Podcast: George Huxford from Apidura – Makers of Cycling Bags for every Gravel Cycling Adventure

Apidura Podcast George Huxton

Our partner in podcasting, The Gravel Ride Podcast, speaks this week with George Huxford from Apidura, makers of cycling bags for every gravel cycling adventure. We learn the various types of bags from tip to tail of the bicycle and get some practical advice on packing and load distribution.

Be sure to check out Gravel Cyclist’s review of Apidura’s Racing Top Tube Pack.

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Automatic Transcription by The Gravel Ride (please excuse all errors)

Hello and welcome to The Gravel Ride Podcast I’m your host Craig Dalton. This week’s podcast is brought to you by our friends at P. N. W. Components. I’ve been riding the coast handlebar at four hundred and eighty millimeters and the coast dropper post for maybe almost three months now, and after tell you I’m really sold particularly with my recent move down to two Panga California. I’ve really started to own my appreciation for the suspended dropper post. So, let’s make an important distinction. there. I’m a big fan of the dropper post the ability to drop your saddle down via technical sections the Costa Dropper Post is actually a suspended dropper post. So it’s air actuated meaning. You can tune it to your body weight and preference, but the post will actually dipped down when I hit a rather aggressive hit with the back end of my bike. So I’m using the dropper component. When I know I’m going to get into some rough stuff and the suspended component when I don’t. The net result of this is I’m always protected when I get into the rough stuff saddle up saddle down I’ve got a little secret weapon. This dropper post combined with the wide handlebars has left me as comfortable as I’ve ever been getting into the technical terrain. So if you’re looking for something to up your technical elements, definitely give pm w components look at pm w components, dot com, and for the gravel ride podcast listeners, you can get fifteen percent off coupon for your first order using the code the gravel ride. So onto this week’s guest, really excited to welcome George Houck’s furred from the bag company Applera based in London England. Abdur has a full range of bags for gravel cycling bike packing excetera. You guys know I love bags. So as exciting to talk to George and take bags from every different angle on the bike and talk about mixing and matching different bags to meet your gravel cycling needs so I. Hope You enjoy this interview and with that said, let’s dive right in George Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. It’s great to be here Yeah. It’s a real honor you listen to podcasts for. Rages now. Yes. Fantastic guests and yeah. So It’s going to be amongst them I appreciate that. Well, let’s start off by learning a little bit about you and your cycling background, and then about epidurals and how it came about and I’m excited really everybody on the WHO listened to the podcast knows I’m a big bag geek. So I’m excited to kind of just go from tip to tail and talk about the full range of bags that grovel cyclists can be using to satisfy. Their their gear capacity heeds. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That sounds great. I’m Yeah. I’m a massive Geek on as well. So we’re GONNA need someone to stop too much into the details to a perfect house zips work and all that kind of thing. But yeah, we’ll try and keep interesting right on. So how did you? How did you get into cycling and how did you find your way to aperture and how did the company get started? Well, I’ve I like a lot of your guests start off in white shops. Growing up at always been into bike since anything really racing mountain bikes riding Banamex is all kinds of stuff. Are Not led me working in bike shops Off the. Ships bit moved up to the what can brand and. I ended up driving a big van for the demo bikes round the UK, for a number of years to events, setting people up full suspension bikes setting up in talks and trial sentences, which was which was great and that sort of led me down a kind of marketing within the cycle industry Yeah and then I I came across the aperture once they’ve been what’s been going for little bit to kind of help them with the with the growth than. Themselves in the in the kind of wide cycling market. So. Yeah. At this point, I’ve been here. Account even think maybe it’s three is Yes go relatively young company and. Yeah I’m not spend time with them now and when the company was first founded, they’ve was it founded around us certain specific product or opportunity. yet to ascend extent. So the company was actually founded in two thousand thirteen, but it was it was about a year and for products came out. So a found a tour had been been writing for a great number of years and had really gotten into the side riding coming mugged on a long distance cross country background, and then moving into longer longer events. I’m basically found that the kind of the on offer at that time to kind of backpacking gear wasn’t the same kind of experience maybe wasn’t the same kind of technical stand as she used to in kind of clothing and in the bikes and suspension electron stuff and I wanted to kind of.

