A few bags more...

Yesterday, with some idle hours on my hands, it was timely to pay a call on one of the local bike stores (River City Cycles) to check out their range of bikepacking gear. I've never visited the store previously, but knew from his blog that the store mechanic (Troy) is a keen bikepacker and endurance racer, and that the store sells bikepacking bikes, fatbikes and gear.

This visit was intended to be a scouting mission. With the xmas credit card statements in the mail I had no intentions of spending any more money. But when the BikeBagDude products on offer caught my eye they were irresistible. BBD gear is usually only sold via the web, so this was a rare opportunity for a hands-on inspection.
After briefly considered a pair of Salsa Anything bags but finding the finish quality somewhat lacking, I came away with a pair of Salsa Anything cages with BBD Anything bags.

The BBD Anything bags feature an innovative design with a loop on the bottom to fit the foot of the cage, and an integral hook and loop strap which secures the bag to the cage wings.

So I was finally able to answer the question that has been on my mind for a long time - will my Tarptent Protrail fit in an anything bag? Yes it will as you see in the picture above. And it also settled in my mind whether an anything bag will be big enough for my food - again the answer is yes.

Ended my visit with an interesting chat with Troy about his preparations for the 1000 mile Iditarod Trail Invitational, a winter endurance race in Alaska from Anchorage to Nome. Entry to this event is by invitation only to athletes who have completed a recognised qualifying event. To even qualify is an endurance feat in itself.