cold day....
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Large P clamps are hard to find - we had to order them in bulk from Grainger, so you can get them with your Everything Bag order for an extra $10 per bag.
They're great for extra water in the desert, stuff sacks of camping gear, a Thermos on a cold day....
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Sunshine and Seatbags
My wife needed to recertify her Wilderness First Responder training, so it was a good excuse for a trip to Lake City. Temperatures were predicted to be really cold, with barely any snow. Time for a bike ride to a peak climb.
Away I cruised, with temps around -12 F to ride the 13 miles of snow covered pavement and dirt to the bottom of the Winter Route up Sunshine (14,001 ft). Near the end of the ride, I came across either a bobcat or a lynx in the road, who quickly got shy and hid in the willows!
I stashed the bike at the bottom and got hiking...
Notice the new seat bag with blue VX42 fabric. There's 5 of them in production - order now!
A big hill without much snow on it followed.
near the top, but still a ways away, I made the call to turn around, I was moving really slow, was near official turn around time, and not feeling quite perfect, so down I went... no summit but a really good day in the mountains.
There's something nice about riding a bike with an ice axe.
Away I cruised, with temps around -12 F to ride the 13 miles of snow covered pavement and dirt to the bottom of the Winter Route up Sunshine (14,001 ft). Near the end of the ride, I came across either a bobcat or a lynx in the road, who quickly got shy and hid in the willows!
I stashed the bike at the bottom and got hiking...
Notice the new seat bag with blue VX42 fabric. There's 5 of them in production - order now!
A big hill without much snow on it followed.
near the top, but still a ways away, I made the call to turn around, I was moving really slow, was near official turn around time, and not feeling quite perfect, so down I went... no summit but a really good day in the mountains.
There's something nice about riding a bike with an ice axe.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Wedding Adventures!
We're finally married and having fun with it. Here's a few pictures from the adventures of the last few weeks: Honeymoon in Castle Valley, Utah, then offwidth climbing in Escalante Canyon. We're getting settled and getting back to work, sewing, and tutoring.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Everything Bag mounting on normal forks!
Last weekend I mounted up Everything Bag V1.0 with some P-clips on the commuter bike. Since then I've put a little over 100 miles on it. So far, so good, for commuting and a bit of snow covered rocky dirt road exploring.... with 35 mm slicks.....
Works great. It might wiggle a bit more than if it were mounted too real water bottle bosses, but it stays put.
Today I took the wrong way home to celebrate the end of the semester.
Versions 3, 4, and 5 are being made by the little elves at the North Pole right now.
The hardware store only had up to 1" P clips, which fit on the Fisticuff fork, but I'll need to order something bigger for the suspension forks. The plan is to buy a few common P clip sizes in bulk and have them available to customers so its ready to go, right out of the box for your needs.
This winter I fully plan on bringing Thermos lunches to school in the Everything Bag - just for testing and marketing purposes, of course.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Everything Bag
After hearing "internet forum rumors" that the Salsa Anything Cage was commonly breaking after under 1000 miles of Tour Divide style riding, I was riding and thinking one day... and it came to me. The idea of using a framesheet rather than a waterbottle cage was inspired by an impromptu repair by none other than Fixie Dave. And so I realized that a plastic framesheet with a fabric and webbing harness would work splendidly well and avoid the major weaknesses of the Anything Cage. Yield stress is not a concern for this application - aluminum tubing is plenty strong as are fabric and plastic. The problem will be with fatigue loading. Here, the fabric and plastic will be much more resistant to fatigue loading due to the material properties. Also, when the bike is laid down and the cage hits the ground, a soft fabric bag will just squish and be fine, while a metal cage will risk being bent.
And so the idea was born. Two prototypes followed and testing began. One ride confirmed that it held the cargo well and was easy to handle.
The bags started out with standard cam buckles on them, since side release buckles don't hold well over tight radii. They later were upgraded to metal spring loaded cam buckles for the ultimate in cinching power and ease.
Later I rode the bags up and down The Ribbon. Most riders shuttle to the top of the Ribbon... and most bring full suspension. But I proceeded to start at the bottom with a fat front and two liters of water strapped securely into prototype Everything Bags. After pedaling up a long ways, it was finally time to descend and really test the bags out, at 25 miles an hour on slickrock. The did well. So well, I didn't hardly notice their presence. The Ribbon wanders for a ways through typical rocky Grand Junction singletrack which finally converges to a long slickrock uphill. Sit and spin or stand and mash, or change it up a little - you'll be going up for a while. Once at the top, its time to wish your brake rotors had a coolant system as you smoke your way back down going close to 10 times as fast as you did on the way up. Its a good test for new bottle bags.
A bag then got sent off to SW Utah to get more mileage on it, and its finally time to go public with them. So, if you have a Salsa or Surly fork with the 3 bottle cage bosses in the fork, you now have a fatigue resistant option that should last longer.
So there you have it. I'm slammed with school and wedding planning until finals week (Dec 10-15) during which I could sew a little, then not until January after the honeymoon.
If you want to try out an early model Everything Bag, they'll start at $50 each including 6 fender washers and 3 long bolts to securely mount them on your fork.
And so the idea was born. Two prototypes followed and testing began. One ride confirmed that it held the cargo well and was easy to handle.
The bags started out with standard cam buckles on them, since side release buckles don't hold well over tight radii. They later were upgraded to metal spring loaded cam buckles for the ultimate in cinching power and ease.
Later I rode the bags up and down The Ribbon. Most riders shuttle to the top of the Ribbon... and most bring full suspension. But I proceeded to start at the bottom with a fat front and two liters of water strapped securely into prototype Everything Bags. After pedaling up a long ways, it was finally time to descend and really test the bags out, at 25 miles an hour on slickrock. The did well. So well, I didn't hardly notice their presence. The Ribbon wanders for a ways through typical rocky Grand Junction singletrack which finally converges to a long slickrock uphill. Sit and spin or stand and mash, or change it up a little - you'll be going up for a while. Once at the top, its time to wish your brake rotors had a coolant system as you smoke your way back down going close to 10 times as fast as you did on the way up. Its a good test for new bottle bags.
A bag then got sent off to SW Utah to get more mileage on it, and its finally time to go public with them. So, if you have a Salsa or Surly fork with the 3 bottle cage bosses in the fork, you now have a fatigue resistant option that should last longer.
So there you have it. I'm slammed with school and wedding planning until finals week (Dec 10-15) during which I could sew a little, then not until January after the honeymoon.
If you want to try out an early model Everything Bag, they'll start at $50 each including 6 fender washers and 3 long bolts to securely mount them on your fork.
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