Route Planning

Route planning and its cousin, in-ride navigation are two pretty important aspects of bikepacking. You can wander lonely as a cloud if that's what you want to do, but most people will want to get from particular points on the map, A to B using a route that they like. 

What makes a route a good route?

This is a question whose answer will vary from person to person. Most of us will want relatively quiet roads, without too much traffic but there will be those whose priority is speed or the reduction of the distance to be cycled to a minimum. Some people will be happy to cycle further if it means avoiding the worst / best (depending on your point of view!) hills. 

Personally, I like quiet roads, amazing views and for there to be the occasional place I can stop at to get a coffee and essential food like... cake. And I quite like hills. 

I Like Hills - On Alpes d'Huez, May 2019

I'm likely to have time constraints too, so the relative distance of route options will always be a factor even if finding the shortest route between to points is not my number one priority.

Route Planning

When I'm thinking of planning a route, three things occur to me:

1. The availability of official cycling routes that I could use

2. The experience of other cyclists undertaking a similar journey

3. Tools

Official Cycling Routes

France

It's 2020. And with my wife, we were all set to undertake our first ever, totally self-organised bikepacking holiday. And then Covid-19 struck and that was the end of that.

The plan had been to spend a couple of weeks cycling in France, taking our bikes across the English Channel from England where we live and then cycle about 400 miles. We researched options for constructing a route from anywhere we could get a ferry to from England and found two official cycling routes, each of which looked very appealing. 

The first was La Vélodyssée, which is a 1240 km route from northern France, largely hugging the Atlantic coast and ending near the border with Spain.

The second was La Vélo Francette , which stays inland, passing through the French countryside from Ouistreham to La Rochelle.

Ultimately, we chose the second option. Either offered a superb basis for our holiday though. The point is, we didn't have to stick rigidly to the official route, but could use it as the foundation for something customised for our preferences. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, France has plenty of long and interesting looking cycle routes, and you can see some of them at the France Velo Tourisme web site.

Europe

Perhaps the most exciting discovery made whilst researching bikepacking in France, was of the incredible looking Eurovelo network. This amazing network of national and international routes could keep you happy for a lifetime. Take a look at the map and just imagine....

Building your own route, based more or less on an official cycle route has obvious advantages and it's where I would generally start with my planning.

Other Cyclists

Google (or some other favourite internet search engine) will help you find blogs and cycling forum discussions about bikepacking in general and about journeys just like yours. This is a great way to pick up tips about the route, the likely weather conditions, availability of places to stay and so on.

Route Planning Tools

This is where it gets interesting. We are spoiled for choice these days, with sophisticated web sites and mobile applications that make route planning relatively easy. Now rather than explore and compare a wide selection of tools, let me tell you what I use.

1. Plotaroute

My favourite tool for planning routes is plotaroute. It's really easy to use and will automatically find paths along roads or trails between two points using its Auto Plot function. In Auto Plot mode, you can indicate that you want routes that are suitable for cycling and it will do its best to achieve just that.

Toggle the Hills feature and a profile of your route appears at the bottom of the screen, which is really handy.

Once you've plotted your route, you can export it as a KML file, which is useful if you want to use a different application for navigation along the route.

Plotaroute can be used free of charge, in exchange for advertisements being displayed in a fairly unobtrusive way or you can pay an annual fee, which is a very reasonable amount and lose the adverts and gain some other benefits. I have a paid-for account and it's worth every penny.

2. Google Maps

No big surprise here. Google Maps is great for quick and easy route plotting, provided your route requirements are straightforward. Enter your start location and destination, indicate you're travelling by bike and let Google do the rest. It's also pretty good for in-ride navigation. But that's a topic for another day.

The 100% Waterproof Frame Bag

I bought a frame bag which had a compartment for a smartphone and transparent cover, which is supposed to allow you to see the phone's display and operate the touchscreen. Until today, my experience of the product had been good. But I guess I haven't done that much wet weather riding with the frame bag attached.

It's made by Turata and they describe it as "100% waterproof" on Amazon.

Well, today I rode 60 miles on my touring bike, which has the frame bag mounted. And it rained. Not hard, torrential, lashing rain in a fierce cross wind. No. It was just drizzle. Moderately heavy drizzle I suppose, but drizzle nonetheless.

After an hour, there was plenty of water inside the bag and I could not use the touchscreen of my phone, which was responding to false touch events due to the water. Leakage? Condensation? Hard to say but either way, a complete failure for the supposedly 100% waterproof product.