00:05:13 – 00:10:02

Add a bit more technology and make a little bit if people actually get the stuff on their bikes. So having done toward abide, she decided to kind of. Out in south accompanied. By, two thousand fourteen. I packs were on the market. And since then I think we’ve really entered the golden age of bags on bikes. The innovation has been. Super staggering the last few years. Likes, and we now see bags attached almost everywhere across the bike and I needed. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s a good point I mean when? When bought packing I died it was really. It was more about what it wasn’t. It wasn’t racks and Patios and that meant people can put bags on the kind of bikes that particular surface they weren’t to right. Instead of starting with a bike, the luggage you start with the ride bike for the kind of writing once. said, he wanted to ride for a week on a mountain bike of two weeks on a road bike you went. Held back trying to find something that could run a rack Sarah it comes style that way the the archetype. Like packing ranges probably the saddle pack then quite quickly. So handlebar pox name frame packs. And those kind of like there’s three pieces make what most people think the covered. By packing south. You’re quite right and plenty of of places on the bike where you can squeeze and space if you want to. Yeah I think you know one of the big takeaways I wanted to have the listener? Arrive at from this conversation was just they already have a bike that’s capable of doing massive amounts of adventure from. Multi Week, multi-month touring to just being more comfortable on a long big day ride. So if we talk about the different types of packs I thought, it’d be a good way to start just a start at the front of the bike and let’s go through all the different modalities because you’ve referenced handlebar bags frame bags and saddlebags which will drill into but there’s also additional mounting points from top to mounts to folk mounts two. Different I know you’ve got different accessory packs that velcro onto the bike anywhere you want who? Let’s start at the front of the bike and maybe down at the fork and just talk about what’s possible. Yeah. Yeah. That’s that’s a really good way of going I’m semi when I look at a kind of applied this I’m always trying to balance out is. Accessibility, that’s it’s the the white and the white balance on the bike So as you get kind of. Away from where you are a writer, that’s the kind of stuff way you’ve got limited accessibility it’s so stop worrying to go into maybe just the beginning of the ride or at the end of the ride. So on the full quayle talking about this there’s loads of companies now, really getting into the idea of helping white pack is out wiping more mounts on their bikes. On the foot mounts really good spot for that image you can carry around comfortably zero solid mountain place. what it lacks is that kind of accessibility from the Saddle Sipho may be in stuff that. That was like kind camping out maybe or needed for the the at the end of the Roy robinsons want to be getting into as far as weight distribution George. So I don’t have any experience with extra weight on the forks like that on the side how to how does one think about that does the imagine it slows the steering down quite a bit. So is there you packing your most lightweight? Non, every moment needed items down there. Yeah that that would certainly be my suggestion. Packs on the four care of some of the last packs I would add to pretty full sets up. So it’s the kind of thing if we. Sang out for. To a three week trip and you needed some extra stuff worth it got really cold Planning Mountain Pastas awebber changeable. It’s real good spot for an extra thick sleeping bag or another layer sleeping system as well as a a down jacket or something like that generally that yeah. January the principal we wanna think about is the heavy of the item the closer to the bottom bracket we want to put it. That just keeps the handling as you’d expect on your bunk and the key thing about the packing set is that we can use a whole system of smallpox to kind of to achieve that objective robin putting everything just in one spot mobike. Yeah. That makes a ton of sense and when you look at the a line up, you can see a lot of these different small areas and accessory packs that are possible and as you said, it’s it’s really about kind of taking the the big areas which might be the the seat pack, the frame pack and handlebar role, and augmenting them as necessary depending on the duration of your trip. Yet you caught right there and you know.

