Bicycle Touring and Bikepacking

Review of my bikepacking gear I brought on a 5-day trip around northern Germany. Starting at the end of March, temps were still kind of low (from 7 to 15 degrees Celsius during the day), no prediction for rain. Weight of the bike was around 10 kg, with gear I hit a total of 23 kg - so 13 kg worth of gear.

I was looking for some info on butterfly handlebars and ran accross this website and i was just BLOWN away by the amount of contributions and information density.

The last 2 days in #Spain were mixed, I rode from El Rocío which has this wild west feel to it but I foolishly decided to rode through it on bike. It was bad idea all roads are this fine sand and lots of potholes, probably good for the horses but nearly unrideable on my bike.

So I am on big tour. And I should finally post some pics here even though most of them are on mastodon. If you want to check it: https://f.cz/@plactagonic I try to post pretty regular updates from my tour there.

Everything was covered with the "frost" more like a ice sheet.

It was fine nothing broken but I was bit scared when I saw it.

So Friday is the d-day for me.

Title photo taken on the highest mountain in Belgium. Looks all flat, but it is a plateau actually just shy of 700m. It is a peat bog landscape, very nice and unique. But a lot of mud. Probably looking at Germany, at least it's somewhere there in that direction.

There's a survey for people having toured in EU (and especially in the Danube region). Nice of them to ask our opinion. It's a chance to give feedback!

Nice read about a trip on the buffalo bicycle (which was posted about here some time ago), with an interesting view on the "world bicycle relief".

*Title picture taken on the way from Buis-les-Barronies towards Montbrun-les-Bains. Mont Ventoux seems to be everywhere, then again i cycled around it quite a lot ;)*

In the evening twilight hours of September 11, 2024, Lael Wilcox became the unofficial new world record holder for the Fastest Circumnavigation of the World by Bicycle (female).

Further to the post (Here) I thought I would give more information about our entire journey for the people who might find it useful.

Both of us are students from Scotland. I fixed up 2 scrap bikes and then we made it all the way to the Polish border. Wanted to go further but ran out of time so we are finishing the trip on the train.

*Horse looking at out-of-fashion tech*

So in Slavonice there is a guy who makes this clock's from old vinyl. I want to commission something like this but more bikepacking/touring not tt.

This is how it looks in 99% of Czech Republic.

How it looks inside:

I just bought few postcards so first correct guess can decide where I will send it (I don't have stamps yet).

~50 km away another (same type) bike for comparison

So after the Pyrenees i kept cris crossing around France, bit of Cevennes, Provence, Verdon, Haute Alpes, back to Provence, Vercors, Chartreuse, Jura then to Freibug to take a train home. Title picture is taken on the Montagne de Lure, Mont Ventoux' little brother close to Sisteron.

Hey! Newbie to the touring world here. I have a Kona Rove DL 2021 frame, and looking at getting a front rack set up organised. After some research, the Tubus Duo and Tubus Tara look like excellent, light reliable choices which run nice and low on the bike.

Won't be getting any higher, at least not on this trip. On the Cime de la Bonette.

In the background Erg Chebbi, the highest and largest sand dunes of Morocco, N. Africa: the dunes spread over an area of near 200 km2 (28 x 7 km) and are 150 meters high#touring #cycletouring #cycling #wanderer #exploring #bicycle #bicycletouring @bicycle_touring #adventurecycling #cyclinglife #cyclingnomads #traveldiaries #biketouringforever #pedalpower #travelstories #travelbybike #bikewander #bikelife #biketouring #fromwhereiride #worldbycyclingù #worldbybike #pedaljourneys #humanpoweredadventures #neverstopexploring #biketocamp #worldbycycling

This "sauna" weather isn't the best for bikepacking, I had to take breaks pretty often. There is cherry season so you always find "reason" to stop for some "snack".

This is a bit of an older link, don't think he updated in a while. I still have a look at it every once in a while.

