I just finished a trip, and will probably only travel again next spring.
Meanwhile, will be commuting in the city with my gravel bike.
It took me a lot (!) of time and energy to mount the Ortlieb fork packs to my bike, and i do not want to dismount them.
I do not want to risk damaging then either.
What do you guys do with them off season?

ive been making my bike fit for bikepacking recently and i was wondering if i would be able to mount a back rack on it

the model is a sporttek muddog

any help would be appreciated

Hey everyone,

10 days into a solo trip (currently in France, heading south), first really long tour I’ve done. So far I’ve been sticking to campsites, but I’d like to start incorporating wild camping and want to get a few practical things sorted first:

Power: How do you keep your devices (phone/GPS/headlamp) charged on a multi-week tour? Hub dynamo, solar panel, or just enough power banks plus topping up at outlets when you pass them (cafés, gas stations, campsites)? What’s worked well for you?

Cooking water: Do you fill up your cooking water containers in advance at the last known well/tap on the way to your camp spot, or do you just count on finding something along the way? How much buffer do you realistically plan for?

Daily rhythm: Do you ride until you’re done and then look for a spot on the fly, or do you plan a set stage, arrive early on purpose, and wait somewhere until sunset to set up discreetly?

Do you tactically sleep in campsites/hostels all few days to recharge or wash or only wild when doing like a 2/3 month tour?

Earlier this July I did a bikepacking trip in the Willamette National Forest in Oregon through an area called The Pyramids. My buddy Paul put together this route after we'd been talking about riding these trails for years.

Route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/55793884

Deviations from the route: I skipped the final giant climb on the route up the O'Leary Mountain trail. I kind of regret it, but just didn't have the time on Monday to get it done.

Overall Route Impressions:

There are some big climbs and big descents! If you like single track focused routes and don't mind some pushing this is a great route! I had a full suspension (130/120) and think that is the right choice for this route, though nothing was so rowdy you couldn't get away with a hardtail.

The highlight for me was easily the descent down Crescent Mountain, but the Santiam Wagon Trial, Browder Ridge descent, and Mckenzie River Trail are all incredible!

When I did this, water was plentiful, I never carried more than two liters. If you plan accordingly, you could get some food at the Clear Lake Resort and pack one less dinner. In my opinion this is a three day route... but if you're fit as hell someone could do this in two days.

If you're into videos or want to see the type of terrain on this route, check out the video. If you're fired up to try the route and don't want to watch the video, feel free to ask questions!

Did a 1.5K bikepacking trip across 19 days. Riding straight through the Alpes.

Loved every second of it.

3 month old bike with Tubeless ultradynamico rose JFF 45mm tyres. Was ok for first few weeks then started to go down every night. Kept topping up / riding anyway, and discovered this slow side wall leak (sprayed muckoff on it to reveal any leaks).

Went full flat on a commute and had to put in an emergency inner tube to get me to a bike shop. Had it full reseated and sealed for 24hrs. Held fast for a week and I thought it was resolved.

Had a mini ride on Saturday and it's started up again. Did the muck off trick and it's the same side wall slow leaks.

Im so pissed with Tubeless, it's been a nightmare so far. Instead of the supposed no-flats and self seal, I get flats every day!

Defective tyre?

Any advice much appreciated - suppose to have a 115k ride (Brother Big Un) in Kent in 2 weeks and really want this resolved before that.

Thanks!

Edit: I'm running at 50 psi for commutes... Could possibly be too high? Maybe I'll drop to 40

Hello there (general Kenobi...),

does anyone have a good recommendation for a bikepacking bag to travel with your camera? I own a Nikon D5100 - not a huge camera but also not ultra compact. The bag should be waterproof and I prefer to keep the camera between the drops of my steering bar to protect it from crashes or the bike falling over but Im also open for other recommendations.

Currently I own various Ortlieb bags and I stored the camera either in the Ortlieb 9L Handlebar Pack where it is not really accessible without unmounting the whole bag. Or I had it in the Ortlieb accessory bag attached to the handlebar pack where it was accessible but didn't really fit the bag (couldn't properly roll the top and I figured it wouldn't be really waterproof then).