00:10:02 – 00:15:13

A mixture of smaller packs, a larger number of smaller. One Big One it also helps to organize if you’ve just getting into one, they kind of a really large pack trying to find that one small thing you need it, it can be a bit difficult having things more organized into lots of small places can sometimes help you up. Yeah, absolutely. So going up a little bit onto the handlebar now, there’s a couple of different style bags that you guys offer. I had previous experience with kind of a role side bag. which until I went to a larger handlebar, my gravel bike, it actually wouldn’t fit on my gravel bike with a kind of forty four centimeter bar and to your point earlier, I would sort of focus a lot of stuff that I wasn’t going to need during the day. So I might put my sleeping bag in there because I was always a bit conscious of the weight on the front end of the handlebar just in terms of the effects of the steering. Yeah I completely agree with that often myself this is exactly what goes that my sleeping bag up a baby bag or Top shelter in here. It’s a thin you WANNA be getting into the beginning and end of the rod of getting ended derailing. It because of the shape that you’ve got that you’re quite right their offspring restrictions based on how you’ve likes out. So Away Hood saw. How Wide Jabbar is sometimes, you’ll find different shifts with a different amount of fro on that Liba when you shifting can affect this as well. So it’s always best to to really check those before what when setting a backup you’ll find most people’s packs similar to ours have kind of that role feature on that allows you to just the the. Width of what you’re putting it on most things are going to put American principal. So you can really shaped up to how you want it. I do think I do think that the size restrictions on these bikes is actually super positive thing because I. Think new bike packers have a tendency to try to bring everything in the kitchen sink with them and. Being forced to edit is so crucial I found in getting a bike that still writable and just getting the minimal amount of gear that you need to have to be safe. Yeah you’re entirely right. I mean we say here Super Light. It is we spend a Lotta time trying to make as light as we can, but some of the biggest weight savings just the up in there. So the the biggest savings on the stuff that gets left home when send your bike things, you don’t really need. Yeah and I think when we talk about handlebar bags, there’s definitely arranged right there’s obviously like the sort of the expedition style pack which is trying to carry as much gear as possible but there’s also smaller packs which I’ve talked about on the podcast before and You know in the wintertime just having a small handlebar bag can be super super useful location for your extra Jackie, your gloves and a little bit of food. Yeah Yeah I agree with that. Kind of the maximum space that we can really use a areas something probably in the twenty liter range and that’s on a ball. You know it’s really wide like a real flat drop. Well, maybe even a flatbed depending on your up and then yeah, we can go right down to something a lot smaller. Those kind of the smaller Bob it’s opening. Really, good for grapple as you suggest that kind of. Semi accessible I call it kind of one on clipped accessibility where you could just put that one Riyobi’s from the bike and grab a jacket or bar something is, is it really useful spun? You can still. Get that benefit even when you go into a full packing south by using an accessory pocket or another Pao Chung from of that. Any brands that have a similar approach Abbott. Let Lil extra. Accessibility is important things you might want to grab on the road. So I think it’s a great time to be having this conversation as a lot of parts of the world they’re going into winter time and just the idea having a a little bit extra storage capacity somewhere on your bike for an extra jacket or vaster gloves can really adds to the comfort level is slipping back a little bit on the bike. Another popular area is that top tube pack for. Kind of power bars, maybe holding your phone little bit small amounts of food for those of you who have stared down at the two bolts on your top tube and scratched her head as to what the heck. Therefore they’re really for these top two packs that can add just a little bit to the to the bike. Yeah. This is a this is a fantastic was any ride to be honest And it’s great. We’re seeing so many more people. Deciding to to carry hit. This Israeli for the things that you normally putting your jazzy pockets. But maybe if you’re riding gravel with a little bit more room, you don’t want to be reaching behind and riding one hand trying to dig out own or never energy bars a this is a much basketball. You can instantly grab it. You can see what you’re carrying multiple different sizes options out there depending on whether he’ll balancing lightweight or you once it’s fully waterproof all like mentioned, you want some of the used bolts on the top of your bike extra ability that was actually one of my first piff unease of bags on the bike for gravel and I.

