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| My Hudski Dualist, leaning against a tree on Bolinas Ridge |
Background
I started bikepacking on a mountain bike. I had been doing endurance MTB races - 100 miles, 8 hours, 24 hours, that sort of thing - and a person who was coaching and inspiring me was Lynda Wallenfels and her partner Dave Harris. I'd met them in 2008 at TransRockies. I'd paid Lynda to coach me to get fit for that race, and I'd followed her blog for a while before that.
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| Dave and Lynda, at the 2008 Transrockies stage race |
She wrote about riding a mountain bike on the Colorado Trail, bikepacking it, meaning carrying minimal gear and riding point to point
over multiple days. The minimal gear part was critical, because the Colorado
Trail is very challenging, and for a mountain bike to ride like a mountain
bike, it has to be unencumbered, with no bags moving around or falling off on
rough terrain. There has to be enough gear to keep the rider warm, dry, fed,
and able to sleep, drink clean water, see where they're going and maintain
their bike.
I became obsessed with riding a mountain bike on a multi-day trip across the Colorado Trail, and convinced a few friends to do it with me. We did one trip, then another to finish what we'd started, then a third to do the whole thing. In order to prepare for these, we did local trips.
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| August 4, 2013, Segment 23 of the Colorado Trail |
When I was in my teens and twenties, and again in my thirties and forties I
was a bicycle racer, all kinds; road, track, cyclocross, mountain bike. In my
forties I developed a
heartbeat problem, and I couldn't race bikes, or train for bike racing anymore. The relaxed,
self-selected pace of bikepacking allowed me to be on my bike, push myself, be
in beautiful nature and use my own skills, problem-solving ability and
technology to keep myself alive while moving through terrain over multiple
days. I had moved into the phase of enjoying a thing I was grateful I could
still do.
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| Canfield Yelli Screamy, Porcelain Rocket bags in purple, August 6, 2013. The yurt is in the background, Segment 22 |
The bikes I used were hardtail mountain bikes; front suspension, rigid rear
ends. I used the common pattern of bags; seat pouch cantilevered from the seat
post, frame bag, handlebar bag and sometimes a small backpack. Since then I've
done a few trips with my gravel bike, and I've added rear racks, top tube
bags, "top-loader" handlebar bags and bags attached to, or part of racks.
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| My Falconer gravel bike loaded for seven days of riding across the Oregon desert, October 2025 |
After finishing a recent,
seven-day bikepacking trip
and making a long list of repair / restore mechanical work to get my gravel
bike back to the configuration and working condition it was in before the
tour, I thought that I should just get a do-it-all bike that is always set up
for bikepacking. Something simple, rugged, affordable that I could leave in a
ready-to-go state. I'd also been infected with
an idea to do small trips more frequently, so that I keep in practice and the gear is refined.
I could turn one of my bikes into that do-it-all bike, but an MTB is sometimes
overkill for a dirt road tour, and a gravel bike is "underkill" for rugged
terrain. As I was thinking and talking about this,
Doug Cutting, a guy I knew on the internet suggested that if he was going
to buy a dedicated bikepacking bike, it would be the Hudski Dualist. I'd never heard of the
Hudski Dualist, but
a quick google and a read of Miles Arbour's
Hudski Dualist Review: Joy Machine had me convinced. This was what I was looking for. It's a rigid, 29er,
flat-bar aluminum hardtail with a rigid carbon fork, following a 2026 design
ethic known as "ATB." It has Boost spacing, a slack fork, long front end,
steep seat angle, and is built to have fun.
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| "The year of the ATB is upon us." 1987 Bicycling Buyer's Guide |
I'm old enough to remember when All-Terrain Bikes, or ATBs were an actual variation of the Mountain Bike, or MTB. Some people thought that was what we should call them, and there was already a distinction in the late 1980s and early 1990s between the more moto-inspired mountain bike - tending toward discs, suspension and downhill - and the cross-country, touring ethic of the ATB. Nowadays, people who were born after the mountain bike was created have developed a bit of a cult around the ATB, and there are new ATBs that harken back to the '80s and '90s. Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks sang "And I'm surfing on a wave of nostalgia for an age yet to come." I certainly had my eyes opened by this bike, as I envisioned a new riding age, yet to come.
