The Bikepacker

Saturday, 16 May 2026

Bikepacking 2026 - The Pamir Highway

Introduction

A few years ago, I watched a YouTube documentary about two cyclists riding what looked like a hellish, utterly grueling high-altitude road called the Pamir Highway. The documentary opened with the two exhausted cyclists ground to a halt by the side of a bleak looking road that crossed a barren rocky plain. The weather was awful. The two cyclists were freezing. And one of them was crying.

From that point on, I wanted to cycle the Pamir Highway :-)

I go by the code name of M1. This is my bikepacking blog, the place I document the trips I've been on with my bike, either solo or more usually, with my wife and cycling buddy, code name M2.

The Pamir Highway

The Pamir Highway is the informal name given to a road that spans several countries in Central Asia. It gets this name from a range of mountains that it traverses, the Pamir Mountains. Its original, formal name given to it by the Soviets who built it was the M41. The various countries that the road passes through, now give it various local names.

The route the Pamir Highway follows has been there for hundreds of years longer than the road itself. It used to be part of the historic Asian network of trade routes known as the Silk Road.

Most of the road is in the country of Tajikistan. Amongst travellers, the most popular route taken involves travelling between the capital city of Tajikistan, Dushanbe and the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan in either direction.

Within Tajikistan and the Pamir Mountains, the road passes through Tajikistan's autonomous region, the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (often abbreviated GBAO).

Dushanbe is at an altitude of 780 metres above sea level. At its highest point in the mountains, the Pamir Highway reaches 4660 metres altitude.

The Profile of The Pamir Highway

The Team

M2 has decided to sit this one out at home on a sofa watching The World Cup rather than on a bike. So, this year, I will be accompanied by M2's brother who shall henceforth be referred to with code name K1.

K1 has only been on one bikepacking trip before and that was to test the bikes and gear for the Pamir Highway trip on a short local ride here in the UK. But, whilst he may be a bikepacking newbie, he brings other things to the team. He's a medical doctor (known in the UK as a "GP" or General Practitioner) and was previously a medical officer in the UK's Royal Air Force (RAF).

K1 (left) and M1 (right)

The Route

We've decided to cycle from Dushanbe to Osh. This is the most commonly chosen direction. The road climbs for 900 km in this direction before descending into Kyrgyzstan for about 350 km. But there tends to be a headwind to contend with if you cycle in the opposite direction and of course the climbing that is required from Osh at 980 metres to the 4660 m highest point is that much steeper. So, we have weeks of climbing to do but hopefully will not be further punished by a headwind.

There are some variations to choose from. The North route out of Dushanbe is supposedly rougher than the South route but more scenic. We're taking the North route.

Our chosen Pamir Highway route (blue) and the optional Bartang Valley detour (red)

There are some enticing detours available, too. The most interesting is shown in red on the map above. That's the Bartang Valley, a remote valley which is said to have only 15 homes in it along its 250 km / 150 mile length. We considered the Bartang Valley but in early summer there's still a risk of the river which rages down the valley in its western half, carrying melt water from the high mountains, having flooded and consumed parts of the road, and of landslides. It's remoteness makes it an appealing place to visit though so if we have time, when we reach the eastern end of the Bartang Valley, we may take a detour and cycle down it for a day or so before turning round and rejoining the M41.

There's a popular southern variant called the Wakhan Corridor (sometimes, the Wakhan Valley) which makes the route longer and hugs the border with Afghanistan for about 150 km. This too was tempting but K1 has a deadline and must be back in the UK for a certain date so we decided to stick with the shorter, official M41 variant and not add another complication and potential source of stress to our plan.

M41 (blue), Bartang Valley (red) and Wakhan Corridor (green)

The Schedule

There's a puzzling war going on between the US and Iran right now and this has impacted the availability and price of oil and petrochemical products such as jet fuel. So international air travel has become uncertain. But, on the assumption that we're not impacted by this, we're set to fly from London to Dushanbe via Istanbul on 17th June.

We don't know exactly when we'll be returning. It's hard to arrive at safe estimates for cycling the Pamir Highway. There are plenty of hazards that could disrupt and delay our journey. Food poisoning seems almost certain from the many accounts we've read during our research! And it wouldn't take much for us to fall behind schedule by a few days or a week. So, we've bought flexible tickets for the return to London from Osh.

