Broad Fork Bags

Broad Fork Bags exists because a man decided to race the Tour Divide two weeks before the start. In 2013 Josh, then Jacquelyn Barnes's partner, entered it without ever having been bikepacking. He bought a touring bike on eBay. He could not afford the commercial bags, so he made himself a frame bag, and Barnes writes that "the rest is history."

The company is named for the Broads Fork Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon. When Josh got a promotion at work, Barnes slowly took over the business. The two split amicably in 2020, and she writes that he told her if she wanted the company, it was hers. She has run it since, designing and sewing from her home in Salt Lake City.

Barnes had her own reason to want bags on the bike. She started mountain biking in 2009 and later added fat biking so she could ride all winter. Nerve damage in her shoulder made long rides with a backpack uncomfortable, so the goal became getting the weight off her back and onto the frame. In 2017 she rode the San Juan hut route from Telluride to Moab.

Every frame bag is cut to one bike. Customers trace the inside of their frame's triangle onto cardboard and mail the cutout to G Street in Salt Lake City. The instructions ask them to mark every bottle mount and cable stop first. Ordering one involves more arts and crafts than most adults have done since grade school.

Most bags are sewn from X-Pac VX21 or from Dyneema composite fabric, which at 2.9 ounces a square yard weighs about half as much. A few fabrics carry prints by Salt Lake tattoo artists. The FAQ is straight about the limits: the fabric is waterproof, but the bags are only water resistant.

The Bar Bucket, a stem bag, is sized to hold a 1-liter Nalgene. Every bag carries a lifetime warranty, which is a long commitment from a business that began as a two-week scramble before a race.