00:15:14 – 00:20:03

What You said is spot on when you’re off road reaching back to your pocket becomes more difficult. So having something in front of you while you’re on a sort of a bumpy climb that you can unzip or flip flop over and just grab some food or any item, you need quick access to as really been a game changer for me really enjoy that I’ve stopped using it a little bit in as I’ve moved to the next bag I wanted to talk about, which is sort of the the quarter or half frame bag. Can you talk about that type of bag how it attach is and maybe the storage capacity those bags offer. Yes sure Yeah. Experience that she very similar deals. Sa-, this kind of pack occupies the Front space of your frame triangle I refer to Lisa’s of like a wedge. The key thing with this kind of packing there’s it’s not size Pacific your bike. It still allows you to run water bottles have access just normal typically in this space on the bike, we can give you somewhere between two full elitist spending. What kind of a self you’ve them what kind of patchy get that’s about double. What you get from atop cheap pack the cool thing about the easiest that really really stable typically be connecting to your down tribute talk to you potentially around your head chief as well which means that just lock in there that really out the way. Completely clear of your knees. However, you writing doing Yeah I’m for me I quite honestly mainstay time. Now this there’s no downside to it. It works equally well, completely full or empty So yeah. If you put on that sped up and eat snacks then left with. Any Yeah I already skipped over that one. I’m glad you brought that up because that’s one one that I haven’t used personally kind of the smaller right up to the front bag I jumped right to the quarter frame bag going all the way to the seat tube Yeah. Yeah. So I think I think that’s a great point because. And that’s that’s the takeaway I think for the listener is kind of look at the range of bags. Your favorite supplier has if you go to the APP Adora site, you’ll see all these different things and you’ll start it’ll start to click in your mind. Oh, that would be a good combination maybe it’s a atop to to bag and this little bag or a different seat bag or handlebar bag, and you start to piece together the storage capacity that you need for your style of writing. Yeah, that’s quite right and if you find pox that really worked fuel kind of epic on a day rights and then you want to take up something a bit further and it’s just a matter of. adding. Something small you. If you beginning packs with the idea, feel one weeklong trip year you’ll you wouldn’t have as much use some time. Yeah I’m I’m frankly probably guilty of carrying too much stuff on the daily just because I have that full of length of the top tube quarter frame bag on my bike but I, just love the convenience I don’t really have to think about editing too much my gear I just have a full repair kit in their plus jacket an extra gloves almost every ride yeah. Yeah this is a great. It’s a great kind of pop going all the way back to that a seat cheap the the other benefits you know when you are the longer trips is that things tent Poles that they can start working in that when she using the full length, your top cheap. Depending on how big your bike is. You have to stop thinking about how you’re going to carry Walter this point if you’re in a smaller bike, you may have to use kind of bowl cage relocated or consider using a small all even side entry cages just to make sure that you still access But yeah, for most people, this kind of offering packed like that. Isn’t again, the Weber much is going to give you storage capacity up to about about five liters depending frame size. Yeah. Let’s point actually I did move to those kind of side mounted or side accessed bottle cages to just accommodate two water bottles on my medium size frame and not style bag. The other thing I want to point out is I’ve sort of eliminated for my daily rides, any other type of bag on the bike so I’m no longer using a seat bag. Or handle bag when I have that what I call the quarter frame bag I think you’re referring to it at the half frame bag when I put that on I just kind of consolidate everything into it and I do enjoy the kind of clean aesthetic look to it, and also the knowledge that with some smaller bags whether it’s reattaching seat bag or handlebar bag I sort of dramatically open up from a percentage perspective what I can carry. Yeah. Yeah. That’s quite right and. You know moving away from storing stuff under the saddle does not more options.

