This year we are building up a bike to help test our products on far-reaching fly-fishing and bikepacking missions. We thought folks would find it interesting to understand our decision-making process on buying a bike geared towards bikepacking.
Bikepacking is a bit of a different beast when it comes to bike selection. The requirements for a good bikepacking bike - especially one used for longer-range fishing trips - are different than those for trail or gravel bikes.
Below we cover the requirements used to find our new project bike and why we choose the Esker Hayduke.
Requirements
We find that it is always a good idea to take a step back and think about what you want out of a bike when you start the purchase process. Bikes can be a sizable investment and there are so many choices. It is important to be clear on your objectives to guide your decision-making.
Our objectives for the bike are specific but simple:
- Platform - we wanted a solid platform for exploring remote fishing destinations. Specifically, the platform needed to support the following:
- Day trips of up 20 miles with full fishing gear - including our Hermosa Bar Bag
- Multi-day extended trips with full camping and fishing gear including the ability to hold all the gear needed for a solo trip
- Bonus - a sporty fun platform for around-town rides and a backup to our trail bikes
- Durability - given the remote nature of our adventures and our need for product testing, the entire bike -frame and all components - need to be highly durable and minimize the risk associated with breakage
So, we began to research things. This included some extensive reading online on what people look for in bikepacking bikes. We also chatted with some friends that are really “in the know” in bikepacking and extended-range bike missions. Our final step included some sessions on Chat GTB which was a bit more helpful than we thought.
In the end, we came up with these requirements for the bike:
- Hardtail - a hardtail significantly minimizes failure points on the bike and carries gear well. Full frame packs become an option with a hardtail which is important to our range requirements.
- Steel - after giving thought to materials, we saw steel as the best metal for us. Steel just works, is durable, and has a good price point. The reasons we chose against other materials are:
- Aluminum is a reasonable option, but we had two concerns. Aluminum can be stiff and the additional compliance with steel is a nice bonus. Aluminum is also more likely to dent or misalign than steel - in our experience.
- Titanium is a great metal, but we could not justify a 1.5 to 2.5x price premium with a Ti frame.
- Carbon has a nasty habit of catastrophically failing when things go wrong, and we did not want to get caught out with a broken carbon frame.
- Attachment Points - we wanted a frame that had a lot of attachment options and eyelets. As an R&D bike, this helps us with product design. More importantly, lots of eyelets help us rig a bike for long-range fishing options better.
- Flat Bars - given that we live in the San Juan mountains of southwest Colorado and the bike would see a lot of trail use, we want to configure the bike as a traditional flat bar mountain bike. A drop bar gravel bike would be too limiting for what we wanted to do with the bike. Plus, you can ride flat bars just fine on a gravel road.
- Big Fork - one of the unique problems with bikepacking is the difficulty seeing your front wheel with a bar bag on. The result is you end up hitting more things with more weight on the bike. So, we wanted a big, solid fork with at least 120mm of travel that connected to a slack headtube (65 to 68 degrees).
- Bomber Components - the most important requirement was overall durability. We wanted every part of the bike to be strong and able to support the weight of up to 50 additional pounds over traditional rider weight. We did not want to see things like carbon bars or lightweight wheels on the bike. Everything needs to be strong, simple, durable, and - hopefully - fixable in the field. This also eliminated electric components.
With these requirements in mind, we started researching bikes. The process took about nine months at looking at bikes from all the usual suspects - Specialized, Surley, Salsa, Kona, Niner, and a few others. We also looked at a lot of used options.
Esker Hayduke
We were not finding much that excited us for several months.
One bike that initially interested us was the Kona Unit X. The biggest issue with the Unit X was the build kit on a full bike was disappointing and did not meet our durability requirements. To make the Unit X work for our requirements would mean a full custom build - not a showstopper but something that complicated things.
We also became very curious about the Niner Sir 9. The Sir 9 seemed to meet what we were looking for and liked the build kit. A couple of concerns with the Sir 9 was wanting a bit more of a slacker head tube (68 degrees before sag) and the chain stays seemed a bit short for carrying a bigger load. The price point on the Sir 9 was also a bit high at $4,500. We also were never able to see one in person. Our local shops did not carry the Sir 9. We followed a few used Sir 9 bikes but never got our hands on one.
