If you’re a regular reader, you may know I’ve been turning my attention to new projects lately. Google’s algorithm changes have made blogs like this one much harder to find in the vast reaches of the internet. This makes blogging, at least at the nearly full-time level required to run a website to its full potential, much less rewarding and sustainable.
So in this new phase, as much as I love writing, I find myself returning to my roots in software development and data. But I still can’t tear myself away from the world of bikes and bikepacking! I’m hoping to join the two with my latest side project.
Introducing…. drumroll please…. BikepackBaggregator.com!
Baggregator?? Bag + Aggregator = Baggregator. What can I say, the site basically named itself. :)
This new project is, simply put, a better way to research and choose bikepacking bags. It aggregates product details and gives buyers smart ways to sort, filter, and search on the features bikepackers care about most, helping you find the gear options that best fit your bike, budget, and riding style.
The Bikepack Baggregator project has two main goals:
- Help bikepackers find the gear that best meets their needs.
- Help small gear makers connect with more potential buyers.
Let me take you on a quick tour and show you how it works.
Smart Filtering and Sorting
We bikepackers tend to have specific gear needs. For example, you might be looking for a fully waterproof dropper-compatible seat bag. How about a custom frame bag for a full-suspension bike? Or maybe just a versatile and affordable cargo cage that isn’t too heavy.
As an experienced bikepacker and gear reviewer, I know what bikepackers care about. Bikepack Baggregator has sorting and filtering capabilities for all the most important features and specs: capacity, weight, size, mounting types, bike types, waterproofness, and tons more.
Above is a simple example showing seat bags sorted by capacity. These small bags at the top are perfect for ultralight setups and limited clearance, while the large bags down at the bottom (not shown in this screenshot) maximize capacity for more involved trips.
Next, a more detailed filter example. In this search for a bikepacking frame bag, we’re looking for a wedge style with a zipper closure in the lower half of the price range. Other filter options include stock or custom, ideal bike geometry, and whether the bag is fully waterproof, available in fun colors, or made in the USA.
Here’s a close-up of that filter section so you can see it in detail:
For convenience and inspiration, the navigation menu includes dozens of pre-built filtered lists covering common searches. A few examples:
Detailed Product Pages
Each product in the Baggregator database has a clear and detailed product page packed with info bikepackers care about. You can quickly see how each bag compares to others in its category, including which features it does or doesn’t have.
No gear is actually sold on the site, but you can easily follow the links to shop. All pages link out to the gear maker’s website and other online retailers that carry the product.
I’m especially fond of the visual comparison section, which shows at a glance how each bag compares to others in the database. For example, look on the right side of the screenshot below. You can see that this handlebar dry bag is a bit larger than average, definitely on the expensive side, but also much lighter than average, which makes sense since ultralight gear typically costs more.
Here’s a closeup of another comparison section, this one for the Revelate Ripio frame bag:
Comparisons
Gear buying decisions often come down to a side-by-side comparison between two options, and Bikepack Baggregator makes it easy. You can browse pre-built comparison tables for popular pairs of products, or you can create your own comparison between any two bags with just a couple clicks.
Real Bikepacking Setups and Reviews (Share Yours!)
Collectively, we bikepackers carry a vast amount of knowledge and experience when it comes to which bags work best for which types of bikes and riding styles. So I’m especially excited about this feature of Bikepack Baggregator: a growing collection of bikepacking setups and product reviews shared by actual bikepackers just like you.
If you’ve ever loaded up your bike and gone for a ride, your experience matters! Please contribute your knowledge by sharing a picture of your setup and the bags you use on the Share Your Setup page. Here’s an example:
Work In Progress
Bikepack Baggregator is a work in progress. Feel free to send your feedback and suggestions to the email address listed on the About page.
A couple notable areas I’m still working on:
Turns out there are a LOT of bikepacking bags out there, and the gear database is not yet complete. My goal is to make it comprehensive, but this will take time. If your favorite bag is missing, please let me know so I can add it.
With apologies to my international readers, Bikepack Baggregator is currently focused on the United States. I’ve included a number of bags made in Europe that are also available in the US, but haven’t optimized for non-US markets. The units are unabashedly American (pounds, ounces, inches), though I’m working on a unit conversion feature for the future.
