GEAR CHECK: My RSD Middle Child Titanium Bikepacking Rig from the Colorado Trail

Today we're going to talk about my bike setup that I took on the Colorado

trail

. Let's start with the Terra Vale Coronado 3.0 tires. These are the tan walls and the light, flexible casing. What that means is that you still wear them at quite a height. pressure, but they feel like they have lower pressure, the sidewall is thinner, so the tires act a little more like a suspension component than something thick with a Max's xo casing. They also make them in a sturdy case and I'm not sure what I would choose. These are super light and feel super light and roll great and I didn't have any problems on that rough terrain in Colorado, which really surprised me.

I was a little worried seeing all those rocks they hit, but they were pristine and mounted on these 27.5 night compounds plus mountain bike tires and these tires were incredible and the combination of these two is magical. One thing I will say about the terra vales, they fill up like a 3.2. big tires and when I was putting them on the rear dropouts there was only a half inch range I could fit them to fit this frame so they run wide which gives you a lot of float and a lot of suspension features not to air them out too much, although like in the past I would go down 3.0 to 11 psi, they are probably between 25 and 27 because of that light and flexible casing, it is able to move at that pressure, so I am impressed with them, they break. extremely well, they cornered extremely well on that terrain, they rolled well and they look fantastic.

I get more comments about the look of this bike because of the tires than anything else. A guy stopped us on the way and said, wow, 10 walls are behind us! They look amazing and you're right they look amazing so thank you taravale for sending them to me to test and the night compound tires were fantastic. I never had a single hit on the rim, they are very light when you lift this front wheel, I was just blown away by how light it is and it rolled very well. You didn't feel much rotational weight on this bike as they ran like big 3.0's, it almost felt like a fat bike was steering itself when I ran.

The pressure is too low so I had to keep the pressure around the 25 27 mark for this bike. I normally use a rigid fork, but knowing we would be on the Colorado

trail

and how rough it was going to be, I threw in a rock crash section. which I had and it worked very well the 130 mil fork worked very well this is a new product for me this is a revlate design sweet roll it costs about 30 dollars and it is a dry bag that opens on both sides before I used that dry bag blue on the front but it was too big and was rubbing against the tire and fender when fully compressed, it was a little hard to handle and this sweet roll is amazing, it was a huge improvement to my ride.

It has buckles on both sides so I can unroll it and pack different things, so I have my rain jacket on my left and my puffer jacket on the right when I need quick access, it's right there, it's ready to go. It has a daisy chain in the front and to hold it up I'm using the suppositories. black front loader and pass through these this daisy chain never moved once it is the perfect size. I wanted a dry bag that was wider but narrower in diameter and it fit so well that it is completely waterproof. Fantastic front bag that is my favorite.

I've seen it yet, besides that, I have the black oversized lunch box. I love this thing. I use it all the time. I keep my tool roll there and things I need quick access to. This is my same custom Rogue Panda frame bag that I have. I've been using it forever. You take a photo of your frame. Send it to them and they trace it to actual size so their bag fits your frame exactly. Fantastic people to work with. It has an elastic panel here so the zipper teeth never get stressed. Really cool. bag for this trip I also have two ovahanegra cubes these are water bottle holders and you can put a phone in there, snacks and things like that or if you don't want to put water bottles in there you can put other things personally I think.

These are the most useful bags in any bike packing rig and if I were building a rig I would buy two of them before getting a main frame bag before buying one of these. They are so useful that you can access them. with one hand, one thing: if you pass your water bottle here, you have to adjust the top; Otherwise, your water bottle may bounce. That has happened to me. These are black omega bags that I have been using forever. This is my outpost in Blackburn. cage that I zip tied at the bottom. It didn't have a single zipper closure.

I have a link in my description to all of these things including these amazing zip ties because as you know all zip ties are not created equal and Here in Arizona where our plastic sees the sun and becomes super brittle good zip ties are a must and for at 15 percent more cost you can get a flange that is twice as good as the cheap ones so i have a link to the ones in the description this is my v8 bottle it ended up rubbing and getting a hole when you saw in the video and leaking water , so I had to put some super glue on it and cover those holes.