Hudski
Hudski is a company created by two friends, Will Hudson & Brian Szykowny. The company name comes from their two last names. The name Dualist implies that it is two things, or maybe that it lives in between two things. Their company is in San Rafael, California, the town I lived in when I first
came to California in 1982, and
where I saw my first klunkers. I live in Oakland, across the bay. The price of a new Dualist was $2400 in
November 2025, when I bought mine. (They're now $2700, thanks to tariffs.)
That was an amount I could spend, without having to make significant
negotiations with my spouse, or sell other bikes. I contacted them, stopped
by, had a really nice chat with Brian, tried his bike, then brought home the
"MTB" version of the bike - MTB tires instead of gravel. I chose the "Nevada,"
or tan color, figuring it would be most invisible for the poach camps I like
to do. (I really do like the multi-color, Greg Lemond Zed color scheme of
their frame-only option, but I know it would stand out like crazy on a
bikepack.) I had it together pretty quickly and went for a ride. I've been
riding it since. I've made a few changes to suit me.
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| Brian, with my new bike in boxes |
Review
Blah, blah, blah... tell us about the bike.
Hudski is a direct-to-consumer brand. I think there are some shops that carry
them, but I chose to buy it in two boxes and
assemble it. (That video was filmed
on Bolinas Ridge, where I did
my last Bivvy A Month, or BAM, last weekend.) It went together easily, as I remember it. It even came with
a nice, little torque wrench. The bike was well-packaged and mostly assembled.
The wheels and tires were in one box, frame built as a bike in the other. The
artwork on the box is by a guy I know,
Chris McNally. You should buy one of
his watercolors, or prints. He does lovely work.
I didn't have to do a lot to put the bike together. After the initial
assembly, I did shorten the brake hoses, greased a dry seatpost and replaced
inner tubes with sealant, seating the Maxxis Rekon 29 x 2.4 tires easily with
the already-taped Hudski rims. The rims are a nice width - 27mm internal - and
shape, aluminum. The build is smart and economical. I am a SRAM guy, and I
thought for a minute about swapping to a SRAM Transmission drivetrain, mostly
so I could swap wheels, but gave up on it. The mental gymnastics required of
going from shifter to shifter across brands, models and years takes a bit to
process, but it's totally survivable, and the Shimano SLX stuff works fine.
When built, my XL frame weighed 27.13 lbs, with OneUp plastic flat pedals. Not
bad!
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| XL with pedals weighs 27.13 lbs, by my scale |
The frame is built with a fun, mountain-bike geometry that is specific to a
rigid fork. Details
here. Unlike many other bikes that make a compromise around a tall axle-to-crown
length, required for a 100 to 150mm suspension fork, or a rigid fork with the
right A-C height, these guys built around the affirmative notion of a rigid
ATB without compromise. The carbon fork is stout, does not deflect, and I like
the crown mount for a rack or fender, and the three-hole mounts on the legs
for cages. I had some old LANDING GEAR gold decals I had made for my 2008 Retrotec, but never used, and I later put them on the legs, because why
not?
The frame is long, and the front triangle is roomy, since the head tube
doesn't have to be short for a tall fork. It's the perfect shape for a big
frame bag. I did get one, a
Custom Wedge Framebag from Rockgeist, with room for a big bottle on the seat tube.
Both the front and rear drop-outs can be swapped to either of two positions,
via flip chips. A clever brake mount makes this possible.
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| credit: BikeRumor |
Read about the positions, and their relative merits here. I admit to being a doofus and leaving it in the longest-wheelbase position. I'll primarily use this for bikepacking, and long = stable. I do sometimes just rip around the local park on it, and honestly, it feels good the way it is. Maybe I'll experiment with them, someday. I'm also that guy that airs up suspension to recommended sag, sets rebound and compression to recommended, or intermediate settings, and then forgets to ever touch his suspension again. I like to walk downstairs, put on helmet, shoes and gloves, put lube on the chain and maybe air in the tires, and go ride.
