So, I can ride a bike but have never bike-packed….until now.
What panniers / bags to use? What items to put where on the bike? Front panniers, handlebar bag, tube bag, rear panniers, rack packs, pockets and saddlebags are all options.
To follow the basic ‘rules’ of bike-packing:
- Distribute weight equally on both sides of bike
- Distribute weight between front and back of bike
- Use waterproof bags of various colour for all items inside panniers
- Draw up a packing protocol – which items go where – and stick to the protocol religiously
- Ensure regularly needed items are in easy to access areas
Sounds simple? It is not nearly as easy as it sounds! This weekend we had our first practice ride with our bikes almost fully loaded. There was a lot to learn about bike handling when combined, the bike and everything we need for nearly four months on the road weigh in at 26kg and trying to find what we needed when we needed it! I cannot begin to quantify how many hours of preparation, planning, packing, repacking and unpacking have gone into this exercise and yet, as we expected, there are many more adjustments we will make and a few that will be needed before we are ready for our mammoth bike-packing trip in three week’s time.
We cycled 60 miles from Cheltenham to Bath and learned lots about the art of bike-packing or perhaps more accurately, how not to bike-pack. The cycling was reassuringly manageable, despite our heavily laden bikes. We have been training hard for this aspect of our challenge but it was a steep learning curve in terms of bike-packing and better we learn by trial and error now than when we set off on our way across America.
The experience has improved our understanding of what we need to do and made us appreciate how much easier this will be if we have an organised, structured approach to bike-packing.
All good learning! Oh and only 26 days to go!
https://video.relive.cc/9d924f0b87d5-9819-9584-4252-b588c8e7_relive_1745224524380.mp4?x-ref=site
Challenging Times 