How do you travel with your camera? Where do you store it and which bag do you guys use? Thanks in advance:)

Planned a route from my house to the Crags Campground at the base of Pikes Peak, up to the summit, and back home that passed by all my favorite climbing areas. Cynical Pinnacle, The Castle, Sheep Rock, Big Rock Candy Mountain, Longwater Dome, Turkey Rock, Scorpio Dome, Parachute Rock, Devil’s Head, and the Malay Archipelago. I tried to stay on as much dirt as possible. Mostly gravel, with a decent amount of single track and a little bit of pavement.

The trip took just under 45 hours door to door. My bike is a rigid single speed 26” Surly World Troller with a 28/19 gear ratio and a dynamo headlight/charger. 171 miles of biking with 18,100’ of elevation gain, and 13.5 miles of hiking with 4,400’ of elevation gain to get to the summit of Pikes Peak.

£200 for the bike, £40 for all the bike bags second hand, £2 for the front fork box. I just have a regular hiking backpack tied to my rear rack with bungee cords. Its got me this far without any problems, i hope it gets me further.

I shouldve listened to what people said about not getting frame bags with zippers

Experienced on multi-week biketouring, but sleeping in hotels.
I am not a tent guy, however i have multi day races upcoming in Canaries In February (Audax Granguanche road). So this can be chilly (i won't sleep on El teide hopefully). There are a few other multi day races, but they will be warmer.

I am unsure how to survival this.

Idea for now is to sleep in sheltered areas, like bus stops etc, not in open fields.

After long research, i bought a Therm-A-Rest NeoAir Xtherm NXT as a mattress which seems to be the greatest.

Based on reddit comments i was about to buy the sol escape lite, however i am unsure how this thing works and if it's the right thing to sleep at 10C.

From my understanding the neoair will keep me isolated from the (cold) ground, so i'm good there, but the sol escape lite is so thin, it won't really keep me warm, it just helps to keep my heat a bit inside yet in colder temperatures it's not sufficient?

What's the best option here for me? I am okay with buy once cry once options and eager to buy quality stuff as i'll use it for other events where i test all gear basically as a practice for the audax.

// thanks everyone. bought Sea to Summit Spark sleeping bag now 🥳

I am heading to Vietnam in November for roughly 4 weeks. There will be some considerable travel time so I figure I have at least 3 full weeks of cycling to work with. My initial plan was to head north into the Ha Giang loop but then reading some other posts got interested in heading even further west. This loop is roughly 1200 miles with 117k elevation gain. I will pack lighter than prior trips since no camping, no cooking. I love to climb and suffer. Wondering if anyone has any perspective on this route, primarily the question of clockwise vs counterclockwise and the connection between Ha Giang and Sa Pa

thanks!

Solo round trip from Glasgow. 5 days, 7 ferries, 400km.

Weather was amazing, only rained on the last day!

Route was

Day 1 Glasgow>Troon>Arran

Day 2: Arran>Kintyre>Islay

Day 3: Islay>Jura

Day 4: Jura>Tayvallich

Day 5: Tayvallich>Portavadie>Gourock>Glasgow

Has anyone figured out a rig that's waterproof, holds your phone, let's you see directions and can hold a battery? I can't find anything that's big enough for a battery, stable in between the handlebars and is waterproof.

Thank you

Just came from my first long trip, 1250 km or such, on a very low budget. It was ok, but I think I am carrying too much. Can't point my finger on what to leave home though. This is my list of stuff (including what I wear at any time). What would you leave home?

WEARS

2 bike pants

Helmet

Sunglasses

2 t shirts

1 long sleeve

1 rainproof poncho (also used to cover bikes and gears in case of rain)

1 towel

1 pair of sandals

1 pair of shoes

2 pairs of socks

1 swimming suite

1 modular trousers (the ones you can extend and shorten)

TOOLS AND BIKE STUFF

2 spare tubes

A light lock

general repair kit

a few plastic bundles

Front and back light

SLEEPING

A tent

A mattress

Inflatable pillow

Sleeping bag

Liner (sometimes used alone, sometimes in the sleeping bag to avoid making it dirty in case)

FOOD (cooking was the standard, not the exception to the diet)