Then we came across the Hayduke by Esker. The Hayduke checked all the boxes for us.
Key reasons we went with Esker:
- Steel frame - we wanted steel and the Hayduke is a beautifully simple steel hardtail. More importantly, the Hayduke has a modern approach to its geometry. This gave us a nice slack head tube (65.7 degrees before sag).
- Dropouts - the dropouts on the Hayduke are unique and a bonus for our requirements. The Portage Dropout system allows for conversion to a single speed. So, if your derailer or shifting takes a dump on the trail, you can do an emergency single-speed conversion to get home.
- Build kit - we liked the SRAM GX build kit. The core of the build kit was solid - meeting our durability requirements.
- Eyelets - This bike has so many eyelets for attaching things. The rear triangle has eyelets for a rear cargo rack and the main triangle has more eyelets than we can count. The bonus is that Esker has worked with several pack manufacturers to design main triangle packs that bolt in.
With the Hayduke hitting our requirements nicely, we were finally sold by the price point of the Hayduke at $3,000 (spring 2023) for a base build with SRAM GX. Our upgrades pushed the price up by $900 but we still ended up at a price that we felt good with.
We opted for two upgrades on our purchase. The easy upgrade saw a set of Industry Nine Enduro S wheels making themselves on the bike. Being a far-reaching bikepacking bike, we felt the investment in a bomber set of wheels was a smart move and Industry Nine Enduro wheels fit the bill.
The next upgrade took a bit more thought. The stock GX build kit from Esker came with a Marzocchi Z2 fork. We have had no experience with a Marazocci fork and was very much an unknown for us. Some research on the Marzocchi left us feeling indifferent about it. We had a conversation with our local suspension tuner guru about the Z2. We concluded that the Marzocchi would “probably be fine” and that we could upgrade the internals with a Fox GRIP dampener for about $300 to $350 and turn it into a Fox 34. We would most likely do the upgrade once we got the bike.
At the time we purchased, Esker offered an upgrade to a Fox 34 Factory and Fox Transfer post for $700. Given that we were going to be half the way to the upgrade price with the GRIP conversion of the Marzocchi, we decided to pull the trigger and get the Fox 34 Factory. Ultimately, we felt more confident in the bike setup with a Fox 34 which is important when taking on some of the longer missions.
We do wish Esker would have offered the Fox upgrade to a Fox Performance Elite series and not just the Factory series. The Performance Elite series has the same internals as the Factory series (fork and post) but costs about $150 to $200 less. The only real difference between the Factory and Performance Elite is the Kashima coating (gold coating). Our experience is the Kashima coating is not worth the cost and a good tune and seal upgrade negates any of the advantages of Kashima while dramatically improving the ride quality of the fork over either a stock Factory or Performance Elite fork. We would rather invest in a good tune and not a fancy coating.
Having said all of this about the Kashima coating on the Fox Factory 34 and Transfer post, the Kashima coating looks badass on the black Hayduke frame. The extra cost of the Factory kit is worth it just for the overall aesthetic it creates on this bike!
Direct to Consumer Purchasing
So, we finally pulled the trigger on Hayduke and placed the order. This is the first time we have bought a new complete bike in a direct-to-consumer model since 1992 (a Macalu hardtail from Excel Sports in Boulder). Meaning we were buying the bike sight unseen and just hoped that we fit the paper specs of the bike.
One thing that is nice with the direct-to-consumer approach is that for specialty bikes -like a bikepacking rig - it is hard to find bike shops that carry them. We get it - bikepacking bikes just don’t sell a lot and the inventory load can be hard on bike shops. Having the ability to order a more specialty bike like an Esker is a real game changer.
Ordering was super simple and came with no real issues. We got the bike in about three weeks to our house. The bike was fully built. All we had to do was put the wheels and bars on. The assembly quality from Esker was good and we were riding the bike in about 10 minutes.
Overall, the purchase process was painless.
How Do We Like the Hayduke
Overall, we love it.
We are doing a detailed short- and long-term reviews of the Esker. Hold tight for those review to come.