The Gear - Escaping Florida to Get Back to the Freezing Cold Mid-Atlantic - CycleBlaze

The Gear

Jamis Renegade in bikepacking mode
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The gear list and feedback from the ride:

Jamis Renegade Escapade - really enjoyed this bike as a touring bike, I like the more upright position compared to my Trek 520 and the 1x drive train was perfect for touring Florida.

Schwalbe 35mm GT Tour tires - I was going to put on my 32mm Schwalbe Marathon tires as the bigger GT Tours are definitely slower on pavement. But I'd heard horror stories of flatting due to junk on Florida roads, so left the bigger tires on. No flats but I definitely gave up some road speed.

Revelate Visacha Seat Pack - I think Revelate has replaced this with the Terrapin.  I bought this last year and have used it on long one-way rides where I  carry a change of clothing and sneakers. Took a while to get used to loading in and strapping up right - the first ride I strapped it in wrong and didn't notice bumps would cause the bag to touch the rear tire and I had to patch a hole. For this trip it worked great, but the down side of a roll-up seat pack is no stable vertical place to mount my fancy radar tail light - just used my standard clip-on blinky on the add-on wallet pack on the top of the Visacha. This bag carried all my clothes, electronics and a long lock cable.

Revelate Mini Frame Bag - This worked great for carrying my tools and lock on the right side and snacks on the left. But, it did force me to switch to smaller water bottles, and it caused me to mostly stop to drink vs ride while pulling out a water bottle. I tried using the braze on under the down tube for  a full size bottle. but it came too close to the front tire for me to trust that - I need to look for  a specially shaped bottle.

Oveja Negra Lunchbox Bar Bag - I had bought the Oveja Negra Front End Loader/Lunch Box combo, originally thinking I'd need the front bag. But, for warm weather cycling where I would just live in my SPD bike shoes, I could fit all my clothes in the seat pack.  The Lunchbox was great as a small bar bag - held my wallet, phone, toiletries, a lock, paper stuff in spare ziplock bags.

I also have a Revelate Top Tube bag I've owned for years and originally thought I need that, but had plenty of space without it.

For the planned 5 day trip, this was about right. Carrying a book to read at night would be the only added capacity I missed.

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