I love how Josh focused doing it inexpensively and just the simple enjoyment encouraging beginners to get out and try it rather than stroking his ego and talking about his racing. Very cool down to earth guy.
When I was a young lad I had a trek touring bike. Loaded up with tent and cooking stuff and cycled 120 miles to the Isle of Wight and spent a week exploring. A few weeks later I passed my driving test and cycling took a back seat. I'm back on the bike now (road bike and love it.
I never camp. But I’ve done 30 day + tours. Roughly 100 km per day. Dublin - Larne - Scotland - Carlisle - Poole - Cherbourge - Ghent - Rotterdam - England- Wales- Dublin. We called it “Tour of Ferries”
Very impressed with this series! Well done Josh and Si. Love how accessible you’re presenting bikepacking as being and I completely agree. Looking forward to seeing you filming on my local trails (Calgary, Alberta Canada - Banff).
Global Cycling Network absolutely love it! Love planning, love making my own gear, love taking my 10yo out and see my her pleasure in the activity and the outdoors, love the looks on people’s faces when you tell them you’ve cycled X kms and gotten to where they’ve driven to. Best advice I’ve ever received was “if you see something beautiful, take time to stop and enjoy it.”
The Canadian portion of the GDMBR is a lovely ride. The race leader will do it in 24-ish hours but it make a beautiful 4-6 day ride with plenty of resupply points.
One of the lures of bikepacking to me is the possibility to quickly travel to remote wilderness locations that would not be feasible to reach on foot within the available time. But a concern is that some trips could place you in great peril if your bike irreparably breaks because you've traveled too far from help. When I was younger, I did a lot of backpacking through mountains in the western U.S., including some very remote wilderness areas. On several trips, bad weather swooped in and there was no way that anyone could get to us to rescue us -- if we needed it. On one trip, at high altitude, it was several days before rescue helicopters could reach some friends who were trapped on a mountain. I was called and placed on standby to assist, if the need arose. Everyone on the rescue team was briefed to expect my friends to be dead. Thankfully, they were alive and healthy. Regardless of the best planning and preparation, some places are so remote and have such variable weather that you can easily get into trouble. Besides the precautions discussed in this video, my friends and I took survival training. Because our travels were primarily in mountains, this included orienteering, navigation and how to read grid coordinates on a military and USGS topographical (topo) map so we could accurately report our location to rescuers, if needed. We also carried topo maps for every area we traveled. I believe any bikepacker who plans a trip to or through a remote wilderness, should take similar precautions. Do not depend solely on battery-powered tech for location or communication. Always have the means to survive and, if necessary, affect your own rescue if the need arises.
just a couple of little tips , get a silk bag liner and put your sleeping bag inside , the silk liner will sit atop the baffles and create warm air pockets , tip 2 is to pace yourself , if you can ride at 10 mph all day every day then stick to that , save the high speed for the down hill sections with no effort
I've estimated my bikepacking costs at around $0.50-$1.00 per mile comfortably. I've always done a mix of motels/hostels/campsites, backwoods camping/side of the road sleeping, and staying with family. Also generally relying on stored food for breakfast, a real restaurant lunch, and either stored food dinner, restaurant dinner, or having family buy you dinner ;). Avg. daily mileage matters, too. If you do 30mi a day for a 500mi trip, you'll spend a lot more money for more lunches, hotel stays, etc. than if you did 120mi a day.
thanks guys. your backpacking trip made me want to do one. For various reason, I was feeling adrift in my life, but your backpacking videos, gave me the kick in the butt I needed to "get back in the saddle" by literaly getting back on the saddle ^^. First trip: this weekend, I will visit my in-law, 140k back and forth, next one next month will be 300k and maybe I will come visit the UK by bike this summer. Cheers from France ;)
I had ^^ 70k of almost brand new road between wheat field and orchard. I could count the potholes and the car i faced on one hand ^^. Looking forward for next month.
My first trip was ferry to St Malo cycled to Caen, and ferry back, had camping gear but it was so wet stayed in hotels. It rained all day for three days and it was still fantastic.
