The ULTIMATE Bikepacking Gear List - For A Year Long TOUR OF AFRICA

[@arlett0009tj]

All the best Lewi! Looking forward your adventure

[@LewiBlake]

Thank you!

[@briantyhy4880]

Very well planned and is a very good bike packing setup. The chair is a piece of gear which is invaluable and will be used every day. best of luck with your adventure.

[@LewiBlake]

thank you!

[@edzeppelin933]

Nice one mate, great setup! Enjoy the ride! Looking forward to some updates. I've looked at both the crank tank and the OMM racks before as options. Keen to hear how they perform.

[@iamlewiblake]

both performed well 2 years later. hose to drink from crank tank broke so i just used the crank tank to store water and poured into other drink bottle. im releasing the first video from africa on my new youtube channel this weekend @iamlewiblake

[@MWBFurlong]

Hi Lewi, hope your travels are going well. I notice youhaven't released any videos since this. I hope you haven't had any problems. I'm curious about the crank tank as my wife and i are planning on a long tour. Do you find the water stored in the crank tank for a day or two in strong sunlight gives it a plasticy taste at all?

[@iamlewiblake]

crank tank was one of my favourite additions to the bike. After a year, i didnt have any problems. I was locked out of my youtube channel and my new one is @iamlewiblake where first video is dropping this week

[@christopherjacquez8605]

Whatever happen? Did you do the ride ? You haven't uploaded so wonder if u went or if your alright?

[@iamlewiblake]

releasing the first video of my trip on youtube this week @iamlewiblake. I got my phone stolen and lost access to this youtube channel.

[@FonGomez]

Hey Lewi! Love this, thanks for the detailed video. I had one question; does your Quadlock universal adapter kind of hover at the bottom of the controller? I just got mine in and it looks too big for this controller (but it's the same one as yours), like it hasn't got enough surface to glue to the controller, so I'm just wondering how has it been for you these past months and if you would change it somehow? Thanks a lot!

[@iamlewiblake]

it was fine for me during the time that i had it. It did hang over a little but didn't cause any problems

[@tonylupone1157]

Good luck Lewis/ Stay safe and enjoy your trip. Cheers mate

[@LewiBlake]

awesome, thanks Tony!

[@malcross2524]

Awesome vid Mate, Thanks for all the links of your gear, look forward to watching your adventures.

[@LewiBlake]

Thanks mate!

[@chrisstathis2303]

Awesome video mate. Good luck on your trip to Africa and can't wait to see more of your amazing adventures.

[@LewiBlake]

Thanks Chris. What are you up to at the moment?

[@humanenergiess]

wow!! amazing, indepth info, thank you for your effort! Have an amazing trip!!! yay!!

[@LewiBlake]

Thank you!

[@EcoNumbersNMore]

Awesome! Enjoy the adventure and keep safe!

[@LewiBlake]

Thank you!

[@cameronomara5091]

You are gonna see so much cool shit on this adventure! Best of luck, can't wait to follow along with your progress

[@LewiBlake]

Thanks very much!

[@stevemunroart]

Mate what a trip you'll have! Following with bells on, good luck and great times :)

[@LewiBlake]

thanks mate!

[@Too-Bye]

Hi Lewi, looking forward to seeing your videos. Have a great time and stay safe. I travelled through Africa in '93 and '94 (showing my age!), wish I'd done in by bike. You'll love it. The Congo is amazing. Above all stay safe. Bypass the big cities when can. Not worth the hassle IMHO. The rural areas is where you'll find your gems. All the best mate.

[@LewiBlake]

Thanks mate, yeah that my plan, I don't want the hassle of the big cities. What did you do in the Congo?

[@Too-Bye]

@@LewiBlake It was called Zaire back then. I was travelling overland through the northern section, entered through CAR and left through Uganda, then into Rwanda. Things I remember: the intense green and solitude of the rainforests and how majestic the Rwenzori Mountains looked from a distance. I also remember the road conditions…very bad, especially sections along transport in the rural areas. Big trucks and dirt/muddy roads… I was there at the end of the dry season and I can remember how muddy some sections still were (avoid the wet season!). That was almost 30 years ago, infrastructure might have improved since (fingers crossed). Hey, if they still do gorilla treks in Congo/Uganda/Rwanda put that on your to-do list, it's an amazing experience. When I got to east Africa I worked at a mission in northern Kenya for a few months, a place called Wajir about a 150km from the border with Somalia. When do you leave? Do you have a “rough” schedule or a direction you’ll be heading/starting?

