Salsa’s Fargo Ti is strategically engineered towards comfortable, long distance, off-road touring. It’s true that comfortable, long distance, off-road touring is perfectly possible on a lot of bikes, when one is halfway along Canada’s Great Divide Trail or some other God-forsaken section of wilderness, it can be a small comfort to know the machine you’re riding is built for the job.
Adam Macbeth has a bead on the Great Divide Trail, but until he gets himself over there, he’s content to explore as much of Australia as he can manage, and the Fargo is a fine complement to that journey. A fine complement to the Fargo is a complete suite of luggage from Alaska’s Revelate Designs. Their catalog consists of frame bags, handlebar and seat bags that enable a complete bikepacking adventure. Each bag is designed to maximize the available space within a bike, without resorting to racks and trailers–an ideal solution for bikers who wish to ride without the swaying motion of a fully-laden set of panniers or whose journey simply won’t allow it.
The transmission consists of SRAM XO Twisties and rear mech with an XT mech in the front, while the brakes are Avid BB7 discs with old-school XTR levers. The 29er wheel set is laced to Chris KING pewter hubs, with matching bottom bracket and headset. The Profile T2 aero bars are utilized “where there’s a tonne of open, unsealed road and fire trail” (I use mine for additional equipment like tents and rain gear).