Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Honestly, if your current bike will do 2 days, it can do 3. If it can do 3 days of riding, it can do a week. If it can do a week, it can do a trip around the world. The bike isn't the limit. For the most part, if you can carry 2 to 3 days of clothing and food in addition to what you carry for shelter, you really don't need anything more.
I'm the last person to tell someone to not buy a new bike...I have 8 myself...but the current bike you have is only limited by a so-so fork. Change out the fork for suspension corrected rigid fork and the bike would be just about like the Ogre. Your bike has a few other warts...the derailers are pretty bad...but they can all be corrected. Check Fleabay and you can often find deals.
One final thing, there is no bike that "will do it all". A bike that is optimized for road will do poorly on the dirt and a bike that is optimized for dirt will likely do poorly on the road. A bike that is optimized for dirt will fair better on the road than a bike optimized for road will fair on dirt. The former will be slow but the latter will be slower because crashing really has an impact on your overall speed.
That's good info. I am attaching a rear rack on my current bike and I ride it with the fork locked down most times. I've asked several bike guys about just getting the mechanicals of my bike better but so far was discouraged to spend any money on it. I only have $200 in it though the rear rim has been trued to about 90% perfect and the derailleurs sometimes work and sometimes not so well. I was going to try to replace the derailleurs and wheel set and get started bikepacking on shorter trips.