The Turata non-waterproof frame bag

Testing the Bike and Luggage Solution

Having made numerous changes to my bike and settled on a solution for carrying all my stuff, I decided it would make sense to test everything out. How would the bike handle with all that weight strapped to it? How would my legs cope, riding a bike so much heavier than my carbon-framed road bike, before I even attached all that luggage? There was only one way to find out.

So, one morning quite recently, I packed everything I expected to take on a multi-day bikepacking trip, including my tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, a peg hammer and more. I even had a computer and my Kindle. So when I say everything I really do mean everything! I mounted my panniers and rack pack onto the bike and set off into the Kent countryside, with the intention of riding 50 miles. This was a circular ride with no overnight stay, and purely intended to answer those initial questions about the bike and my legs. I'll test out my camping gear and overnight stays another time.

My route took me through countryside, mostly on quiet roads. There are only a few moderately significant hills on the route, but only one I'd describe as challenging, with a gradient of about 10%. In total, the route included about 3,000 feet of ascent. Compared with some of the bikepacking routes I'd like to cycle one day, this is also very modest. But it's a start.

So how did it go? In short, it went really well! I adopted an entirely different cycling style to my usual. No pushing it. No thinking about elapsed time, average speed or Strava personal records! On uphill stretches, I went slowly. On downhill sections, I coasted. I treated my legs gently and just enjoyed the ride and the surroundings. And this is the way to do it, no doubt. Overall I averaged about 11 mph. This is slow compared to what I'm used to on the road bike, obviously. But that's only to be expected and when your goal is to enjoy the ride and the environment, rather than to break records or meet deadlines, it's more than good enough.

 

I was aware of the weight I was carrying, but it didn't feel heavy as such. In fact it was only really noticeable when going uphill.

The bike handled perfectly. I wasn't aware of any change in its handling at all. I was aware I was probably a little back-heavy and careful to avoid accidental wheelies on steeper uphill sections, but never felt that might actually happen.

And on return home, my legs felt absolutely fine. Definitely a successful first test!

On Farthing Downs, nice and early in the morning

In Kent, ready to turn around and return!

Getting the Bike Ready - Padlock

Continuing with the theme of things that could go wrong when enjoying a bikepacking adventure, your bike being stolen is one of those things that could very well end your adventure and cost you a lot of money too, not just in replacing the bike. If you've booked your accommodation in advance, even if you were to get the bike back by some massive stroke of luck, you may find yourself behind schedule and failing to get to the right accommodation on the right day.

So a good padlock is worth investing in.

Choosing which padlock to buy is not so easy. I read various reviews and studied the results of tests carried out and the specification of each product. I learned that there's a useful security testing standard which is branded as Sold Secure. Bike locks are graded at Sold Secure Bronze, Silver or Gold. Gold is of course the most secure. Generally though, the more secure a lock, the heavier it is too and some of them are very heavy indeed.

To browse products at the three different grades, use the links at this page on the Sold Secure web site. 

Having weighed up the pros and cons, I went for an Abus 420/170HB230. Abus seem to have a great product range and reputation.

It's not light at 1100g .... but nowhere near as some other products whose weight is in the 2kg - 3kg range. Carrying the lock is a little problematic too. It comes with a frame mounting kit, but the lock is large and I couldn't get it to fit whilst retaining my two bottle cages. So, I either strap it to my pannier rack or put it in my Ortlieb Rack Pack.

Hopefully it will never be put to the test!

 

Getting the Bike Ready - Pump

The longer the ride, the greater the chance of something going wrong. And punctures have to be fairly high on the list of potential issues. Luckily, tyres do seem remarkably good these days and punctures are a relative rarity. No doubt I will now get lots of punctures having said this out loud!

Spare inner tubes and puncture repair kits are on the list of must-have items to take with you. But having repaired a puncture or replaced an inner tube, you still need to reinflate the tyre. You can get CO2 cannisters with which to inflate tyres..... apparently. I have no experience of them though and am not a big fan of things you use once and then throw away. So, I prefer to carry a pump.

I had a pump on my mountain bike but had never used it. Not once. I assumed it would be fine for any touring I might do. But I wondered how long it would take to reinflate one of my new tyres to a reasonable pressure, say around 50 lbs per square inch and so decided to test it. Good call. It was completely useless. At about 30 lbs per sq. inch, the seal between the pump and valve failed so that air that should have been going into the inner tune, spilled out of the valve. Useless. So, a new pump was selected.

