Reader’s Rig: Nore’s Kona Unit X

Words and photos by Nore Van Kersavond, with additional photos by Loïc Marin-Lamellet

Hello, world of bikepackers! I’m Nore, I’m 26 years old, and I’m currently traveling across the Andes on my Kona Unit X. I grew up in Belgium, more specifically in Ghent. It’s a small, densely populated country without any mountains. My parents have always taken my brothers and me to the mountains for our annual vacations in winter and summer. That’s where my love for the outdoors began.

After high school, when I reached a certain age to travel independently, my personal summer holidays would always take place in the European mountains. Longing for nature, inspired by some books and the fact that I was working in an outdoor shop as a student got me hyped to start hiking. I began with a collection of budget-friendly gear and some stuff we had at home, which wasn’t the lightest or most ideal for the conditions I would end up in, but the stoke stayed. And because none of my friends were interested in hiking and camping, I always went solo.

Apart from that, bikes have always been in my life for as long as I can remember—from hand-me-downs from my older brothers to the very first brand-new bike that I saved up for and bought when I was 12. I mainly rode them when I went out to play in the neighborhood, when we went on day trips as a family, and to school because I hated public transport. In a small country like Belgium, riding a bike as a kid as a way of getting around is the most convenient because nothing is far away.

My dad has always been riding bikes as a hobby, too. When I was about 11 years old, I remember him coming home with his brand-new, bright blue Koga Miyata, which is now considered an “old-school” road bike. The moment my dad walked through the door, I thought, “Someday, this bike will be mine.” Eleven-year-old me was right when in 2021, my dad bought himself a new ride, and I could finally adopt that still-shiny Koga Miyata.

A couple of years earlier, I started working winter seasons in Austria as a ski/snowboard instructor, but as the pandemic came around in 2020, my season got cancelled. Instead, I made a pact with myself to not lose my motivation to go outside as much as possible, and so I introduced Sunday hiking day. This way, I would at least have one day a week where I would go outside, no matter what. That later evolved into Sunday biking day in 2021.

I would look for places I’d never been to before and explore more of my home country this way. Soon, I would always want to go further and ride more, so when I learned about bikepacking, my curiosity was sparked. I ended up in a rabbit hole on the internet and quickly realized that the main difference with hiking was just strapping your gear onto your bike and letting your legs spin in circles instead of placing one foot in front of the other. Good thing I had spent time and money gradually improving my camping gear over the years before.

In the summer of 2021, I bought a couple of bikepacking bags second-hand and last-minute in a shop when I came home early from my summer hike of the Tour du Mont Blanc. I had a couple of free days left and impulsively decided to go on a little solo bikepacking trip the day after. With limited gear and only a destination in mind, I let Komoot plan a route and rode my bike for three days until reaching Normandy. I was sold.

With all the bike riding, I learned that my Koga Miyata was actually way too big for my body, and as much as I tweaked and adjusted stuff, I couldn’t get it to fit right. Before long, I decided a gravel bike was what seemed ideal for me: the perfect middle ground between a road bike and a mountain bike, with mounts to strap my gear onto the frame. The pandemic and the container ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal resulted in every bike and every bike part being on backorder, and it was very hard to order just anything within a reasonable timeframe.

• Frame/Fork: 2021 Kona Unit X (small)
• Rims: WTB ST i30 2.0 TCS
• Hubs: Formula 110x15mm (front) / Formula 148x12mm (rear)
• Tires: WTB Ranger TCS 29 x 2.6” (front) / Continental Crossking 29 x 2.6” (rear)
• Handlebars: Surly Moloko
• Headset: FSA
• Crankset: SRAM SX-Eagle
• Pedals: Kona JS2
• Cassette: SRAM SX-Eagle 11-50t 12-speed
• Derailleur(s): SRAM GX
• Brakes: SRAM Level T
• Shifter(s): SRAM SX-Eagle
• Saddle: Brooks B17S
• Seatpost: Kona Thumb w/ offset, 31.6mm
• Stem: Procraft SL 31.8 25°
• Front bags: Dosh Gear Custom Front Roll + Hip/Handlebar Bag
• Frame bags: Dosh Gear Custom Full Frame Bag
• Rear bags: Dosh Gear Custom Drybag + Ortlieb Gravel Packs
• Accessory bags: Dosh Gear Bucket Bags
• Other accessories: Tubus Cargo Rack, BBB Cargo Cages