[@LewiBlake]

@@Too-Bye wow, thanks so much for the information. I'm guessing alot of it has changed and then alot of it will still be really similar. I really cant wait to head to the Congo, Uganda etc to hopefully see some Gorillas. I'm just heading North starting in Cape town. I have a rough route here: lewiblake.com/africa

[@ralfhedin]

Looking forward to follow your adventure!

[@LewiBlake]

Thank you!

[@cappaculla]

Great gear list, will be looking some of that up for myself, good luck and be safe..

[@LewiBlake]

Thanks, hope it was helpful!

[@willek1335]

Thanks for the video. I'm so glad I don't have to think about all the electronics and filming myself. Not because of any weight, but because there's just so much stuff. On the other hand, I appreciate videos a lot more when I know what it takes.

[@LewiBlake]

haha thanks, year the setup would be a lot lighter, cheaper and easy to manage without all the electronics

[@madrapperdave]

Sounds like an epic adventure! Have you done a few shorter trips & tested most of this stuff? You certainly are carrying a lot of stuff. It strikes me a little odd that so much thought was put into choosing the bike/drivetrain/cranktank but then perhaps less so with some of the equipment choices. Hose clamps? 3 multi tools AND a Leatherman? Then a normal screwdriver & spanner on top of that? That massive jar of spare bolts! Soooooo many batteries & hard drives! Redundancy is good... but geez! That collapsable container is a good idea I've not seen before & I'm gunna keep an eye out at k-mart. Also the quadlock mount on the back of the RC controller is brilliant

[@LewiBlake]

haha yea I agree with you with what you're saying. I've been playing around with the bike a lot recently and wasn't going to take alot of those tools but found that everytime I packed them away for storage, I kept unpacking them and using them. Definitely the screwdriver isn't needed nor the second multi tool. to be honest I didn't even know it was in there when filming the video. The big container of spare bolts is hilarious. I just had some bolts brake other times and wasn't able to find spares so I literally have a few spares of every bolt on the bike/racks. And the reason for all the batteries and hard drives is because I want to travel in to really remote places such as the Congo where many of the places don't have access to power so I might spend a few weeks at a time without power and hard drives, going to be recording the whole trip in 4k and want a backup hard drive in case I lose footage. Definitely a lot of these choices I wouldn't do if I wasn't going to Africa. Thanks for your input :)

[@madrapperdave]

@@LewiBlake Just watched your Tassie packrafting vid! Epic! Clearly you know what you are doing! Wishing you safe adventures in Africa!

[@Breakdown0]

How has that CrankTank been holding up for you? Any funny odors? I'm hesitant to invest that much money into something made of plastic which will eventually develop its own taste/ smell with nothing you can do about it. I've been suggested titanium bottles which can be sanitized over fire

[@iamlewiblake]

i didn't have any problems with the smell after a year. i just made sure to clean it out at least once per month

[@thuggooch1776]

Dude we have the same bike! I also added the moloko bars to mine. I'm running 29 x 3.0 WTB Ranger tires on mine though. I have been eyeing up the tires your using for about a year now and I may give them a shot at some point. I really like your bike setup! I am taking notes over here lol. Thank you for sharing this. I have some videos of my 600X on here as well but I've never done a bike/gear check.

[@LewiBlake]

That's awesome, Yeah it's a pretty good bike isn't it! Will be interesting to see how the tires go, I was going to go slightly wider but wasn't sure about tire clearance. How close are they to rubbing on the frame?

[@thuggooch1776]

@@LewiBlake I still got room on each side of the chain stays. About .125 inches (3.17mm) I'd say or more in the rear. The Wren suspension fork has easily .25 (6.35mm) on each side. I'm still using the stock rims so maybe they are on the narrow side for a 3 inch wide tire but I'm liking it so far.

[@LewiBlake]

@@thuggooch1776 awesome, let me know how it goes. I was thinking the stock rims would be too narrow to run 3inch tires. glad to hear that it's working well

[@4486542655]

Everything looks brand new. Will be interesting to see what you keep and what you change after a week to a month on the road.

[@LewiBlake]

Yeah, I'm also interested to see :) It's the first time I've ever invested in new equipment for a tour haha

[@greysteel1036]

Hi Lewi, that's a great video and really helpful. Straight to the point and good explanations. That pinion gear box looks interesting and a good option. One thing I didn't hear you mention was a spoke key? How much does the whole set up weigh.....good luck, looking forward to the videos from the trip.

[@LewiBlake]

Glad you enjoyed it, I have a spoke key on my multi-tool. it seems to fit but I don't have any experience changing broken spokes so hopefully it's okay haha Looking forward to really testing out the Pinion and seeing how it goes. Bike and all the gear fully loaded is 45kg but 10kg is strapped to the backpack on the read rack so if conditions get rough, I'll wear the backpack and the bike will be easier to handle and have less strain on the rack.