00:20:03 – 00:25:02

The drop opposed spoke essentially lot mud gods. Just, nodding your hands in their way, you often get Plus. Lots more, snacks. Exactly, now let’s move onto the big guy something I’ve never personally owned the full frame pack. So that’s that’s something that’s occupying almost the entirety of the area and the main triangle of your frame. But as you alluded to earlier from kind of a weight distribution perspective, getting a lot of your geared down in that area is super important in terms of ride quality. So can you talk about full frame packs and how you see them being used? Yeah. Full frame pack is is actually one of those packs a often people on. If. They end up using one and kind of take the plunge. It becomes when the favourite packs the me this is the kind of gear that you’d be thinking Abou- If you’re doing a multiday right the the main advantage chairs that you’re really maximizing all space in that triangle if you think about it autism bowl cage, pretty inefficient way of filling that kind of triangle shape if if given a triangle using two cylinders the best. Way To use it a lot. So completely filling that that frame shape with pack and then being able to carry water in there should way something like a bladder. Just pulled out you camelback still down low means that you get so much more storage device and you carrying on this to really close the bump bracket, which is gonNA mean you’re handling it. Some isn’t an impenetrable load and I noticed on your pack you’ve got to Zipper access points are actually a divider in there somehow Yay on on our pipe steroids, such a removable dividers. So depending on how you’ll get up You can have that kind of shelf in that. It’s something all us us used lower-half. Eva For yeah. For Water. Glad. Like I said, will temporarily the tools down this heavy spats. If it didn’t along trip and you may be expanding that repack role kind of situations that repressed oats and ten polls and stuff then took it can quickly grow and having it can of low and stable down there a good spot for it, and then the shelf Bisi means that you have that that frame packed the Joe using on the top. So you can just use that achy normally. Would you also have? cable ports there. So if you are running a bladder, you can run a hose out if you’re using it to store batteries to power lights or your GPS, then you can run cables in and out. Okay. So if you’re if you’re running a bladder, the the hose of the bladder can actually run interior until the top where there’s a port to kind of it to come out. Yeah. That’s that’s quite right. So you know it’s moving onto a pretty pretty full like packing up at this point that if you re looking to maximize the space blog than the full impact snakes where to go, I was playing around with a bladder in my quarter frame bag and it got stuck on kind of what to do with the tube as it was kind of dangling around and how to make that kind of you know most efficient and and safe. Frankly can you talk about how people deal with the tubes once they’re coming out of those packs? Yeah. Yeah. It’s. It’s actually something that’s really developing a lot. We didn’t see even a couple of years ago. So often sing it more and more start lining racist now. At tends to be people using magnetic solutions to manage that cheap. So the quasi companies that will make it kind of hose management, kind of little clip that would normally on a rucksack with something like that and we seen people taping it to that Baas or using it. I’m for the straps of their other like packing setup settlers a mind on I, run a small clip through one of abstracts. Around, my stem holding a food pouch or something and then yeah, the hose just flips amount of grab it when I need, you see a lot of people will he’ll use a era extensions really long already false ride search with the up was it allows them to just rest on their elbows drink power and along. Yeah. That makes sense now. Thanks for. Clarifying that a little bit I was kind of scratching my head and I knew there’s Probably. Someone had a solution out there, but I eventually just gave up and. Put the put the cages back on. Yeah. Well, it’s. Like. Backing you have to kind of adapt and overcome. You get these kind of strange problems. Come up you have to kind of think of it sideways. Yeah the yeah. So shifting back towards the back of the bike, we now have the the saddle pack and I remember my first proper bike packing saddle pack. It was I opening to me how much stuff you could get in there, and also how well these bikes can still ride fully loaded. So let’s talk about the big saddle packs offer.

