Do you like mountain biking? And do you like hiking and camping? Then you do the same as we do! How about to put these two things together?
Bikepacking (BP) is synthesis of mountain biking and minimalist camping:
Forget the traditional biketouring setup with rack and pannier system back and front. You pack just enough gear for your survival needs for the length of your trip and keep the bike nimble enough so you can keep riding, whatever the terrain throws at you. Singletrack trails, gravel or abandoned dirt roads.
What Bike?
They say, the best bike to use is the one you already have. You can bikepack with a full suspension bike, fully rigid or hardtailer – it all works.
We have not decided which type of bikes we will choose. Probably Fat or Plus bike – fully rigid frame with oversized tires.
Because we are going to spend long hours in the saddle, day after day, quality and comfort are our priorities.
Storage Bags
Specific soft bags replacing traditional racks and panniers – a framebag, a handlebar bag, a seat pack and peripheral bags. They are minimalist, light and tailored to modern mountain bike frames. We count with capacity up to 35 litres overall.
Do you think we are able to pack all our stuff into those bags?
Our dreamed setup:
Where and How long?
The aim is just get out there, off the beaten tracks to be connected with the Nature.
BP can be a short weekend trip, a week holiday or a multi-months expedition. Guess what we chose.
On such a long journey as we are going to undertake it is almost impossible to avoid (and we also don’t want to avoid completely) contact with civilization, hence BP intersect with typical road bike touring.
Gear
There are two rules: 1) the lighter the load, the better. 2) (my favourite one) when you don´t have it, you don´t need it.
We are going to pack essential sleeping gear and cook kit. Then lights/head torches, navigation/gps/maps, and in our case a camera and a notebook. A dynamo hub to charge all our stuff will be needed too. Of course we will pack repair kit and some medications.
The only one thing is missing: choose to right route, overcome your fear and start pedal.
So, who is going to join us?
There are some inspirational and informational websites:
http://www.bikepacking.com/
http://bikepacker.com/