That said, we think six weeks should be enough time, so that's the assumption at this stage.

The Bikes

As usual, M1 will ride his Specialized MTB touring bike, code named The Mule. The Mule has had some work done in preparation for this trip including new, custom spec, hand built wheels from Ryan Builds Wheels, a new rear derailleur, a new bottom bracket, new gear cables and new brake pads. Before we fly, the chain will have been replaced and new 47" Continental Contact Plus tyres, new inner tubes and a new chain will have been fitted. The Mule might even get washed!

The Mule

K1 will be riding a Claude Butler hybrid bike which K1 has decided is to go by the name of Donkey, serving both as a reference to Eddie Murphy's character in the movie Shrek and to be a fitting companion for The Mule.

K1 and Donkey

Donkey has had quite a make over as well, including new wheels from Ryan Builds Wheels.

Fitness Training

Cycling the Pamir Highway is likely to be a little on the tough side. Definitely physically challenging. Both M1 and K1 have been pursuing their own fitness programs to get ready.

I live 15 km from a hill that featured in the 2012 Olympic games, Box Hill. I've been using Box Hill to build strength and endurance by cycling up and down it over and over again. A single ascent involves a 2.5 km / 1.5 mile climb at a gradient of about 5%. Multiple ascents soon add up to a significant amount of climbing. It's a very effective way of preparing to pedal a heavy bike up big mountains!

An example Box Hill training session in May 2026

K1 favours indoor training and has been making good use of the Rouvy training simulator software.

That's it for now!

I'll share more on our plan including the gear we're taking, issues we're anticipating and steps we've taken to mitigate the various risks in future blog posts. Whenever mobile internet access is available, I'll be blogging from the road as well.

Watch this space :-)

Saturday, 25 April 2026

Knepp Estate - Equipment Test

Stats

Day 1 - Outbound

In a few weeks, I (M1) will be flying to a distant land with my trusty touring bike The Mule, safely tucked into a comfy box in the hold. This will mark the start of what promises to be a major bikepacking adventure. Details will be shared right here in this very blog quite soon.

M2 is not coming on this next trip. She has her reasons and they're all very sane and sensible ones.

But M1 shall not be alone. Joining M1 will be his brother-in-law who shall henceforth be referred to as K1. K1 has not bikepacked before so he's taking quite a plunge starting with the ambitious trip we have planned.

For the summer trip, new equipment is needed. A multi-fuel stove. A bulky four season sleeping bag. Water purification systems. And more. More things to pack. More weight to propel using leg power.

Today, we set off on a short trip to the Knepp Estate in Sussex. The plan is to camp one night and return the same way the next day.

It's only a 55 km ride to Knepp. But the goal is primarily to test equipment, bike set-up and so on. To find and resolve teething problems. All before heading off to strange and distant lands.

We loaded up the bikes and set off at about 11:00.

Within about five minutes and without having left the road we started on, we were back! Our first teething problems made themselves known very, very quickly!

On applying the front brake, M1 was nearly thrown by The Mule as the front wheel jerked abruptly to one side! What the?!

Meanwhile, K1’s nameless steed was making blood curdling screechy noises every time he braked. What the?!

We returned home to assess the situation. Bike Mechanic Mode was engaged!

M1 was bemused. Flummoxed. Some would say befuddled. New brake pads were fitted. It seemed unlikely dodgy brake pads would cause such symptoms but what with all the bemusement, flummoxation and befuddlement, what else could M1 do?

It wasn't the brake pads!

Finally, M1 noticed the state of his fuel bottle, carried on the underside of the frame in a new bottle cage. The penny dropped. With the bike heavily loaded, The Mule's suspension was compressing more than usual on braking and this was causing the rotating front tyre to hit the fuel bottle. Mystery solved. M1 is still and perhaps always will be a little befuddled. That's just the way he is though.

K1 meanwhile was cleansing his disk rotors. This did the trick.

We set off again. This time we actually got beyond the end of the road!

The weather was perfect. Spring. Sunshine. Blue skies. Wonderful.

We stopped for drinks and snacks at a farm shop. Lovely.

The remainder of the journey through the English countryside was a delight and we arrived at about 15:30, chose a pitch, got the tents up, collected firewood and then went for a walk in the famous Knepp rewilding zone. We saw White Storks of course. Knepp is famous for having reintroduced them to Britain. We saw deer, cows, loads of bunny rabbits and a few horses. We could hear Nightingales.