The Money Thing
There are always a few people who accuse me of just trying to get rich from my website projects, so let me be transparent: getting rich is not that easy!
In a best-case scenario Bikepack Baggregator might bring in enough money to cover its own costs and a fraction of my time. At the moment it’s not monetized at all, but if it takes off I plan to add affiliate links, which would pay a small commission if someone buys through a link (at no extra cost to the buyer).
As with Exploring Wild, this type of monetization would allow me to justify spending time on the project. Running websites, it turns out, is far more time-consuming than most people would guess, and I only have so many hours in the day.
How You Can Help
If you like this project and want to help it grow, here’s how:
- Go to BikepackBaggregator.com as the first step in shopping for your bikepacking gear.
- Submit your bikepacking setup to help other riders make their gear choices.
- Tell your bikepacking friends about it on social media or in real life.
- Follow @bikepackbaggregator on Instagram for updates.
- If you happen to run a website, a link to BikepackBaggregator.com is extremely helpful for telling Google that the site is worth ranking in search results.
Thanks for checking out my new project! I hope it helps you make smart choices from amongst a growing array of awesome bikepacking gear. Happy exploring!
About the Author
Hi there, I’m Alissa, founder of Exploring Wild. I’ve traveled over 20,000 miles by bike and still can’t stop planning my next ride (and helping you plan yours). Pavement and panniers or singletrack and seat bag, I love it all. On my bike I feel free. Learn more about me here.
Bikepackers: Join me on Patreon for my most current and personal writing, individualized trip prep help, and a community of likeminded supporters.
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Super cool, congratulations on the launch!!!
I hope you do get rich (or richer 😉) from your website projects, why not? Fuck the haters. I have a few suggestions, which I’m sure you’ve already thought about, so please forgive my enthusiasm:
1 – For making money off the site, besides affiliate links (which I assume many small brands don’t support?), have you considered creating a marketplace for used bags? Because you’ve already created a DB of bags and their properties, you have the data to let buyers subscribe to notifications on either specific bags (by SKU) or search filters (e.g., handlebar bag + waterproof + over a certain capacity), so when sellers list bags that match, buyers could be notified. This would be a huge improvement over any marketplace selling used bike bags that I know of. You could potentially MVP a marketplace by just connecting buyers/sellers and not handling transactions yourself, since that adds technical/legal complexity. Just bags is of course limited in financial potential, but who knows, maybe the scope of the site expands over time.
2 – I like the idea of letting users upload their setups. Have you considered seeding the DB of setups with the many setup profiles that get posted on bike blogs? I assume many of the owners would be happy to be on your site if you asked. Relatedly, I’m sure you’ve considered user accounts for the future and sensibly decided not to build that out for a first launch, but once there are user accounts, people could be invited to list *all* the gear they own as well as their setups, which could potentially facilitate offers in a marketplace if users could mark some of their gear as willing to sell. It’s also good for you to get user photos of as much individual gear as possible; I see you’re loading images from brands’ websites but I imagine you won’t want to continue doing that forever, since as you know you can be blocked at any time.
3 – Brands are not always honest about the capacity of their bags. If you had a way to crowdsource verified capacities, I think that could help make your site the first port of call for people researching bags.
I have lot of other thoughts but I’ll stop there. This is an awesome project, looking forward to seeing how it evolves!
Hi Kevin! This is amazing feedback, thank you! It’s awesome to get such specific input from someone who clearly knows their way around product development.
1. To be honest I had not thought about a used bag marketplace, but it’s a cool idea! Will tuck it into the backlog for somewhere down the line.
2. Yes! I plan to do some outreach for this project in the new year, including to other bloggers. And I’m currently working on an individual product review form that will collect more detailed info and pictures. Still trying to find the balance between collecting ALL the data and keeping it simple enough that people will actually do it. I would love to add user accounts in the future but you are correct, I punted on it for the initial launch.
3. Interesting idea. Like a “feels like it runs small” type of thing, or based on actual measurements?
Thanks again! The hardest part is actually getting people to the site, so if you like it, please share it around to your bikepacking friends. :)