Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
This week’s Reader’s Rig comes from two-time route contributor Jeremy Nolan in California, who shares the Novara Mazama he picked up at REI eight years ago and has ridden all over the place in the time since. Meet Jeremy and check out his well-loved bike here…
Words and photos by Jeremy Nolan
Hey, fellow bikepackers! My name is Jeremy Nolan, and I’m from Vista, California. I am a speech language pathologist and work with young adults with disabilities in public schools. I am lucky enough that my job affords me a considerable amount of time off throughout the year, so I’ve got plenty of opportunities to get out and ride. I’ve published two routes here on BIKEPACKING.com (the Owens Valley Ramble and the Land of the Ancients) and have a few more ideas brewing for routes that I hope to share soon.
Eight years ago, I walked into the REI in Kennewick, Washington. I’d recently sold my road bike and a few other knick-knacks I’d accrued as a student at nearby Whitman College. A short while later, after a quick test ride and some back-and-forth with the resident bike mechanic, I walked out into the blistering Eastern Washington sun with my brand-new Novara Mazama. Little did I know that this purchase would be the beginning of my love affair with bike travel. Two weeks after that puchase, with my degree in the bag and three months before the start of a Fulbright Grant in Mexico, I found myself departing from the bus depot in Astoria, Oregon, the starting point of the TransAmerica Bike trail, and proceeded to ride this bike 4,558 miles to the Yorktown Victory Monument in Virginia.
Since that ride, I’ve slowly modified my bike to be more of a mixed pavement/gravel rig. It has taken me from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast, the backroads Idaho on the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route, on countless overnighters in California and the Pacific Northwest, and most recently on a weeklong trip up Vancouver Island along much of the Tree to Sea route. I’m always tweaking my setup, depending on where I’m riding and how long I’ll be out, but I’m pretty darn happy with it as seen here.
- Frame/Fork: 2016 Novara Mazama (large)
- Rims: Hunt 4 Season Gravel Disc
- Hubs: HUNT 4 Season Disc
- Tires: 700 x 44mm Rene Herse Manastash Ridge, Endurance Casing
- Handlebars: 53cm Redshift Kitchen Sink
- Headset: Cane Creek
- Crankset: Shimano Deore 32T
- Pedals: Shimano dual platform SPD pedals
- Cassette: 11-48t Microshift Advent X
- Derailleur(s): Microshift Advent X 10-speed rear derailleur
- Brakes: TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes
- Shifter(s): Microshift 10-speed bar-end shifter
- Saddle: Ergon SMC Core Mens
- Seatpost: Redshift Shockstop suspension seatpost
- Stem: REI
- Front bags: Rockgeist Meanwhile bag in Wald 137 basket on Soma Porteur rack
- Frame bags: Blackburn Outpost Elite
- Rear bags: Swift Industries Zeitgeist with quick release rack
- Accessory bags: Blackburn Outpost carryall bags
- Other accessories: Garmin 945 watch, inReach Messenger, Tarptent Bowfin tent
REI’s bikes, while perhaps lacking the name-brand recognition of some others, are a great starting point for people to get into bikepacking and modify over time. One of my favorite things about this bike is how reliable it has been and how easy it is to work on. I can do almost all the work on it with a simple Crankbrothers multi-tool. It doesn’t get much simpler than mechanical disc brakes and a 1×10 drivetrain set up for friction shifting.
Bar ends and friction shifting don’t seem to get enough love in the bikepacking community, but I appreciate their simplicity and not having to deal with indexing. I’ve tried a bunch of different tires and tread designs and find that a knobby 45-55mm tubeless tire best fits the bike’s character. The Rockgeist basket bag is awesome, and I’ll be ordering a frame bag from them soon since my current frame bag is on its last legs. The Swift Zeitgeist bag is also a favorite, and I take it with me on every trip.
Send Us Your Bikepacking Rig
Use the form below to submit your bikepacking rig. We’ll choose one per week to feature in a Reader’s Rig Dispatch and on Instagram. To enter, email us your best photo of the bike (preferably at a 90° angle), your Instagram username (optional), and a short description of you and your rig. If your bike is selected, we’ll need a total of five photos and a little bit more info.
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Further Reading
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