#Cycling in the #AltPirineu, #Catalunya #Spain @bicycle_touring

overlooking silicon valley from the west with just a water bottle (hiked half the way, it was a trail too sketchy for these tyres)

Oh my gody guys and girls. I am beyond hyped right now, two days into riding the Pyrenees west to east.

A shake down ride to make sure everything is in order. Needs a little more air in the forks, and I need to add lights to my list, otherwise all good.

3 punctures, all in different places so not the rim or anything, just bad luck.

She said she planned to travel to Norway pulling this little bicycle caravan! We met her in Dangu, about 50 miles ride NE of Paris. I hope she is enjoying herself and not working too hard to pull it along.

After Paris I got the train to Calais to ride back to Dieppe. I got to Calais to late to cycle as intended, so I found a campsite, then went for a walk down the beach, and found a pretty cool bunker, where the sand beneath it had been blown away. I don't know who it is that was sat inside it, they invited me over to sit with them, but it was late, and I am not that brave..

I've been doing some rail trails on the "green roads" (routes vertes) to visit my parents for the last three weekends and I stopped at the park for overnights as I didn't want to cycle the full 140 km in one shot and then back. It's getting greener!

I didn't check the route and miss the second defensive line near Pohořelice so no bunkers this time.

(Title picture is from yesterday in the Parque Natural Sierra de Castril, narrow single track only went for a couple 100m but a good occasion to take a photo and make me look like a badass)

All the stuff i am taking on a two month trip, including bags, the clothes i am wearing, excluding my phone and an actual book which i plan to send home though. Hope i didn't miss something, but i think i should be good. Leaving my chair at home this time.

I think this may fit here, some of these setups are pretty sick.

On overnighter this weekend I checked out another one. This one is more standard, but still it is basically standard one split and with road in between the halves.

Ill be cycling l'avenue verte from Dieppe to Paris, then back to London. Bivouac en route, and a nice campsite outside Paris on the Sienne to chill out and take a shower in between exploring the city. Ive put a brooks saddle and some ergon grips on my bike too which im looking forward to field testing!

I managed to find some file sharing service (my instance probably didn't support pictures) so I post here some detailed pics of this bunker.

In June 22 i made a short trip to Belgium and Luxembourg, there was a heatwave going on and i wanted to get to the Sauer Reservoir (Lux) for a swim, i had been there already some years before and remembered it to be really nice.

What's up party people. It's christmas time and i am giving away six ultralight camp lights, including batteries*. They weigh a whooping 11 g including two CR2032 batteries. According to the seller, the power should last for thirty hours and then start dimming down when power starts to fade, so no sudden death. I have not ran them for that long so i can't say for sure.

Got to take my ladyfriend on an overnight trip at the weekend. It just so happened that the campsite we had booked sat a little before the halfway point on an overnight bike packing trail that I had bookmarked for a later date - links below for anyone that might be interested. We got a late start saturday, so we arrived in the dark with just enough time to get to pitch and do a shop run before a bbq and drinks next to a campfire. We didnt rush the next day, left a little before noon and made the most of the sites en route. Some bird watching and a pub lunch put us a bit behind schedule with the shorter days so we had to cut out the main loop in Epping Forest by Loughton, but we will go back for a day trip to finish that part of the ride. A really enjoyable route for anyone looking for a 2 day excursion from london, largely off road so better suited for a gravel bike but some hybrid tyres should get you round if you dont mind a slower ride.

This was an amazing lake in Sweden, about 40km east of Askersund. There was a shelter here and a fire pit, and no one else around! Sweden and Finland were definitely the highlights on this trip.

Photo from earlier this year for a cheeky overnighter shakedown ride.

This guy has been livestreaming his cycle touring trips for some years now, i kinda enjoyed tuning in every now and then. With this South Korea trip i don't because his stream time doesn't align with my timetable. Maybe somebody else will dig it, i think he does it pretty good.