I still think this is my favorite piece. of

gear

on the bike it's the easiest way to carry almost a half gallon and it's super cheap this is a three dollar bottle of fruit punch or something and I'm going to look for another one I don't need a big nalgene plus it holds a lot more than the nalgene anyway, so I'm a big fan of that, but I'm going to need to find something to fill it in, maybe some inner tube strips or something so I don't rub it because in every little lump this thing was being defeated by the mount.

This is the article you've been asking about the most. This is the Thule Tour Rack. This was my first trip with him and it was even better than I expected. Let me show you that I made some. serious modifications to this, all my clients can see what it took to modify it. I drilled some holes here and mounted one of these black burn cages on each side so I could fit these bags and that added a ton of capacity that you wouldn't. I think a couple of cylinders that size would add a lot, it made a big difference and was super solid, not a single rattle.

Their attachment system is so cool they have this little ratchet cam system that engages these straps and it never moved. I would only use paracord. I painted this on the top black because I made some modifications with the width of these tires that measure a full 3.0 and maybe a little bit wider, they were almost rubbing the inside of this rack and I was a little bit nervous, I I tried it a couple of times and it moved enough that I could feel it and hear it rub, so I flattened it, put it in a vise, made a little shape, built this little jig and flattened them out.

So the tubes that used to be this big are now flat on one side and I have at least a centimeter of clearance on each side of the tires. I have that video for my clients that shows how I did that. a tipping point for this with these big tires like a 2.8 you will have no problems and it will fit fine but if you use big tires like this I recommend that modification. I'm not afraid to modify things that you know. I'm sure I voided the warranty and if you don't know what you're doing you can definitely destroy these things, but it responded very well.

Its adjustment system is fantastic. I couldn't be more impressed with this little rack, it was 100. hassle free, completely quiet, never had any rattles, it was really great, worked a lot better than I thought and allowed me to use my dropper and that for me on a trip like the Colorado trail is worth its weight in gold. I also took a lot of weight off the handlebars and put it on the rear to make the bike ride much more balanced in the past, even with the seat bag I couldn't get enough weight on the rear and the bike wanted to.

Buck this bike never wanted to, it felt very stable, really planted, still rode like a loaded bike, but it felt great, so I'm a big fan of this Thule rack. I'll put a link in the description. I highly recommend it. It's like 120 bucks completely changed the game and allowed me to carry a big old dry bag in here. They have a set of saddlebags that you can put on it. I don't know if I'll ever pack the bike without a rear rack again. It was finally a game changer. we have to talk about this advent x transmission.

This is incredible. I will take it instead of xt slx dior nx sx. I would probably buy it instead of gx. It is extremely cheap. It costs less than $200 for the shifter and wide-range cassette. It's an 11 to 48 tooth, it shifts perfectly, it was flawless at the end I hit my derailleur hanger and it started jumping between some cogs because I hid it in a log or something so the derailleur hanger got bent but the derailleur and the change were so good that I can't praise them. these things suffice, it's crazy how cheap they are, I wouldn't mind a little more tension on the clutch, but it never became a problem, I never skipped teeth, it always shifted well and was never loud or sloppy, so that while I think about the clutch it could be a little bit stronger looking at it on the bracket when you pedal it, no problem, it's a wide range of 10 speeds like I said, I think it costs around 170 dollars, the shifters cost 25 dollars and feels better than an xt shifter to me. it has a nice precise click the levers are right where they need to be they have a great feel very easy to adjust very easy to work I'm impressed by the advent x I would happily get rid of all drivetrains on all my bikes For this it's just simple it cheap and impeccable.

They took it out of the park. A big thank you to Microshift for making advent x so cheap and fantastic. I also have some links in the descriptions below to the shelter that I use and the sleeping pad that I use and things like that, so be sure to

check

that out. If you have any questions about my year, feel free to post them in the comments below. I would also love to know what you use at your campsite. Thanks for watching, there is a party in the mountains and you are invited.