I went for a very small and light mini-pump which adds very little weight to the overall load. When it first arrived, I was surprised at just how small it was and wondered how long it would take to get enough air in my tyres from such a small pump, which would clearly deliver only a small volume of air at each stroke. So once again, I did some testing. Yes, it took 200 strokes to reach 50 ppsi but..... it was really easy and the seal around the valve was rock solid. So, it definitely meets my needs. If you have larger tyres on your bike though, I suggest you look at MTB mini-pumps. They are fatter and deliver more air per stroke.

After reading the usual reviews, by the way, the pump I ended up selecting was the Topeak Race Rocket HP Mini Pump. Here it is:

The pump came with a bracket which fits to the frame under the bottle cage, using the two screws that hold the bottle cage in place. Fitting is super easy.

Getting the Bike Ready - Carrying Stuff

Bikepacking by definition requires your bike to carry not just you, but everything you'll need for your trip as well. Clothing, camping equipment, tools, spares, electronic gadgets (obviously), waterproofs, perhaps cooking equipment and who knows what else. We'll get to the question of what to take in another post one day.

Options

Fortunately, there are numerous ways of carrying stuff on a bike these days. Here are some of them:

1. Rucksack
2. Bum Bag... or for the North American reader, Fanny Pack
3. Saddle Bag
4. Frame Bag
5. Rear-mounted Panniers
6. Front-mounted Panniers
7. Handlebar-mounted bag
8. Items tied directly to the bike or pannier rack
9. Everything balanced precariously on your head

Considerations

To make your choice, it will obviously help if you know what you want to carry. If you've not yet undertaken your first bikepacking adventure, you may not be sure. But you should certainly try to figure this out and then turn your attention to how you're going to carry everything. I'll post details of how I approached both the question of what to take and how I went about trying to validate my conclusions in another post. 

Things to think about are:

1. How much storage capacity do you need in total?
2. Are any of the items to be carried an unusual or inconvenient size or shape?
3. Protection from the weather, especially wet weather
4. Easy access to things you might need during the day during a ride
5. Access to things you might need when away from the bike
6. Toughness of materials - your bags will be with you over a great many miles and years!
7. Visibility
8. Preferred mounting positions

I'm going to assume that nobody would choose to balance their stuff on their head, but if that's what you decide to do, I'm not one to judge!

If you're planning to camp and take a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat and groundsheet, for example then this equipment alone will take up quite a lot of room. You really want your sleeping bag to remain dry as well.

A tent generally packs into a long, cylindrical shape. The length can make it difficult to pack in bags and you may find yourself leaning towards simply strapping it to a pannier rack. That would work but you will also need to make sure it stays dry.

En route you may need access to tools and spares for any mechanical problems that may arise. You'll probably want access to your phone and any navigation aids like maps (I'll discuss navigation at some point), perhaps food and most definitely water. You'll want to be able to quickly grab your waterproof jacket and trousers if it suddenly starts to pour down, too. 

There will be items that you do not want to get wet under any circumstances. Electronics don't tend to like getting wet and it's no fun finding all your spare clothes have got soaked through. This is not just a case of ensuring you carry things in a waterproof container. Given you may need to access some items during your ride, it makes sense to put these items in a different bag to the items which absolutely must not get wet. That way, you're not faced with having to open a bag during a torrential downpour to find something you need and allowing all that water to get at other items in the process. Separating these categories of item is the way to go.

Your bike is going to be easier to handle if it's not too top-heavy. Mounting things lower down is generally preferable. Distributing weight from front to rear, may also help. A bike with all the weight at the back may make the front wheel a little light but equally, mounting a lot of weight on or over the front wheel may make steering feel different.

On arrival at a campsite, life will be easier if you don't have to dig to the bottom of a bag to get to your camping equipment and can instead, place your hands on what you need immediately, get your tent up and then move your other bags inside so they can be opened away from the weather. 

Visibility? This may seem like an odd thing to include in the list of considerations but you should consider the possibility that you will do some riding before sunrise or after sunset or during poor visibility conditions due to the weather. The carrying solution you choose could make you more visible if you make the right choice, so it's worth considering colours, and the presence of reflective surfaces.