00:25:03 – 00:30:01

Yeah. Yeah. I mean the saddle pack Israeli the kind of the. Piece of packing luggage. Again. It’s can workers any bill bikes Being held by having to a rackl nothing about the space that we’ll saddle packs old away from five years up to seventeen leads depending on what kind of riding doing. And this space is really flexible the best advice is again to try and get the heavy stuff to bracket. So tools knows that settled pack bring it was the center. The bike is going to result in a more stable Jack I’m handling and then software up in there as also conform better. So I’ll look at clothes. In the I’ll have my kind of wash kit maybe in the nose and then potentially. Mother Lot clothing leads I might want to grapple whilst on the ride still easy to access this One phone clipped inside the road. It’s not stuff that’s necessarily locked away the whole world everybody. I had purchased one of these bags and then a buddy of mine at work had asked to borrow it. So I gave it to him and he gave it back to me at work one day and I had been in a routine of carrying everything on a backpack in a backpack. With my sort of. Ten Mile Commuter Fourteen Mile Commute into San Francisco, but I happen to have this bag at the office one day. So I shoved everything in it and it was like a light bulb went off and. Kicking myself for having this thing in the garage, most of the year and not using it for my commuting because it’s it’s I mean, it’s very clear when you think about it but it was quite easy to to have a full set of spare clothing whatever I needed and just kind of roll the back down more tightly than I would sort of having a bike packing setup, but then I. had. All the convenience of having nothing on my back and having the bike ride well in the commute. So I you know after the quarter frame bag I highly recommend getting one of these saddlebags into your stable just because it can have utility much beyond you know a big back bike packing trip. Yeah. Yeah. You’ll. You’re exactly right that and generally with these pat stat adjustability is is a real bonus. Typically you can rollaway about half the capacity of the park. So no big biggest pack of some seventeen leaf is you can easily get rid of off that Vice and sin good compressive rolling and make it kind of flexible place stuff. Yeah I’m the the handling impact isn’t isn’t as great as you might imagine, you know the the bike is designed to have a lot of white in the saddle already. So just putting a little bit more behind that. Doesn’t really affect it too much to. Especially if balance still allow just sets up with a few. around the bike. You can really have a very neutral handling. Still carry carry. The I really like what happened in your lineup because a lot of us might think of a saddle pack. That’s where you have a spare tube and your repair kit etc, and it’s it’s quite small, and then we started to have this vision of a we’ve seen these bike packing bags but with your racing saddle pack, it’s kind of the best of both worlds where it’s got, you know certainly a lot more capacity than a basic tool bag it’s got the rolltop functionality but. It’s not this massive thing. So if you’re looking for something to just pack like a puffy jacket on for a winter, ride the descent I think that racing south pack size looks super useful. Yeah. You’re quite right again, the the racing series really came from a lot of a fast the kind of support friends who really you know really rolling away all the capacity even of our smaller packs while other series, they really wanted something smaller lighters they were using really minimal setups. So that’s where the development came from but it’s ended up being more useful for the rest of us even even derides in similar having just five Lee is behind the saddle really isn’t going to impact you much until. It’s really lightweight pack talks right out the way not gonNa have any impact on your peddling position up just like you said, you can. You can really increase the of the Kinda gave the occurring and be ready for for more things and take them challenging writes. Yes. If you’re not jazzed perhaps on the visuals of how a quarter frame pack looks or maybe as you mentioned earlier, you’re riding a small frame that would necessitate you not having bottles on the bike going with that kind of racing style rear repack I think is a super useful alternative. Absolutely and you know it’s not. It’s not one of the really massive ones. You’ve maybe seen on full packing. It’s not going to hold you back in Sam’s white or nothing like that. Yeah. Exactly and I have to say for for those you unfamiliar with APP Adora over to Adora Dot, com, and not only peruse the sort of various bags that they have to offer because I think it will again spark your imagination as to what’s right for you. But check out the ambassadors page.