Back at the campsite, having hastily checked the instructions, we managed to light our petrol stoves without killing ourselves and cook a more than passable meal. K1 cooked himself some pasta. M1 had oatmeal with tuna with some packet soup added as a kind of sauce. It was delicious, I'll have you know!

The evening was spent by the fire, eating snacks and chatting, all with a background soundtrack provided by the many, many birds here at Knepp. Bliss.

Both of us have invested in a Helinox camping chair. They're amazing. Very light and packable yet strong and very comfortable. You have no idea, dear reader, what luxury it is to have a chair to sit on outside the tent!

By nightfall a splendid collection of stars had revealed themselves along with bright moving objects we tried to identify as either aircraft, satellites, meteors or perhaps, you never know…. UFOs! And there was a bright half moon providing gentle illumination.

It was getting chilly and M1’s Thermodrop said it was now 3 degrees Celsius. One of the new items of gear that M1 had brought was a new down jacket. It did the job nicely.

We hit the hay sometime after 10 pm, each retreating to our respective MSR tents.

I slept well enough. It was apparent that the temperature was fairly low in the tent but the new Sea to Summit down sleeping bag did a good job and I was never cold.

Day 2 - Return

I got up at about 5:50. The birds insisted it was time to get up as only they can. Before emerging into the outside world though, I noticed ice on the inside of the tent! Curious!

When I did exit the tent, it all became clear. There had been a very heavy frost. The bikes were iced up. Our water bottles were full of big chunks of ice. The Thermodrop insisted the temperature was -5 degrees Celsius! Brrrrrr. Chilly.

I was grateful for the new down jacket once again. Coupled with a thermal hat, I felt warm enough although hands immediately demanded to be thrust deep into the down jacket's pockets.

After a nice hot breakfast (oatmeal with honey and two cups of coffee for me), we packed everything away and cycled out of Knepp. The sun was climbing now and its warm rays were welcome.

About 20 km later, things got “interesting”. M1 heard K1 call to him from some way behind and cycled back to find K1 walking back down the road, his bike left on its stand. The reason? K1’s chain had broken! Quelle domage!

We parked the bikes on the pavement out of harm's way. K1 looked for a chain link (AKA "quick link") with which to mend the chain only to discover that the ones he had were the wrong size! He has a 9 speed road bike at home which is what they were probably for. His touring bike has a 7 speed cassette and therefore, chain. Luckily K1 found a pin that can be used to join two links using a chain breaker tool. M1’s bike multi tool includes this so he found it and handed it to K1.

K1 did a heroic job, repairing the chain with the spare pin but was concerned it might not get us all the way home. We located a local bike shop and cycled about 2 km to it. They sold K1 a suitable quick link and a spare chain (just in case).

After that happily we had no more mechanical problems.

Our return route included Box Hill. We both made it up but it took quite some effort on our super heavy bikes! We did it, that's the main thing.

What did we learn?

The objective of this short trip was to test the bikes and how everything is set up as well as some of the new gear. What did we learn?

1. M1 knows to make sure his fuel bottle is positioned a little lower than the water bottle holder above it and to check that with the front suspension compressed, the front wheels will not touch the bottle.

2. M1 will definitely bring a spare chain despite knowing most breaks can be repaired easily with quick links. It's worth the small amount of additional weight.

3. K1 will make sure he has the right size quick links in his spares bag.

4. The Helinox chairs are great but if you're not sitting in them, a slight breeze can blow them over. We could imagine them being blown down a mountain with us in hot pursuit! So, each of us will be fashioning an anchor system probably involving tent pegs and cord to stop this from happening.

5. M1’s legs felt the cold when sat outside in the chilly evening. Maybe a down quilt or similar is called for.

6. We used more petrol than expected, cooking and making drinks. M1 probably used about half of what his fuel bottle contained. We'll be investigating how to use the MSR stoves as efficiently as possible. M1 will almost certainly bring a second fuel bottle to lash somewhere to The Mule.

7. We both need to keep training for endurance and climbing albeit both M1 and K1 did pretty well. Those bikes are super heavy though!

All in all, a successful and enjoyable trip :-)

Photos from Day 1