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So, I am having a clearout of bits and bobs and selling various things in order to fund a new bike, more specifically for bike packing but could be at home with a whip round Haldon or Quantocks.
I am keeping my FS, so that'll do most of my riding and do not want to use for bike packing.
I have been looking at a few bikes that I could go to, but wondered if any one had experience/views on them.
Top of the list has been the Sonder Frontier, rigid.
Onza- Payoff (Looks like a great price atm direct)
Genesis Longtitude
On One Bigdog.
A rigid 29er that can accept large volume tyres, I’m currently building a hardtail for that purpose it’ll run 2.6 front and 2.4 rear tyres.
I’d look at the stooge tbh.
Stooge
Sonder Frontier.
Stooge of any flavour.
I'm going to be using my rigid on one scandal for bike packing duties. Takes a 2.6 tyre on the rear with plenty of clearance and my genesis tarn takes a 3 inch tyre.
Its cheap and cheerful and rides really well.
It doesn't have any mounting points but all my kit is strapped on.
Stooges do look great, but once built it'd be upward of 1k by the looks of things. I could save a little each month but it'd take me a while to finish it.
Oddnumber, have you ridden a frontier? The review on bearbones seems good.
I've got a longitude, love it and can ride all day on it loaded up. I've just got a big dog and that steep seat tube puts you quite far forward when just riding along putting pressure on your arms/wrists. It's a weapon as a trail bike but I wouldn't want to ride it all day like I do the longitude. Look at the bootzipper for that.
@mrwhyte - I have indeed, until I recently sold it. I had a MK1 version, fully rigid, with both 29er and 27.5+ wheelsets. It did a bit of everything from long distance loaded up type stuff through to red and black at Deggy.
I'd have kept it without doubt had I not needed to free up the money. Alpkit are great to deal with too.
I’ve got a frontier after clearing out my other more ‘gnar’ bikes. Built up with a reba, xt 1x11, Jones bar and Halo wheels. Due to a shoulder injury I’ve not ridden it loads but it’s lovely - light, comfy and cheap enough not to worry about it.
My brother rode his frontier on the french divide this year, running a rigid fork. He said if he did it again he’d use a sus fork as much for steering stiffness as for comfort
This
https://singletrackmag.com/classifieds/advert/genesis-longitude-frame-fork-medium-2018-17-5-vgc-2/
Frontier looks like a good bet then. Can always upgrade as I go. Have some XT brakes that I could swap for the stock SRAMs.
If I had the time and money I would probably opt for a stooge and build up. That can be a future project.
And £800ish change,
As the Frontiers are built to order you might be able to contact Alpkit and ask if they can leave off the brakes, etc if you already have favourites and save a few quid. Even if it's just the trade value it's better than having them gather dust on the shelf (looks at my own garage).
Second hand.
Facebook groups & marketplace are awash with suitable bikes for bikepacking.
Yes you need to be careful about the provenance of some (I always ask for purchase receipt and service bills), but there are some winners out there for much less spondoolies than you think.
Crap - HOW CHEAP is that Onza??? Finding it very hard to resist one at that price even though I really don’t need one.
If you could nudge the budget up slightly Big Brother Cycles' [url= https://www.brothercycles.com/shop/bikes/big-bro-complete/ ]Big Bro[/url] is on sale at the moment.
I've never ridden one but they seem to be well thought of on here.
Crap – HOW CHEAP is that Onza??? Finding it very hard to resist one at that price even though I really don’t need one.
The gearing on it looks brutal for steep hills / a heavily loaded bike packing bike though. 11-34 cassette with a 32t chainring - ouch! Guess it’s cheap enough you could invest in a wider range cassette and perhaps a smaller chainring (if the crank will take it) though.
There's a Genesis Fortitude Adventure frame on eBay at the moment, which would build into a great bike packing 29er. I have the Fortitude Race version and I absolutely love it.