The Bikepacker: Getting the Bike Ready

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:

Rucksack
Bum Bag... or for the North American reader, Fanny Pack
Saddle Bag
Frame Bag
Rear-mounted Panniers
Front-mounted Panniers
Handlebar-mounted bag
Items tied directly to the bike or pannier rack
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:

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