I had laid my eyes on a Canyon Grizl, and at the end of the next winter season, I could finally order it—perfectly in time for when I would come home from the Austrian mountains in the springtime. Around that same time, I also met my partner through cycling, who had just returned from a bikepacking trip through Bolivia. Back home, he worked to improve his homemade, custom frame bags that he started making when he was a student under the name Dosh Gear.

When he proposed to ride our bikes from home to the North Cape, Norway, in the summer of 2023 as a test ride to eventually cross South America by bike, it was a no-brainer. With a custom frame bag, top tube bag, and fork packs in the colors of my dreams, I was so very hyped to ride my bright pink Grizl northbound. The simplicity of life on a bike felt just as freeing as carrying everything on my back when hiking through the Scottish Highlands for the first time.

Spending a year on a bike to cross a continent now seemed less extreme than I first thought it would be. Instead of buying a properly fitting road bike, as I first intended, I bought the total opposite: a Kona Unit X. First, I looked on the Belgian second-hand website to see if anyone was selling anything interesting, but as I was still in Austria at the time, I increased my chances by looking on the Austrian second-hand website too. There I found a shop in Vienna that wanted to get rid of their last Unit X in a size small. They gave me a good deal on it as it was still a brand new bike but the model from a year earlier.

I brought it home to Belgium, where I took it on a couple of test rides. After we came back home from our trip to Norway, I changed a couple of small things here and there. The handlebar was extremely wide for a size small bike, and because I have been struggling with carpal tunnel syndrome on my bike, I swapped it for a Surly Moloko bar to have more hand position options. I added a set of Fat Paw grips on there in the hope these would bring me some relief too. The chainring got swapped for a smaller one to handle the Andes more easily, and my SRAM SX derailleur got replaced by a SRAM GX. Last but not least, I installed the women’s-specific Brooks B17S that had been on my commuter for quite a while and was already broken in.

Although I have a small bike, my gear fits on there perfectly, thanks to my personal custom bag maker. We planned to maximise packing space by using a full frame bag and top tube bag on the frame. This, in combination with my bucket bags, means I don’t have to compromise on the amount of water I can carry within reach. The front and rear dry bags have been keeping my clothes and sleeping bag dry through every shower we’ve had along the way, and believe me: we’ve had our fair share. Even better, I got to choose the bright bag colors myself, which I like better than the gray or black bags you often find from bigger brands.

Precisely six months after we reached Europe’s northernmost point, we started pedaling out of Cartagena, Colombia, the starting point of our continental traverse. From the first minute until now, my Kona Unit X, a bike that I didn’t intend to buy at first, has been my steady workhorse for over 8,000 kilometres. We are taking a short break from cycling right now in La Paz, Bolivia, but we will soon continue making our way south.

You can follow along with Nore’s South American journey on Instagram.

Further Reading

Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...

23

Dispatch

Reader’s Rig: Carlie and Jason’s Kona Unit Xs

25

Bikepacking Videos

Bikepacking the Paparoa Range: A Love Letter of a Boy’s Journey Home

38

Dispatch

Reader’s Rig: Sven’s Kona Unit X

268

Culture

All Terrain Bicycling: An ATB Manifesto

16

Dispatch

Reader’s Rig: Hannes’s Surly Karate Monkey

56

Bikepacking Bikes

Kona Unit X Dream Builds: Alpine vs. Expedition

Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.