Hi! Re food: I haven't tried bikepacking, but have done lots of walking. Tips for light, tasty, calorie food: wraps (tortillas), peanut butter, cheese, tuna in sachets, salami sausage, nuts, m&ms (they don't melt!), freeze dried pre-made dinners (buy them from camping stores or online), cous cous (skip pasta, takes too long to boil), quick rice; chicken/veg stock cubes to flavour rice/cous cous, flavoured quick oats, tea bags, coffee sachet. I like to take fresh veggies for the first day or two: cucumber, capsicum, broccoli, cherry tomatoes (ie tough veggies which only need a quick blanch or can eat raw. Skip things like potato too much cooking, skip lettuce, it wilts)
More bikepacking videos would be greatly appreciated! Couple questions.. 1- Food is always talked about. Is feeding while riding still necessary if you happen to be fat and arent riding to fast? 2-What about security? Do you still carry a lock so you can lock your ride while going to a supermarket for example? In general bikepacking really inspires me to do it myself but to be honest i am kinda scared to do it solo.
+1. I also ask myself if they lock their bikes. Leaving such a bike unlocked and unattended is IMHO plain stupid and no insurance would give you any money.
Man, these videos are awesome! I'm just starting to think about bikepacking, and these are some of the best resources I've found. It's great to see the fully loaded bikes perform on the 650B wheel in various conditions, from tarmac to loose over hardpack so thanks for the solid videography, especially in Morocco. The packing help is also invaluable. And finally, I much prefer these videos to GCN's other, race-bike heavy offerings. Please keep it up!
I usually carry 3 meals a day and can carry up to 5 days food at a time. You usually you find even in a remote location a place to stock up bikepacking not like hiking/ camping as you can only cover short distance so you need to carry lot more food ...while bikepacking you can do upto 100 km a day depending on the trail so in 5 days uou cover 500 km and you find food in any direction
My first bikepacking tour was from Bangkok to Singapore! Planned it all with two friends (who weren't as cycling crazy and have the fitness but loved it all the same) but managed to cover 2000km (shorter than the real distance because we had planned to do in a certain time meaning we took a night-train) for a month and a half for under £2000 each including bike, flights, accommodation, food, leisure activities, basically everything. And thats before taking into account the sponsors/discounts and university grants (as we were all university students) as we were doing the whole thing for charity (check our FB page at Lullaby Trust Charity Cycle). Absolutely love it and can't recommend it more. Plan to bikepack across the UK this summer because its all good going somewhere exotic but sometimes theres just as much if not more to discover right on your doorstep...
100% agree, I have only just started to scratch the surface of what the heat maps can deliver and they make cycling in other countries far easier as it takes out a lot of guess work regarding routes, it is almost like having a local with you during the ride. I even use them for motorcycles routes are they tend to show the best roads in a area period..
The only downside to the heat map is that you can't tell what type of bike has ridden the route the most, so you should always check with street view if you ride a road bike. I recently road an 80 mile route which had a 6 mile section that was just about rideable on 25mm tyres but very slow going. Had I checked Google Maps beforehand I would have realised that mountain bikes made most of the "heat".
Yes. I see stories all the time about cyclists being robbed and even killed (2 experienced bikepackers killed recently in southern Mexico), but not much discussion on how to keep yourself safe (or at least safer) when travelling remote areas around the world.
I have a Vitus Energie frame which can except a 700 x 47c tyre. Would like to know the bike packers thoughts on whether they would choose this size or a 650b x 50c which will also fit in the frame. What are the technical advantages/disadvantages? Loving all the bike packing content 👍🏻
I really enjoyed the Morocco film, but the one aspect we are all forgetting is the faff on that us mere mortals would have doing it without the back up. Just getting the bike, there and back, on an aircraft without it being wrecked? You can't take a bike box etc. Then we have the luggage issue, just the logistics of all those separate pieces? The only way to avoid all of that would to get a ferry, to Spain perhaps.