The frame is aluminum, and the fork is carbon. They're rightfully proud of the
bottom bracket shell, which is an ingenious piece of engineering that allows
for a short chainstay, clever cable routing and keeps the weight light.
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| credit: James Huang |
The head tube badge is also a bit of elegant engineering and art. There's some background there, involving a winery and some hydroformed brass I think? It's cool.
The top cap has the letters MMWD embossed on it, their nod to the Marin
Municpal Water District for building such fun trails to ride.
It rides like a really fun hybrid. You can get a little stupid on it, but you
still have to pick your lines. I am still running the 2.4" tires, tubeless,
and I suppose you could be a bit dumber and faster with bigger, softer tires.
The wide and high handlebar position felt like grandma's cruiser bike at
first, and I did end up dropping the stem down until only one spacer remained,
between headset and stem. Standing on the pedals, it feels like a dirt bike.
The balance of weight front and rear feels good, off-road. Aluminum frames
have a rep for feeling harsh, but between the auminum frame, carbon fork and ~
28psi in the tubeless tires, it feels fine, encouraging you to find smooth
lines and gently boost over roots and rocks. Standing, out of the saddle
efforts are efficient, and the short rear end means lifting the front is
easy.
The saddle is short, kind of an odd spec, the
WTB Deva Pro-Gel, designed for women. (Is that right?) It feels fine. I sometimes find
myself sitting on the back edge. I do like the 74º seat tube angle. I've
honestly gotten spoiled with my two, newer mountain bikes that feature steeper
seat angles and longer top tubes, and find myself shoving saddles forward (and
getting knee taps on bars) on my older MTBs. The drivetrain, brakes and dropper
are fine. I didn't like the skinny grips on long rides - they made my hands
fall asleep. (See Changes, below.)
Changes
I never used the pedals that came with it, opting for the slightly nicer OneUp Composite pedals. I had a pair in purple, so on they went. I only use King titanium water bottle cages, and I put a two inside the front triangle, as well as a mount for my OneUp EDC 100cc pump / mini tool and mounts for GPS, lights.
Other than those initial changes, I made an effort to ride it the way it was specified for a while, avoiding
making opinionated changes until I'd digested the bike, as designed. My first changes,
aside from basic maintenance were for fit, to adjust the handlebar position,
and to put comfier grips on it. I liked the wide Hudski bars, and didn't cut
them down, but soon after I got it, my friend Ben gifted me a pair of
Monē Light Bars he'd
bought, cut down to 780mm, but found didn't work for him. I put them on and
they both looked and felt good, and also saved me something above 100 grams. I
experimented, successfully with some
SQLab 411 2.0 Innerbarends and
SQLab 710 2.0 grips, after doing a big day on the Hudski and having my hands fall asleep. The
innerbarends are really nice for big days; like being on the hoods of a road
bike.
After doing a
125-mile, 10,000', two-day bikepack through Henry Coe and Orestimba
Wilderness that involved a lot of steep climbs and descents, I determined that the
34-tooth front chainring was too big, and that the 160mm rear rotor was too
small. I bought 28-tooth, 30-tooth and 32-tooth Race Face CINCH chainrings,
and swapped in the 32-tooth and a fresh chain - having successfully worn out
my first chain during the Coe trip - and a 180mm Shimano rotor, adding a 10mm
Shimano spacer to the rear caliper. On my last
Bolinas Ridge BAM they both felt good, altho I think the 30-tooth might be the right size
for a ride like Henry Coe. I went down one chain link in length, when I went
from 34 to 32 teeth. The rear cassette remains the SLX 10-51 it came with.