My Solution

I decided to go for rear-mounted panniers for my main storage solution. I've used them before and like them. The bike feels just right and they offer a decent enough capacity. Specifically, I chose a pair of Ortlieb Backroller Classics, which provide a total of 40 litres storage capacity plus an Ortlieb Rackpack which adds a further 31 litres and is able to easily store elongated items like my tent. 

71 litres total capacity should be more than enough and if not, my instincts would be to look long and hard at the packing list to decide whether everything on it was strictly necessary. You're going to have to move this stuff over a long distance using pedal power alone, don't forget!

Ortlieb products are tough and really well designed. They're waterproof dry bags, available in a range of colours and with reflective surfaces for visibility. But what really sets them apart is the way they mount on your rack. Lower them into position and the bag snaps onto the rack with a click, indicating it's locked securely in position. To release the clasp, just lift by the handle. It's a great system. 

Similarly, their Rack Pack bag sits across the top of your panniers and its straps click into the buckles of the panniers. Tighten the straps with a tug and that's it. Brilliant. This video demonstrates how it all fits together.

Items I don't anticipate needing during a ride and absolutely must keep dry, will go in the panniers. Difficult to pack items, things I might need to access during a ride and camping gear I want to get to on arrival at my destination will all go in the Rack Pack.

In addition, I have a frame mounted container with a transparent cover. My phone will sit in the sleeve under the cover and can be operated without removing it. A smartphone is a fantastic tool (assuming you can keep it charged) for all sorts of things, including navigation. Other small items I might need such as my glasses, will go in there too.

I have a small saddle bag which contains spare inner tubes and a few tools. 

I'll also wear a bum bag / fanny pack. This will contain things I want to keep on my person at all times. I'll let you figure out what those items might be.

And finally, I will be carrying a gym bag inside my Rack Pack. Why? because it weighs almost nothing and will be very handy for times when I want to buy some groceries en route to the campsite or after camping, when the panniers and Rack Pack have been removed. I can just put the gym bag on, head to the nearest shop and fill it with whatever I need. It will also carry my change of clothes and wash stuff to the shower block.

Here are some photos of my solution on the bike.

Note the frame bag at the front and saddle bag under the saddle

Rack Pack across the top of and connected to the two panniers

I added a bungee around the Rack Pack to reduce possible movement forwards and backwards

Getting the Bike Ready - Pedals

Drive. That's what pedals are all about and where your feet meet your pedals is the point at which your muscles and your sweat turn into motion. Hopefully :-)

Cleats and Clipping In

For years, I've used shoes with cleats and pedals that they clip into on all my bikes, including my mountain bike. They take getting used to of course, but once you are used to them, there's no going back. Or at least that's what I thought.

When I started to think about bikepacking, I realised that clipping into my pedals meant I had to have shoes with cleats. And whilst I know there are shoes on the market that have the cleats inset deeply so that they don't touch the ground when you're off the bike, I also know from experience that such shoes are still not exactly the kind of shoes you'd want to walk miles in. At least that's the case with the ones I've got. And there was no way I wanted to take more than one pair of shoes. Too much weight. Too bulky. 

A Rethink

So I had to rethink. And where I landed on this subject was that I would revert to flat pedals that I could ride in normal shoes, trainers, trekking shoes or similar. No cleats. 

The last time I used flat pedals, I hated them. They were metal, really polished and very slippy. And you really need your feet to stick if you're to transfer all that leg power to your wheels and feel confident standing up on hills, maybe on a wet day.

Luckily, pedal design has really come on and in the world of competitive mountain biking in particular, flat pedals are still very popular. And if there was ever a situation where keeping feet comfortably sticking to flat pedals was going to be a challenge it's when mountain biking on a wet and muddy day. Not easy.

MTB Pedals

MTB pedals have a series of pins sticking out of the surface. They're more like small bolts than pins, but they're called pins. Their effect is to create a high friction surface which you feet will not slide off but which unlike cleats, you can lift your feet up off any time you like with no twisting or effort. Like.

I researched as usual and ended up buying a pair of Sam Hill Enduro pedals from Nuke Proof. And they are amazing. I can't think of another bike upgrade that I've been more impressed or more pleased with. They're big but light. The large surface area provides a really comfortable platform for your feet and the pins create immense friction.

Footwear

Right now I'm wearing a standard pair of Sketchers. They're working great. Light, comfortable and the rubber sole sticks like glue to the pins in my new pedals. I may invest in some Five Ten MTB shoes at some point but for now these are working out very nicely indeed.