00:30:02 – 00:35:04

You may recall that I interviewed Jenny tough a few months back and she was talking about her use of the dirt bags on her all her expeditions including that. Spectacular. Story of the Atlas Mountain Race. Zero. You know for me I. Love. Geeking, out I may never do something like the Atlas Mountain Race but I love reading these stories and again, it will just shed light on how people are using these packs and how durable they are, and frankly how capable the bike you have in your garage is for this type of expedition. Yeah. Absolutely. You you just a couple of packs away from having the really ride ride anywhere and say that is embassador on our over friends. So important in developing the scare you know we designed pox here in London and it’s it’s not like we can kind of. Cross mountains in our lunch breaks contest out the function. So we really rely on the Community of friends embassador to be putting up protesting, and that means sending them to. All over the world where people are going to take on the next big challenge we really need all our fool it ends up on our website to. been doing multiple multi week trips to to make sure it’s up to standard and an friends are absolutely crucial in that. Yeah. It’s a Lotta Fun, is a couple other things. One thing that you guys came out with I, think just this year was that expedition down to pack and I think this falls in the category obviously of like if you’ve exhausted every other location, this is a neat way to carry things but I just thought it was cool that you’ve created kind of durable role sack that can essentially attach anywhere on the bike. Yeah. I mean, we didn’t realize that could attach anywhere until people started doing it. And then it turns out that people have a lot better ideas than us. Yet this is this kind of came around in response to what we’ve been doing for while anyway that that space onto the bump brock is a great space to carry something heavy. You don’t need very often been strapping. A stove or an extra wool, a bottle using duct tape and. Wire and stuff to make another bowl catch down there for a number of years. So the jumps don’t you make some things specific. There was some was really good. It means you can get that kind of. The benefit of having a third wall cage down that what you look box now coming with a on any bike, and you can use that space something that isn’t just won’t This is a perfect spot. Kind of mole will see toolkit for for an expedition or long ride and it gets it right out the way. Olek areas fully Walker’s expedition series I will accept packing get on the market. So even though into the spot where it’s GonNa have a pretty hard time with elements everything that’s going to be driving you. Yet I think the thoughtful part of the design here is that the cylinder shape is edited down. So it’s not going to become to Bulbous to affect you know pedaling with your cranks or get in the way retire there, and that’s that’s important. You know obviously, there’s a lot of great hacky ways of attaching things to your bike, and certainly if you’re unable to to purchase any of these things hack away, that’s the beauty of gravel and the beauty of adventure cycling but. When you do work with a company that sort of thoughtful in sort of the proportions you do get these really nifty pieces. Yeah. I thought I’d got away from. Boston bracket dramas when I left pikes behind where we get open all the spreadsheets and trump will bracket tops down to make sure that the pack wouldn’t get in the way of anyone. Anyone’s cranks will ever come a south they were. Using so yeah. Different types. But yeah, we were there get I’m sure the other funny thing we were talking about offline line that you you had shared with me. We talked about how you know when you’re gearing up for your bike packing expedition particularly sort of in my case when I’ve only done a handful of these, I pack everything very precisely and I try to Max out every nook and cranny of my bag capacity. But then at the end of the day I roll up to talk correa and I wanna get a Burrito and a coke and I’ve got absolutely nowhere to hold it what what would have you guys done to solve that problem Yet yet you describe the problem exactly and it’s one. It’s one the we had on the better. We got a packing on gear the worse it came we were always telling people to pack seems best base just for this This year, we decided to actually try to design some packs would with allow people to to solve this problem. So yet palpable series of a Mazzetti backpack up is designed for this that Suka palpable miniature packs. You can have one scrunched up in Jersey pocket or in any other space in your bike got straps attached to any spat hog frame and then when you get. Yeah and when you want that big feet up or you can get food and take take it to the campsite.