Jeff Harper Yep, that's my concern too. I wouldn't want to camp preferring to stay in b&b's. I think most wouldn't allow bikes inside and I wouldn't want to chain it up outside where it's open to the elements and theives.
On the Trans Pennine Trail I checked with the B&Bs first, and made sure they had somewhere to lock the bikes up. The Albergues on the Camino de Santiago normally have safe storage for bikes as well. Taking the seat post and front wheel off makes your bike a lot less attractive to opportunistic thieves as well.
food for bike-packing is not different from food for backpacking. Cook good food, dehydrate it and vacuum pack it. On the trail boil it in water. You can have any good food you know how to cook and it's light and easy
In the US, larger versions of those signs are most often seen on agricultural equipment. I have always heard them called "Slow Moving Vehicle" or "SMV " signs. Those terms might give better search results.
where do you store your bike (travel) bag after you land in the airport? what do you do if you're camping several days out in the wilderness and run out of dry clothes (when it's constantly raining and you have no place to dry them)?
a couple of things for the curious: the most important thing is to do it but there's no need for it to be scary... test your kit in your yard, where if you need to bail, you just go in.
Would really like more info on the bikes , what size tires were used ? Si's look like they were 50mm at least, im guessing they were 650b ? I currently run 44mm tires and those are more than big enough for me imo
Thank you for the answer to my question on past mistakes. Really interesting answer actually. And some great answers to other questions too. Disappointing that I didn't have to cut the handle off my toothbrush after all...
I'm quite late with my question but anyways: How do you go about your luggage at the destination? Are you just travelling with all your stuff for the trip and no additional luggage or are you leaving the suitcase and bike-case at a hotel?
Love all the bike-packing content! So much so that I might actually give it a whirl. I want to visit two friends this summer anyway and now I'm thinking - why go by train, when there's a bike?
So glad to see your channel doing bike camping! I'm heading on my first out of state, I'm in America, biking adventure next week so perfect timing!! Is there a place on line I can share my experience with you and other followers of your channel?
Great, interesting video lads- you’ve inspired me to attempt my own ( and try to convince my mates) bikepacking for 4 day’s from Cumbria to Thurso in Scotland, for charity once we’ve completed our A-level exams In a few weeks time! :-)
After watching the backpacking through Morocco, this video and a few others in the topic, I'll be looking for a local bike-packing route in lovely southern California in the US. Being an avid cyclist and love the outdoors and camping, this is a nice way to put the two disciplines together. One question, what type of sleeping bag will be good to get? Light one I assume?
#torqueback How should I go about if I wanted to mount clipon aerobars onto my road bike for 300-500 km rides. Should I alter my road position and go for a TT geometry or should I just mount them and be glad I got another position? How do race winning people, Josh Ibbett, Kristoff Allegaert etc go about when mounting clipons on your bike? And do you chose a smaller frame size for races you will mount clipons for the better handling?
Only geared towards setting a road bike as a TT bike. My question is if the pros set their bike up as a TT bike or if they just slap them on there or if they go for something in between. The pros my question are aimed at are long distance racers like said names and gravel racers like Ted King and Mat Stephens.
Here's a great example of a bikepacking route in the UK that I found and think Bikerboy2299 means, just a shorter/succinct version done by GCN would be awesome! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kQ1QcBr5Dmw.html
Was really interested to find out what brand/make of shorts you guys wore on this trip? Ive got a pair of the Gore AlpX pro bib/mtb shorts, but yours seem to have a better fit...
Is there a source for pre-planned routes? Travel routes that offer good roads, excellent vistas and bike friendly spots along the way? It would be great to select a plan from a knowledgeable, well researched source.
#askgcn According to my (Trainer Road) twenty minute FTP test, my number is 213 (tested about three weeks ago). I participated in a metric century Sportive yesterday, intentionally treating it like a race, and my average power was 212 for the event. We stoped, for quite literally 60 seconds, one time. My question is, with a three hour average power one watt below my FTP, can my FTP number be accurate? Should I somehow calculate a new FTP off of that event? Please help.
