I’ll be posting a full tutorial on these racks next week, but you can get a rough idea from the photoset, and be sure to stay tuned. For the bags, I repurposed a $5 pair of size 44 blue jeans from our local thrift store after envisioning a waxed jean-leg stuff sack for the rack-top bag—tutorial for that’s also schwinn mountain bike coming next week. There was plenty of material left over, which became the foundation for a Wald 137 basket bag, a frame bag, and a tool roll—more on that later in this post.
Out of this entire kit, I might be most proud of this $4.50 camp kitchen. To salvage every last dollar, most of the team avoided bringing a kitchen and opted to pack a burrito or something that didn’t require cooking, but I wanted to cobble one together to see how it would perform. After watching and waiting for used sleeping bags to come available on Marketplace, it became pretty clear that one of the most common and affordable models that pops up regularly is the North Face Cat’s Meow. I’m pretty sure I had one of these in my backpacking days in college, but I had forgotten how bulky they were. To be fair though, I wanted a 20° model as I knew we’d be camping in the cold, so I had to settle for what I could find within my $50 budget. Originally used in 1963 to define a road bike, Sierra has a long and meandering history as a Schwinn bike model name.
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Customers have different views on the value for money of the stationary bicycle. Some find it well-built and worth the price, while others feel it’s disappointing for the price, with poor displays and crank threading issues. They say the directions are clear, and the bike is ready to use. The Local Overnighters Project is a unified effort to document and map one-night bikepacking routes all over the world—by locals, in their own backyards.
They find it sturdy and well-made, with a new design over its predecessor. Some say it looks great after some use and is worth its reputation. Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
The wedge won out, and I was able to make it using repurposed Cordura perimeter fabric, straps, and a zipper from my old Kona Sutra frame bag I burned with an iron several years ago. Obviously, schwinn bike not everyone is going to have that as an option, but using an old backpack could provide the same base materials. I used the blue jeans—complete with the pocket being a non-driveside knife sheath—and some leftover X-Pac I had on hand for the side panels.
In my opinion, there are a few upgrades that I would still have make to this kit to get it ready to roll out on a big trip. Obviously, I didn’t include these in my build as they weren’t necessary for me to complete the challenge. As you can see, to truly modify this bike and kit into a capable multi-month dirt touring setup, a few extras are needed, bringing the total budget to around $788 to $808. In my opinion, that’s still quite reasonable for a dirt-road worthy, all-inclusive setup.
To give the cotton denim a nice-looking, highly water-resistant finish, I treated it with a bar of Otter Wax. Also, we didn’t require participants to account for a tool kit in the Budget Bikepacking Build-Off rules. The rationale for this is that we assumed cyclists experimenting with bikepacking would likely have a few things on hand, a multi-tool and mini pump included. However, I went ahead and sourced a used set of tools that makes an excellent and comprehensive budget kit. I also used the leftover pocket area of the jeans to make a simple tool roll to contain it.