[@wheelsofdream]

Nice setup! How much it weights in total, bike and gear? Enjoy the ride! Im gonna ride through Europe this summer, 6000 + km but Africa is something else man!

[@LewiBlake]

yeah, it's heavy. Around 45kg for everything. Ill see what I can get rid of once I start riding haha

[@wheelsofdream]

@@LewiBlake i think you can't outrun lions and hippos with that kind of weight 🙈

[@LewiBlake]

@@wheelsofdream haha yeah I don't think I'd even be able to anyway

[@CanadianSledDog]

This is an awesome setup, no ultralight silliness here! I especially like the fat rack and backpack, did you get that from watching Iohan? The water tank is so cool too and something I haven't seen before!

[@LewiBlake]

Thanks mate, yeah there are a few people doing that idea now. Ive seen Karl Kroll, Tristan Ridley and Iohan. Glad you like the setup :)

[@velocitytenniscoaching1976]

I can’t want to join you for coffee. That’s amazing Good Luck

[@LewiBlake]

thanks :)

[@richardulrich6089]

I think you should name your bike Tardis. 👍

[@ScottandJodi]

So, no spare tire, or did I miss that? I ask because I go back and forth over carrying one myself. I did on a recent tour over pretty rough terrain, but, of course, never needed it. It weighs almost a kilo!

[@LewiBlake]

Yeah this is the one thing I wasn't sure about. In the end I'm taking stuff to repair a tyre as much as possible including sowing a side wall, tyre boots, tubeless repair kit and 2 spare tubes, so worst case I should be able to get myself out of it. But I've been umming and ahhing about taking a spare tyre. Just too heavy and bulky. We will see if that decision comes to bite me in the ass haha

[@ScottandJodi]

@@LewiBlake Yep, this is where I landed.

[@TheMiles1968]

Very cool, love the setup and have learned from it thank you, I would not go with the phone in full view, really is just an unnecessary temptation

[@iamlewiblake]

funny you say that, my phone was stolen on day 2 of the trip hence i lost access to this youtube channel. releasing my videos from africa on the new channel @iamlewiblake this weekend

[@kayzinti4452]

On the off chance that you're not aware of this, if/when the Gates belt jumps off the cogs (mud is often involved), *don't* force it back on by just hooking it on the front cog and stomping the crank to force it back. This stresses the individual carbon strands separately, leading to early failure and is likely the cause of most all belt failures. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gICbZWlsYpmBidU

[@LewiBlake]

thanks for that information. cheers

[@solsouth]

Goodluck mate. Some thing just seem off about your setup. Can't put my finger on it though some things seem just to...... . Anyway no such thing as a perfect system. Your water bottle is cool I am concerned about it developing a leak. Not a hater just voicing my opinion. I have already subscribed to your KZbin channel.

[@LewiBlake]

thanks. Yeah, I have that same feeling that something doesn't look quite right about it too. I'm interested to see how the water storage goes too. That's why I've taken water bottles and bladders too, in case something fails. Thanks for subscribing :)

[@lelamarie6724]

🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

[@ellerybice3787]

2 much stuff.

[@iamlewiblake]

agreed!

[@Cycle-Tourer]

My friend, the bags location is the worst you could chose. This kind of setup is good for light bikepacking. Not for heavy one. For heavy setup, the best is 2 big side panniers on a rear saddle to lower the gravity center, And to avoid a major impact on the steering.

[@LewiBlake]

Thanks for your advice. I'll see how I go but so far it has been okay as when it gets rough and hard, I wear the backpack. Cheers

[@ScottandJodi]

@@LewiBlake Yeah, it all reveals itself with some shakedown rides. On a recent desert tour, I would sometimes lash a 6 liter water bag to my Jones bars that should have "wrecked" steering control, but after a little bit, it didn't bother me at all. No doubt you'll refine some things as you go. Gonna be epic.

[@kpj5]

Second that one.. after 2 weeks cycling I went to side panniers .. didn’t look as pretty but yes way more practical

[@LewiBlake]

@@ScottandJodi thanks mate and yeah things always change until you perfectly dial in what's comfortable

[@LewiBlake]

@@kpj5 Yeah, agreed I might get some small panniers such as the arkel dry-lite panniers to put some lighter items and still not have them be too bulky :)

[@solsouth]

Where is Lewi? Are you still alive? No posts for a month. Did you quit?

[@iamlewiblake]

got locked out of my youtube account but releasing my first video from africa this weekend on my new channel @iamlewiblake