00:35:04 – 00:40:03

All you know you decide maybe a trip is. For it might be in the beginning maybe a couple of days in that’s going to be will be involved in. You’ve maybe planned to the beginning. You’ve got extra buy stuff yet to pick up supplies souvenirs anything fancy really, and then when you’ve eaten drunk fill, you can pack it down to get get out the way your reminds me of the kind of reusable grocery bags that we have in the US that sorta down to less than the size of your fist. It’s a similar material I imagine to that but just kind of formulated in a in A. A backpack style so you can carry it easily on the bike. Yeah Yeah, they would definitely an influence. The key one of these is that we were on make more to prove all is proved. So we spent a lot time trying to work out how we can make them fully waterproof and then adapting the fit and size. So they would actually work when you’re on the bike. So this this mole structure to the to the shoulder straps to be used to Kinda grocery bags. It’s a bit more comfortable carrying. Along the way yeah it’s nice. I mean I. Think as an industry kind of moved away from big. Backpacks carrying heavy gear because we’ve all experienced, how awful that can be to your posterior and your back and say like with all these great bags, you’ve moved it onto the bike. But certainly, for trip to the grocery store, a six pack of beer and some Burritos, it’s great to kind of just be able to throw something that you can safely ride after a long day. Oh definitely. You know we’ve we’ve had people send US messages that really enjoying these packs toting coming from kind of a bike packing background. It’s all that this little package strapped with about cage or like I said maybe in the Jersey Oak and at the end of a appeal to our road drive with friends like Pasta bursary store not take stuff home robin the. Plastic carrier bag hanging from the draw swinging dangerously to spokes you make your way home exactly now, I think you know I think that’s a common thread in our conversation just this idea like once you get one of these bags whatever it is and who’s ever at from it really Oh, just opens up a world of possibilities because they’re so versatile and the bikes are capable of carrying so much when you need them to. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely and people shouldn’t be afraid to go dry stuff out Lots of cool developments of happened in cycling in general grabble most specifically have been when people have kind of left those rules will Rhode Ride ten years ago behind embraced wider ties, smaller wheels likes the can do more things. And I think you know using PACs boxes is part of that. Some people might not like the way. It looks once you’ve got one of these smaller talk she paco the small frame Paco small saddle pack on there you’d find it so useful. And it’s really liberating allowed to do so much more we go riding. That’s funny. Match the look of it, and maybe this is sort of something you experience in spades we in the UK in just in terms of the road culture and the aesthetic that’s been pushed down our throat for the last thirty years. It is hard to make that shift away from it but to your point once you do. In my case, I was happy to take the flak from my Rhody Buddies because I knew that I had so much more comfort with me in terms of an extra jacket or what have you on my bike? Yeah Yeah you’re absolutely right and the unite if fosters your thing then Yeah I a challenge you ticket a jail Lava Jersey pocket as quick as you can get out of the top G. Pack where it’s right in front of you and you can still be have your hands in the right list. So true. So true. George I appreciate you geeking out with me on the bags and just kind of giving the listener rundown of all the different things that are possible these days. I’m I’m always super excited to talk bags and I always encourage everybody to just take a look at what’s out there and sort of put it on your longer term wishlist because it can be really game changing for your Gravel Comfort. Yeah Yeah yeah absolutely. Great Song to you as well and yeah I mean the main thing here is I, have spoken about you can. Pull it any of your list bugs as well. You know the we’re not encouraging people to buy never bike here everyone who’s listening to this already has packing bike. So you know with the right combination of Fox from wherever they decide to get them they can. They can have a block that could take a two days weeks months whatever they WANNA do right on. Thanks George. Big thanks George for joining the podcast this week. I, hope you took a lot away from that conversation definitely check out their website to understand everything we’ve been talking about because I know it can be a little bit hard to visualize how some of these different bags attached to your bike and what they look like but suffice it to say you can find any and every combination of bags you need for just enhancing your daily rides your winter rides, we have to carry a little bit of extra gear to those huge bike packing expeditions.

00:40:04 – 00:40:45

It is all possible with the bike you have I love how? George ended the conversation just reminding us that the bike in our garage is an adventure bike and it can do much more than we think it can. So that’s it for this week’s pod. Thank you so much for joining us and big thanks to everybody who’s been joining the membership program at by me a coffee dot com slash the gravel ride. The support means a ton to me as do your ratings and reviews love reading what you have to say. So please visit me at by me a coffee dot com slash the gravel ride or ratings and reviews can happen on any of your favorite podcasts platforms. Until next time here’s the finding some dirt under your wheels.

Craig
The Gravel Ride Podcast

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