(Title picture: Riding out of the Lathissi high plateau)

I was cyling from Freiburg, Germany through the Jura, Vercors, Drôme, Verdon to Nice, France.

Ok so not completely sure this is allowed here, but not against any rules on the sidebar so I’ll give it a go. *@mods please remove or message me if not appropriate*

Why March? I live in London and will be getting the Caledonian sleeper train up to inverness. Tickets are drastically cheaper in March than April. And im also hoping I might get to catch a glimpse of the northern lights on the orkney islands. Ive already decided to delay the trip, so I could put some extra money aside for a more expensive ticket. Maybe someone with experience of the region can give me some advice?

Didnt start well, a storm stopped me halfway from london to portsmouth, the first day here I dedicated as a rest day as I get problems with my knee when I overdo it. It was a beatiful day which made me optimistic for the week, but there were storms eveyday. I did my planned rides anyway. My running shoes got sodden wet but I had fun regardless. Got a dry day today, so did the main north-south trail, started in my flip flops stopped at blacks to get a dry pair of waterproof hiking shoes on clearance. Got to a closed path, asked a cyclist coming the other way if id make it through, he said yes just keep your feet up. I did, my bike stopped in the middle, had to peddle out with these shoes I had only worn for an hour under the water. Wet weather touring is .. a challenge, but still enjoyable. Going home tomorrow, if it is raining I am getting the train back from portsmouth, ive had enough water for this week.

Booked a week off work and I will be spending it cycling around the isle oi wight. We have the worst possible weather forecasted but ive booked the ferry and the first two nights tent pitch, so just going to go brave the storm (a literal storm) and enjoy being in a new place.

It was december and raining a lot. I made a route using both komoot and RWGPS (the latter to confirm tricky spots with streetview). Still, information wasn’t up to date and had to make a huge detour.

Rode from somewhere in northern Italy to Nice, France. It was september, roads were very quiet, weather was mostly good (almost froze my hands right off on a rainy descent, but the rest was quite good). Slept in hotels as I only had four days and was doing like 2500-3000m elevation every day.

I am actually cycling in the Czech Republic right now, but slept tonight about 20m over the border in Germany. Definitely feel now like this tour is coming to an end. Still a good week to go.

I got aware of this project when the community developed app for warmshowers got suddenly shut out of the site. People from the orbit around the app started the sleepy.bike project and it is now accepting people to sign up. The functionality is apparently still a bit bare bones, notifications are not working yet, I think also no e-mail forwarding of requests etc. But messaging on the website should work.

TLDR: Denmark has a cool free shelter and camping infrastructure, check it out here and learn some Danish while you're at it. There is also a 'shelter' app for it (I think it is called shelter), I just used osmand POI's. Some of the shelters require registration, I'm not sure how that process works. The photo shows my shelter for tonight.

The San Juan Islands are beautiful! Beach access at both, the islands break up the waves so they just gently lap at the shore. Lots of hills. It was challenging for a first timer who hates climbing but I'm ready to go suffer again 🦵🦵

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/2110225

The first two days have been great. I feel like i really made the right decision taking that flight, the weather is just so much better for me.

On wednesday i have made the decision to not ride further into the southern european heatwave but booked a flight to Tromsø way up north in Norway, then try to make my way home from there. I can't deal with the heat and the idea that it's only going to get hotter (40+ in bosnia).

The last days i had been following the slovenian part of the trans balkan race route, then thought i can't go through croatia without going to the coast at all. Took a very cool route through the forest to the sea, thought i'd check in on a campsite and spend half a day on the beach. Quickly found out again that i just don't like it, too many people, most expensive campsite i've ever been on (27 €). Immediately looked forward to going up inland again.

That was a couple weeks ago on a part of the mountainbike route 66 in Switzerland. This part was still all ridable for me, only the last two or so km before the border to italy i was basically just pushing .