I added a
Mica Rat Tail rear rack and a Rawland Rando front
rack, basically copying the recipe that
Miles Arbour wrote about, in his review. It's a good recipe. I got the aforementioned Custom Wedge Framebag from Rockgeist and Jay Ritchey of Bags by Bird made me a
Goldback bag in the 11W TALL size. For both bags, I chose the Evergreen Xpac material, which goes nice with
the tan frame and California foliage. I have King ti bottle cages on the seat
tube, and the underside of the downtube, and the frame bag uses the bolt holes
on the top of the downtube for its lower mounting connection. I have King
Manything cages on the fork legs. The way the Rawland Rack's stay attaches to
the middle of the three mount holes on the fork and the middle hole of the
Manything cage means that I have to add spacers behind the upper and lower
holes of the Manything cage. I did this with 5 m5 stainless washers. Getting 5
(I think that was the number) loose washers, the cage and the m5 bolt, and its
washer lined up was tricky. The Goldback bag sits on the Rawland rack, and the
lower strap goes around the rear loop of the rack. It's upper straps go around
the main part, not the spreader of the Monē bar. I have taken it on rough
terrain, and it's solid. The rear rack has so far carried a tent and a stuff
sack, secured with Voile straps. It does have the three-hole cage mounts, and
I have some Wolftooth cages for it, but I haven't used them, yet. I've tried a
few other bag variations on the Hudski. It does a good job of carrying gear.
Having tried a dynamo light setup on my son's bike, I was sold. Keeping things
charged on a multi-day bike tour is a challenge, and being both able to
generate my own light, and to charge a power pack or phone with a front hub is
really appealing to me. I bought a
Schmidt SON 28 32-hole dynamo hub
in black, with a 15 x 110 axle from
Sinewave Cycles, also their
Beacon 2 headlight
and their
Taillight. I built the front wheel with a
Stans Arch MK4 rim -
which is close to the width and material of the Hudski rim - DT-Swiss
Competition spokes and brass nipples. I got the
Schmidt Co-Axial Adapter and soldering jig, and used some
Shimano SM-EWC2
adhesive strips to route the wiring up the back of the fork leg. My friend
Patrick helped me solder up some intermediate wire, with
gold-plated bullet connectors and 16 gauge wire for the middle section of wiring. I ended up re-doing
the middle section to move the Beacon 2 to the front rack, having experimented
with a bar mount - using the
Mostly Forever 16mm accessory clamp
- before giving up on the idea of a handlebar light illuminating the trail
instead of the back of my handlebar bag. I am using a
Supernova Multimount
to mount it. The Rawland rack provides an M5 threaded boss on the front of the
rack, but the Supernova Multimount has a 6mm threaded hole for a bolt. I ended
up passing an M5 bolt, with blue loctite on the threads through the Supernova
mount's larger, threaded hole to secure it. The Supernova mount uses short
bolts, t25 and m3 (?) to secure itself. They don't have much thread
engagement. I put blue loctite on the threads, and I got a second Supernova
Multimount so that I can pirate its bolts and nuts and carry spares for when
they come loose on the trail. I found a
short, coiled USB-A to USB-C cable on Amazon, and I carry a USB-A to USB-C converter. This lets me charge a power pack or
phone off the back of the Sinewave Beacon 2, and stow the device in a side
pocket. The one thing I need to do is to plug the back of the Beacon 2's USB-A
port, so it doesn't pack with mud. I can swap the bullet connectors to put the
rear Taillight in solid or blinking mode.
I've got a
K-Edge mount
for my GPS which replaces one of the headset spacers, and puts the computer
behind the steerer. It's a weird place for it, but the forward position would
conflict with the top spreader bar of the handlebar, and my knees don't hit
it. I always use the lanyard for the Coros Dura, so I don't worry too much
about dislodging and losing it.
I am going to try the Vittoria Mezcal tires in the same 29 x 2.4 size, with
the tougher TNT casing, to see if I can find a durable tire with less rolling
resistance for these bikepacking trips. The Rekons are good, but between flat
pedals and their knobs, long road sections feel slow. If I were a rich man, I'd have a second set of wheels, also with a SON dynamo front hub, and gravel tires on that second set.
I've done these bikepacking trips on the Dualist:
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