we cannot talk about the ride(er) without talking about the horse. After a few bike packing trips trough germany and italiy with my good old Specialized Rockhopper Pro - a hardtail mountainbike, that was upgraded with new components (Sram NX 1x12 & Shimano XT) i had a feeling what is important to me in a bikepacking rig.

• I want to ride as much as possible

Not only in the sense of long distance also in terms of there should be less situations to step down from the bike and push it.

• A good seating position

Efficient while paddeling and easy on the body (decent posture, sitting well balanced an central in the bike, no compression in the neck from looking up...)

• Durable

Able to take hard hits and rough terrain and require the lwast mai tenance possible.

• Understated

If I manage woukd be nice if the rig does not show its price on first sight (Function over bling and optics)

• Versatile in tire clearance

From thin fast rolling tires to wide MTB tires, so I can change them dependent on the tour requirements and have options if a store has just certain tires on stock.

• Easy to repair

Good replacement part availability in the countries I'm going to. Repairs can be done at every bikeshop and on the street.

• Loads of mounts

For Paniers, bottles...

• Able to carry loads of weight

I'm a heavy rider and i do t want to take it slow and easy, be able to ride easy trails with all the ligfage onthe flat...so the tires, frame need to be ablt to take some punishment.

So where to look? There are some brands selling prebuild touring bikes - they are good, well tested, mostly expensive as hell and hardly checking all the boxes. Further I like to know my bike - that includes being able to repair and maintain it.

So lets custom build my dream world touring bike 😃

Meet the Salsa Fargo (CroMo) 29" all terrain bike 🤩

Frame

Salsa Fargo CroMo Steel Frame 2022 Lineup. Up to 180kg, variable backwnd with breakthrough and able to run Rholoff + Gates Belt or a classic chain setup. Clearance for up to 3" tires

Wheel set

Front 36 spokes with a Son 28 hub dynamo on DT swiss hx 531 rims.

Back 36 spokes with DT Swiss 531 Hub on hx 531 rims

Schwalbe Touring / MTB 2,25" tires

Stiff, durable and unbelievably well built - thx whizz wheels. If your looking for bike wheel nerds, thats your place.

Whizz wheels: small professional wheel builder from south germany – Schönaich (near Stuttgart)

Saddle / Seatpost

Ergon touring saddle (need to check which one)

Gel, cutouts or the best pars and quite comfy.

Thudbuster Suspension seatpost

Uses polymers for dampening, makes longer rides easy and takes away the hard hits from your lower spine.

Cockpit

Sqlab handelbar 80cm cut down to 74cm (i think).

12 degree back-sweep, matches well with my natural posture.

Ergon GP3 grips

Big palm rest and quite confortable grips with bar ends.

Brake levers - Shimano XT 8100

Small, metall, durable, one finger - love them 😍

Missile pro aero bar wirh custom bar for mounting the supernova light and sp connect phone holder.

For alternative hand positions and mounting options.

Drivetrain

SRAM GX Eagle 1x12

Think it was the 52 teeth one, need to checkbon that.

SRAM 34 teeth oval chainring in front

Oscilates between the diameter of a 32 - 34 round chainring. Where the stroke gets harder it has a reduced diameter and where you canput out the most power its increased in diameter. Wanted to try it and i woukd say it makes paddeling very smooth and round.

170mm cranks

Slightly shorter cranks, im not a large person and more ofthw  the  not cranks are too long, hindering you in doing a smooth and round stroke.

gear ratio / gear inches

The specialized with SRAM NX 1x12 @ 32 / 10-50 at 26" wheels with 2,2" tire width has the following gear inches / meter.

• gear inches / mod (low): 16,90" / 1,35m
• gear inches / mod (hi): 84,48" / 6,74m

Following are the options for the Fargo i looked at: 32-38 / 10-50 or 10-52 at 29" with 2,4" width.

gear inches / mod (low):

• 18,75" / 1,50m @ 32-50
• 19,92" / 1,59m @ 34-50
• 21,10" / 1,68m @ 36-50
• 18,03" / 1,44m @ 32-52
• 19,16" / 1,53m @ 34-52
• 20,28" / 1,62m @ 36-52

gear inches / mod (hi):

• 93,76" / 7,48m @ 32-10
• 99,62" / 7,95m @ 34-10
• 105,48" / 8,42m @ 36-10

Decided to go with the oval chainring in front with 34 teeth - gives me decent climbing abilities, a litte less well as the Specialized but the top speed in was missing many times.

Suspension

DT Swiss One 29" cross country suspension with 100mm travel.

Personaly I rather have a bit of a heavier bike and get rid of the harsh bumps that if the body is not perfectly aligned or prepared just hit you. Have a damaged shoulder so the smoother the better, else it's going to hurt in the evening quite a bit.

Bags

Ortlieb RC frame bag - 6L

Needwd sone getting used to it with the rolling closing at the frame. It holds my power charger, electronics and daily stuff. The rubber straps are not as durable as they should be...ripped one allready, second one damaged out of three.

Ortlieb Freeroller (No PVC) paniers - 2 x 25L

Pretty much the gold standard in trusted paniers that are water tight and ultra durable. They take a beating and last a long time. Fuether the attechmw t system is excellent.

Blackburn Cages with custom mount for the suspension.

Usually holds drybags with my kitchen and food. Up to 2 x 5L. Attached with straps to the cages.

Two Blackburn Feed bags for Water and snacks.

With the full size frame bag you need an alternative place to store your water.

Specialized Bottle cage

As under Frame Mount for an additional Water Bottle up to 1,5 L and a partni took over from Ameise - my last travel bike 😊

Electronics

Son 28 dynamo hub that splits and supplies the Bush and Müller E-Werk (converts to USB).

From there a powerbank 11000 mAh is charged by the dynamo and acts as buffer battery.

Supernova E3 pure is connected directly with the Son dynamo hub.

Not my prefered lamp because of it beeing fully automatic with daylight and night light. Meaning it turns on when i do t want it to and therefor interrupts the charging balance as it takes away generated energy fron the dynamo. Besides that the lightbis great, once it fully turns on it got an excellent beam. Wanted to go for the pro option but was not available at the time (that one has a switch)

Fenix headlamp

Smaller version of the well dwsigned fenix headlamp. Got it for years and served me well. Beam is not as strong as others but in terms of size, durability and capacity / runtime it was a good option.

I will update this post once in a while and add more detail and talk about gear inches and so on as well...but for now and to satisfy your couriosity - lets release it 😊