BIKEPACKING BAJA CALIFORNIA – BAJA DIVIDE – BIKEPACKING GEAR

The ICT has been my first proper bikepacking bike and i rode it for over a year on all conditions that Baja throws at you. 

Rolling this monster truck over the deep sand dunes North and South along the coastline of San Juanico it’s been probably the most fun I had on a bike in my life. The feeling was very close to surfing but on land. The insane grip of the Surly Bud and Lou stock tires together with air pressure sometimes as low as 2 psi ( ups!!!! ) made it possible to climb on this tractor the steepest deep sand walls that one could think while enjoying the downhill dune-canyons surfing screaming like a little kid and repeating this ski resort style up and down repetition all day long with no effort.

The geometry of the bike makes you feel pretty safe even when shredding downhill top turns on the walls of the deep gullies formed by the wind even though the reach of Surly bikes is quite extended so it’s wise to try a demo of the bike before buying one to make sure you get the proper size for you. I’m 172cm ( 5’8 ) and was advised an M frame but had to switch to Jones H bars because of the too far reach, when on other bikes brand the M or ML size fits me really well.

Another great thing i have to say about the Bud and Lou tires that the bike comes with is that they are extremely tough and durable despite their apparent very light and thin construction. After rinding from San Juanico to El Triunfo on the Baja Divide on them i was stocked about their performance in matter of grip and shock absorption and because they didn’t show any sign of wearing considered the roughness of the route with all sort of sharp rock hitting at every angle plus thousands of thorns and the low pressure that I was running.

Than I did the move, and found a crazy deal on a complete 29”x3” wheels set on bikesdirect.com and had my ICT turning into a different beast!

Now with narrower tires i wasn’t able anymore to surf the sand dunes but to definitely climb better in technical terrain and roll much faster on trail. I also opted for seat pack and Jones bars dry bag strapping and got rid of house-brick sturdy and definitely not light Surly Rear disk rack and front 24 pack rack.

So this was my pick for bikepacking on this bike, which made me realize at the end that qlwo the extra weight of the fat-bike frame that i was carrying around was pointless, especially having to push uphill too big wheels ( in my opinion 29ers are not efficient for people my size or shorter, but that’s another story I will write about in another article …. ! ), all the bike packing gear and a lot of water, all this driving me towards different rigs in the future.

The cargo capacity of this rig is out of question as for all Surly’s bikes. You could literally load all your belongings on the thing and go around the world without having to be worried about if it can handle the weight or not and it’s amazing how the riding feels pretty unaffected even with  a lot of stuff on it.

Some special care with anti-rust frame saver product is advisable especially if you live by the Ocean. I found the thread of the mountings eyelets all rusted after just a few weeks of riding and I felt like i should have sprayed a coating inside the frame as first thing after buying the bike.

The main regrettable downside of all Surly bikes, much bigger than the weight issue, which unfortunately makes me not recommend them for Baja and not include them in the BAJA-PROOF series, is the fixed derailleur hanger feature which is part of the frame and not replaceable. For the conditions we ride into here in Baja, the derailleur is the most weak and vulnerable essential piece of a bike. It does get hit, no matter how good you take care of when you ride or move the bike around. Not being able to carry a spare derailleur hanger to replace in case of accident it’s gap that the sliding dropouts feature for emergency single-speed adjustment feature cannot fill. Riding the ICT up in Washington on a recent trip felt mechanically much safer.

The Surly Ice Cream Truck is a tuff heavy transformer monster for strong riders and loaded hauling adventures and even if in my opinion Surlys are not suited for bikepacking in Baja, they still remain the quintessential slow-but-sure rigs!