Getting the Bike Ready - Bar Ends

Bar ends are the second unfashionable change I made to my mountain bike to ready it for a life of bikepacking. The first was to add a kickstand.

What Are Bar Ends?

Bar ends are components you attach to the end of your handlebars, creating a short extension at right angles to the handlebars themselves.

Why Fit Bar Ends?

There are those who claim that bar ends make hill climbing easier, especially steep hills. That may or may not be true but either way, it's not the reason I chose to fit them to my bikepacking bike. 

A bikepacking trip will involve being in the saddle for many hours a day. Comfort really matters and your hands and wrists will be amongst those parts of the body that start to complain relatively early on if you're not careful. Being able to change the position of your hands really helps keep hands and wrists happy and that's why bar ends are a good idea. I've been riding with them for a few weeks now and I'm so happy I got them. I'm already feeling the benefit, even on relatively short rides.

Selecting and Fitting Bar Ends

I have no great wisdom to share on selecting bar ends. I looked at a variety and took note of the reviews from other buyers and that was about it. 

Fitting bar ends is another matter. It should be easy but I made a complete mess of the process and ruined my handlebar grips in the process! I also became convinced that the bar ends I had bought did not fit the diameter of my handlebars. I was completely wrong about this. Handlebars are usually of a standard diameter.

That said, fitting bar ends can be tricky. You need to loosen the brake and gear selector so you can slide it a little along the handlebars towards the centre to make space. You then need to slide the grips in... easier said than done. Check YouTube for some tips. Once you've made the required space though, you just need to clamp the bar ends onto your handlebars, usually with an allen key and that's it. I got my local shop to sort mine out after I'd made a mess of my first attempt! It happens.....

Getting the Bike Ready - Saddle

Have you ever considered just how important your bottom is? No? Ok. Just me then :-)

But just as it's your tyres that form that all important contact with the road, your bottom is the part of your body that makes contact with your bike and bares the most weight. If your bottom's not happy on the bike then you won't be either. Listen to your bottom. Look after it and all will be well.

To achieve Bottom Happiness, you need to be wearing good quality, well padded cycling shorts and you need the right saddle. 

The question as to which type of saddle is best, what it should be made of and to what design, is a very personal one. After years of plastic saddles and a few gel saddles, I decided to try a leather saddle. I've never really liked hard, plastic saddles. I quite like gel saddles and the way they mould to fit but they are heavy. Leather saddles have a reputation for moulding to your shape too and ultimately for being the most comfortable of the options. But these come in two styles, either sprung or unsprung. The sprung leather saddles do look amazingly comfortable but they also look like they're very heavy. I decided to buy an unsprung, leather saddle from Spa Cycles. Specifically, I treated myself to their own, titanium-railed Aire saddle.

Now, the thing with leather saddles is that you must break them in. Initially, my new saddle was rock hard and even knowing it needed to be broken in, I did start by wondering if I might have made a mistake. After riding 300 miles on it, and having taken great care to rub Brooks proofide leather care cream into it regularly, I could feel no difference at all. But fear not! Patience is required when breaking in a leather saddle. After almost exactly 400 miles I could suddenly feel a change. The saddle had definitely given, right where my behind made contact and started to change its shape to fit mine. And now the saddle is unquestionably a comfortable one. I fully expect further improvements as my bottom and saddle get better and better acquainted.

A comfy bottom is a happy bottom

Leather saddles need looking after. A quality leather care product needs to be applied periodically (every few months should be enough, I think) but most important of all.... don't leave your leather saddle out in the rain. Obviously, it can get wet. Just wipe it off with a cloth when you get back from a ride in the rain. But don't leave your bike outside in all weathers, day after day. 

For bikepacking, chances are your bike will live outside, probably parked outside your tent and so it makes sense to buy a saddle cover to keep the rain and dew off it. A saddle cover weighs almost nothing, so there's no downside to carrying one with you. I did find it hard to obtain a cover that fitted my saddle though. Most of them seem too short..... perhaps my saddle is unusually long. Most publish their dimensions, so check carefully before you buy. 

I ended up buying a large cover from madeforrain which does the job very nicely.

Getting the Bike Ready - Kickstand

Adding a kickstand to my selected touring bike was the first of several rather unfashionable choices I made. But who cares about fashion?!