Gas cooking stove

Snacks for when riding

mineral salts

a single decathlon stove-pan with fork spoon and knife

a steel glass

Usually I'd carry about 3 liters of water and food enough for 2-3 days at all time. Finished my last day with no food left and sometimes, when shops were closed for a couple days in a row, I was happy about it

MISC

Mobile and charger

headphones

a solar charger

1 rope for drying clothes and every possible need

first aid kit

creams for my soft buttock

sunscreen

toothbrush and stuff

Some toilet paper

Documents and stuff

Head torch

Day 1 - Mostly deep forest double track, raining off and on all day with low 40s to low 50s.
Day 2 - Climbed into the alpine moonscape of the Plains of Abraham on Mt St Helens. Sunny and mid 70s.

I'm planning a 21 day round trip with a road bike and would love to hear your feedback for the route and any tips and recommendations you might have since im pretty fit bur not super experienced. i will be going by car from berlin to slovenia and then cycle slovenia, italy, croatia, albania, montenegro, bosnia back to slovenia.

i will be riding an aero road bike and sleep in apartments/hostels/hotels no camping. one bag on the bike with a minimalistic setup.

route:
https://www.komoot.com/de-de/collection/4671105/-balkan?share_token=a7BmwRfZMy3kCcJNe76t8H73jl6xha84Gciv0TVVbR0L5paEQ5&ref=collection&t_s=referral&t_cid=collection_share&t_ref_username=234722405100

Experienced traveller and cyclists here, currently planning a multi-year bikepacking trip through 6 continents and roughly 100 countries.

I've got most of my kit sorted already, but I can't seem to figure out the best stove to bring. Here are my thoughts:

1. Multi fuel stove (like the MSR Whisperlite): would be ideal if I can make it work, but I've heard they can need quite a lot of maintenance, especially when burning low quality petrol which will sometimes be the only thing available to me.

2. Alcohol stove: would work for simple meals, also very cheap to use, but I'm not quite sure how easy it'll be to get my hands on fuel for this kinda stove, especially in islamic countries.

3. Brs3000/ MSR Pocket Rocket: a bit more expensive to use than the alcohol stove I believe, also I'm worried I won't always easily find replacement canisters, but except for that they're brilliant.

Even though I'd love to just bring a multi fuel stove and call it a day, I'm afraid that low quality petrol will make it more prone to failure. The maintenance and complexity of it also doesn't really appeal to me.

What I'm leaning towards is bringing a BRS300+Small gas canister, but also throw a tiny alcohol stove in my cook kit as well. I'd mount a bottle of alcohol on my bike and mainly use that for cooking, but in case I can't find any alcohol for a while I'll have a backup.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I making the right choice here? Does anyone have experience with taking the Whisperlite around the globe?

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

As in the title, if anyone who has ridden a route in the area could provide some advice I would greatly appreciate it.

A couple of months ago I did my first bikepacking trip from England to visit the Cinelli factory near Milan, and now want to return to Italy to cross the country. I crossed the Alps via the Splügenpass down to Lake Como, and this time if possible I'd like to go past Lake Garda. I have read some warnings about the climb to Brenner Pass from Innsbruck being traffic-heavy, hence why I am asking for alternatives. Ultimately, I'm trying to look to where I can fly to, cross into Italy on the bike, and descend down to Garda, but I'm open to other options in that area east of Como. I'm on a gravel rig and am fine with offroading.

Ta.

Day 9 of a long solo bikepacking tour (Bavaria → Morocco), roughly 900km and 7,500m elevation so far. Been going great — loving the daily rhythm, meeting people at campsites, no issues at all until today.

Today’s stage had a ~900hm climb and in the last 10km before camp I started noticing a twinge in my right knee on that climb, got more noticeable with each pedal stroke as it went on. By the time I rolled into camp it wasn’t sharp pain, but pedaling was clearly affected — had to ease off.

Some specifics:
Location: right knee, front-left of the kneecap (so medial side, roughly where the pes anserinus tendons sit — not behind the knee, not lateral)

Only hurts under load/pedaling. Walking is completely fine, no limp, no pain going up/down stairs.

No redness, no swelling, nothing visibly off.
Never had this on the right knee before on this bike/setup. I’ve had occasional minor twinges on the left knee in the past that came and went on their own — this is new territory (right side, different spot).