When your bike has panniers and who knows what else attached to it, the time will come when you want to stop (maybe to take a photograph) and there will be nowhere suitable to lean it. And you really will not want to lay it down on the ground because one of your lovely panniers will end up with quite some weight crushing it into the ground, and doubtless squishing its contents too. Not good.

So an old-fashioned and unfashionable kickstand is a must-have in my opinion. Life becomes so much easier when you can stop anywhere, flick out the kickstand and lean your bike on it.

Finding one to fit your bike may however, be more difficult than you imagine! That was certainly my experience. There are several types of kickstand. Some wrap around and are tightened onto the tubing of the chain stay. Some attach to both the chain stay and the seat stay. Some are centre-mounted using a flat bracket that straddles both chain stays, right under your seat like this one. Some have an adjustable length and some do not. Some consist of a single leg and some have two.

Being able to adjust the length of the stand is a good idea so you can get your bike leaning at just the right angle and obviously, not all bikes are the same so it makes sense to be able to make adjustments if you need to. I opted for a single leg kick stand rather than a double and I found out the hard way that a centre mounted kickstand would not fit my bike's frame.

I tried several before finding a kickstand that was a good fit for my bike. The problem was that kickstands are designed to fit around more or less circular frame tubing and a lot of bikes these days use tubing that is not circular at all. My chain stays are relatively fat in the vertical direction and most kickstands would not snugly fit. Eventually I did find something but it was not easy and I not only sent one back but still have another which wouldn't fit, languishing in my box of bike spares!

The kickstand I bought was also not adjustable. And it needed adjusting as it was rather long so that when initially fitted, the bike was standing almost vertically, which is a very precarious position for it to be in. It needs to lean.

To make the necessary adjustment, I levered off the rubber tip, which was glued to the leg, using a screwdriver. I then cut an inch off the leg using a hacksaw and glued the rubber tip back on. If you find yourself needing to do this, don't get carried away and make sure you don't cut too much off!

Anyway, a happy ending. I have a kickstand and it works a treat.

Kickstand, fitted and length-adjusted

Getting the Bike Ready - Rack

Bikepacking or touring is generally a multi-day undertaking. So you're going to need to carry all sorts of things with you. Clothes, spares and probably camping equipment.

You have many choices when it comes to carrying all that gear (and I'll share my experience on this topic more generally in a later post) but it's very likely that like me, you'll conclude you want to use panniers. Assuming that's the case, you'll need to add a rack to your bike so you can mount the panniers.

I'd ridden with panniers before and liked them. Using a rucksack occurred to me as a possible alternative, but was quickly discounted. A rucksack will make your back very, very sweaty and become uncomfortable quickly. Your centre of gravity will also be quite high and that's not likely to make the bike easy to handle. A set of panniers on the other hand, suffers from none of these problems.

I did lots of reading on the subject and found that the key criteria for selecting a rack include these issues:

1. How much does the rack weight?
2. How much weight does the manufacturer say it can handle safely?
3. How stiff is the rack?
4. What warranty does the manufacturer offer?
5. How easy will it be to mount your panniers?
6. Can it be mounted on a bike which has disk brakes?

My choice was the Tortec Epic Alloy Rear Rack which can handle 25kg in weight but made from alloy, is itself relatively light. It's design also lets you mount panniers high or on a lower level, which I prefer as it keeps your centre of gravity low and leaves the higher bars for other purposes.

The Tortec Epic Alloy bike rack

Fitting the Tortec was really easy. All I had to do was remove the screws which my bike's frame already had in its mount points, and then use them to afix the rack, following the manufacturer's instructions.

One of several screws already in the frame's rack mount points

Voila! Bike rack mounted!

Getting the Bike Ready - Tyres

Having selected my mountain bike as the bike I will use for touring, I set about making improvements to it.

Tyres

First on my list of changes was the tyres. My Rockhopper Expert came with big, 29x2.1" tyres which are great on muddy trails but generate a lot of friction on the road, which you can really feel. I wanted to reduce that friction but retain the ability to ride forest trails, trails made of compacted earth and so on. In other words, pretty much any trail except for deep, wet and muddy trails. I also wanted a tyre that was resistant to punctures because as everyone knows, PUNCTURES SUCK!

I researched fast rolling MTB tyres and eventually selected Schwalbe G-One Allround RaceGuard Folding Road Tyres, which despite the road tyre designation are designed for gravel, forest paths and fields as well as for road.  