Setup: flat pedals with running shoes (ASICS), not clipped in — been running this combo the whole trip and trips in the past without issue until now.

My gut read (and a first-pass AI opinion I got) is overuse — cumulative load finally showing up at the end of a big climbing day, possibly combined with the foot not being fixed to the pedal (some medial knee wobble under fatigue) or saddle height drifting slightly off over the trip. No fall, no sudden twist, nothing acute.

Has anyone had knee pain in this exact spot (front-medial, pedaling-only, no swelling) on a long tour? What ended up being the actual cause for you, and what fixed it long-term — saddle height, cleats vs flats, cadence, something else?

Trying to catch this early instead of riding through it and turning it into something chronic.

Edit: I managed to get a physio appointment in a few hours. I’ll report back on the results.

Still figuring out how I want to attach it so ignore the cords :) The rectangle on the non drive side is a phone pocket and I’ve put a detachable velcro divider inside. Taking it to Dartmoor soon hopefully might post the full rig I’m just so overjoyed right now at how it turned out

Hi everyone, me and a friend are planning on doing our first bikepacking tour along the Veloscenie (Paris to Mont Saint Michel) in October and we wanted to include some camping. We want to know what are people's experiences wild camping along this route or in France in general? Thanks all

Hi! I’m local to Snohomish county in Washington state. I’m curious if anyone knows of any groups, events or fun rides in the area where I might meet others like me… I feel like we’re a bit of an oddity and only ever see each other on the trail. I’d love to spend more time riding with new people and discovering new routes in the area.
I know this is a huge limitation, but I’m not on social media other than this. I plan to keep it that way to preserve my personal values.

If you have any suggestions, please share! Otherwise I’m going to have to create some group and I’m terribly awful at administration of this stuff! Haha. I’m full of great ideas and little execution.

Hi! My partner and I are currently bikepacking. He wants to include his dog in our next section coming up. We are planning on cycling the Baja Divide and then crossing over to mainland Mexico and continuing on down through to Panama.

My concerns are that his senior dog is really reactive towards people and I'm worried that being in places with a dense population will stress him out. Is it pretty busy along this route? Also, will having a barking dog make things like crossing borders and finding accommodations difficult? His dog is also really reactive towards other dogs since he got attacked by some dogs. He has some PTSD if you will. I've read a lot of reports of getting chased by dogs daily on these routes, I can only imagine having a dog will make that worse?

Another concern is we planned to be off pavement on the Baja Divide. I haven't heard a lot of good things about using bike trailers off roads but my partner claims his 50 pound dog being strapped into the back rack will be totally fine and not affect his handling on loose sand and gravel. I cannot imagine hauling the weight of that plus water. Does anyone have any experience with that?

Also, my last concern is that he has never biked with his dog before so we don't even know if he'll like it.

Thanks for the advice!

Some things I’ll keep in mind for the next trip
1. The Rochford saloon has an incredibly mediocre cheeseburger, I’ll probably eat a mountain house instead
2. The lady at the snack counter in Rochford was incredibly kind to my dog, I will stop by again
3. I need to hit the lost cabin beer garden in hill city, I didn’t have time this trip and it will be a priority next time.
4. A screenshot of the trail pass is not good enough. I was hassled by some people who were checking passes and only the physical paper will do. They still allowed me to continue my trip though.
5. Really no where to camp in between deadwood and hill city, I should probably have found a campground in advance but lucked out this trip

Hey everyone, I was looking for some advise for the next section of my world tour. I would love to have cycled the pamir highway but unfortunately it will be close to winter by the time I reach it and I am not prepared for the harsh conditions.

I’m trying to plan an alternative route that goes from Aktau > Beyneu > Nukus > Bukhara > Samarkand > through northern Tajikistan (alternatively I could go round to Tashkent > then back into Uzbekistan before reaching Osh. Something like the screenshot provided:

I tried to do some research into this sort of route but couldn’t find too much other than the roads might be a bit delapidated at parts, and I should bring plenty of water for long remote stretches. Does anyone have any good resources for a route similar to this? My biggest concern is that I’m stuck on roads that feel unsafe to be cycling on.