I've probably ridden about 700 miles on these tyres so far and I'm really pleased with them. They are so much faster than the original tyres! And so far.... touch wood.... I've not had a single puncture. Long may that continue to be the case.

The Bike

One of the first issues to consider when planning a bikepacking trip is what kind of bike to ride (assuming you even have a choice).

Light is Right?

Now, it seems obvious that a lighter bike is a better bike, right? And modern bikes with carbon frames are the lightest. So a carbon-framed bike is what you need for bikepacking? That does seem logical.

Well, maybe, maybe not.

Popular wisdom amongst seasoned bikepackers is that having as light a bike as possible isn't necessarily your number one priority. Carbon frames aren't as strong as aluminium and are not as flexible, so where another material might flex, there's a risk that a carbon frame will crack. And the risk of the frame cracking or even completely breaking is a chance not worth taking, especially if your route will take you far away from well-stocked bike shops with well equipped workshops. If you need any more convincing, do some Googling and see what you find. This one caught my eye: https://www.outsideonline.com/2311816/carbon-fiber-bike-accidents-lawsuits and so did this one, with its handy list of pros and cons: https://www.cyclingabout.com/carbon-touring-bikes/ 

Ultimately, it's a personal choice and may simply depend on whatever type of bike you happen to own.

Road vs Mountain vs Hybrid

Aside from the material the frame is made from, the other major choice is the type of bike. A road bike is built for speed, which may matter to you. A mountain bike (MTB) is likely to be robust and capable of handling even the roughest of trails, as you work your way across country, using a mixture of asphalt and trail. But there are two main designs of MTB; hard-tails which only have suspension at the front, and full suspension MTBs which also have suspension at the back. And hybrid bikes, of which there is a spectrum of design, perhaps offer a compromise between the two.

Amongst the factors to consider are:

1. Does the frame have mounting points for the pannier rack you will almost certainly need?
2. Is it comfortable to ride over long distances, with you spending many hours in the saddle each day?
3. Could you repair it at the road side if you needed to or would you need an electronics and computer science degree? 
4. Is the gearing suitable for the terrain you expect to encounter?
5. Will it handle the road surfaces you're expecting?
6. Can it safely handle the weight you expect to have to carry?
7. Is the bike's weight acceptable?

A road bike

A hard-tail mountain bike (MTB)

A hybrid bike suitable for some trails

A hybrid bike more suited to the road

My Choice

The road bike, MTB and the red hybrid are my bikes. Yes, I'm very lucky! The hybrid is really old now though and whilst it was a great bike to commute on, it is more like a road bike with a more upright seating position. It offers a very hard (but fast) ride and would be really uncomfortable for long distance touring. The road bike is awesome and I've done many 100 mile+ rides on it, but it has no mounting points for panniers and it has a carbon frame, which I have misgivings about for my more ambitious bikepacking dreams. So the winner is...... [drum roll]....

My Specialized Rockhopper Expert mountain bike!

A mountain bike in its standard state is not optimal for long distance bikepacking though, so I intend to make some changes to it. More on this soon. 

On MTBs in general, note that a full suspension MTB is likely to be way too heavy for this kind of use. And ideally, a hard-tail MTB should allow you to lock the front suspension so it's stiff most of the time and unlocked only for very rough sections of your route. Without the ability to lock your front suspension, some of your precious energy will be absorbed by the suspension as you pedal, and you don't want that.

The Wannabe Bikepacker

Bikepacker? That's not even a word!

Actually, I'll have you know that it is! It's a very clever portmanteau of the words bike and backpacker. See?

Bikepacking is of course the cyclist's equivalent of backpacking and involves travelling by bike, potentially over very large distances, and often with camping gear and other essential items in panniers. It has all the makings of the most rewarding way possible to see a place.

I haven't yet done any bikepacking. I've been on many, international cycling holidays, in Romania, Italy, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Montenegro and Austria, and they've all been amazing. But those holidays involved an itinerary and route being provided to us, our hotel accommodation booked in advance and our luggage being taken by car or van from hotel to hotel. Very nice. But not bikepacking.

The adventure of bikepacking is calling to me though. And has been for over ten years, since a work colleague told me about some of the amazing journeys he'd undertaken in Europe and in Africa. Wanderlust or at least the two-wheeled variety, has started to get under my skin.

This blog will chart my planning, preparation and eventually I hope, my experience of bikepacking. One day. When the world is a safer place and the freedoms many of us took for granted have perhaps been restored.