r/bikepacking

Hey guys, since reading about other people's experiences on here helped me a ton when preparing for my trip, I wanted to share my own journey and breakdown what worked and what didn't.

I just wrapped up a 1,250km trip. Left on June 21st and arrived at my destination on June 29th. It was an amazing experience, but man, I made so many mistakes. Here is my review.

First time using a big saddle bag instead of a rear rack and panniers. The bike felt so much more responsive in corners. With panniers, I always felt like after a certain lean angle, the bike just became unmanageable and wanted to tip over. On the front fork, I was running the Old Man Mountain bags. They are convenient but a bit too small. this specific model has exposed bolt heads inside which made packing rigid stuff a nightmare.

For the other bags, the Restrap top tube bag was flawless, super well-made! The Topeak lower frame bag, though... absolute pain. The velcro straps kept slipping the whole trip and completely ruined my favorite bib shorts. Definitely changing that. On the bright side, putting a bottle cage under the bottom bracket for chain oil and tools was a great move, saved tons of room. I also electrical-taped two butyl inner tubes to the outside of the frame and put the pump next to the bottles out of the way and zero issues. Also, the food pouch on the stem Is great. I wish I had one more kept completely empty just to throw in a cold Coke bought on the go.

What I overpacked: way too much food. I brought a mountain of instant risotto pouches and ended up finishing the trip with enough food for 4 more dinners. Next time, 3 meals max and I'll buy groceries on the way. Also leaving behind next time: headlamp (the light mounted on my bike was enough), headphones (never used), fork and knife (a spoon is enough), and the Swiss plug adapter. And i use solid soap: I bought one from Decathlon and it was a disaster. It never dried, stayed wet, turned into a creamy mush, and got everywhere. Next time, just a hard piece of Marseille soap.

What actually saved me: wet wipes were a total lifesaver for wiping the dried sweat and salt off my face. Also, arm sleeves were essential to avoid sunburns. I really wanted more snacks to eat while riding, but I tried nuts and dried fruit and after a while, in that suffocating heat, they just made me super nauseous. I also really wished I had electrolyte tablets to put in my water bottles, but I completely forgot them at home.

Two major issues I didn't expect: Coming from Italy, I'm used to finding drinking fountains in every small town square or playground park. From Switzerland up, they are basically ghosts, and the ones I found were marked non-potable. My 1.5L water capacity was definitely not enough. Also, my lock was so annoying to use that I'd spend 10 minutes just locking and unlocking it at every supermarket. In Boxtel (NL), outside an Aldi, I walked out just in time to see a guy with his hands literally on my bags trying to open my top tube bag. If I had a quicker lock, I wouldn't have wasted time and probably avoided the mini-heart attack.

Also, Switzerland is beautiful, probably the prettiest part of the trip, but the locals I met were something else. First campsite only took cash (€40 for a tiny tent spot). The reception had the AC blasting at 18°C. I had just arrived after 7 hours of pedaling in 40°C heat, and within two minutes my vision went pitch black. I almost fainted on their floor and had to run outside to sit down. Then in Lucerne, I'm minding my own business brushing my teeth in the bathroom. The guy at the next sink reaches over and aggressively shuts off my tap without saying a word. I look at him like "What?!", and in a heavy German accent, he lectures me: "Here in Switzerland we don't waste water, in your country you can do whatever you want." ... paying €40 for a tent spot just to get a passive-aggressive life lesson...

Anyway, I need some advice from you guys for the next trip:

1 neck sun protection: My neck got completely fried, literally opened a small wound. My Buff is too hot. Any good products?

2 Snacks: Since nuts and dried fruit made me nauseous in the 40°C heat, what do you eat when it's that hot to keep your energy up?

3 The Soggy Tent: It rained one morning and a couple of nights. Packing a soaking wet tent and wet clothes felt terrible. How do you guys manage drying gear on consecutive rainy days?

Thanks!

At first, the weather forecast was pretty lousy—rain all week, hardly any sun, around 18–20 degrees.

Two days before I left, it changed to the exact opposite: not a single drop of rain, virtually no clouds, and temperatures consistently around 30 degrees in the blazing sun.

That wasn’t what I had in mind for Sweden, but it turned out to be perfect in the end—with all the trees and lakes, one can cool off if needed.

I started in Hamburg, taking the train to Rostock -> ferry to Trelleborg. I took the train every now and then, since I was on a tight schedule and had to catch the return ferry.

But that way, I was able to ride a loop along the Baltic Sea from Kristianstad to Kalmar, then up to Lake Vättern and back toward the west coast/Malmö and south to the ferry.

I had expected it to be flatter, but especially from Karlskrona onward, it got very hilly, and that really took its toll, especially in the heat on gravel.

The highlight was Lake Vättern itself and my first shelter in Sweden: a World War II bunker converted into a shelter (see photo). There I met another bike packer from Australia—it’s a small world!

But i had to fight my way through - what was supposed to be 4kms auf cycling turned out to be 4kms of carrying my bike over rocks n rocks. It was the hardest day by far, it took me 2 hours to reach the shelter. I didnt know its a hike-only passage and yeah i didnt want to turn around always hoping for the rocks to end.
Even better: next day was the same way back - mentally the hardest part of the tour, i just wanted to throw my bike and heavy panniers and run off haha

The drivers were super relaxed, the bike paths never ended, and I didn’t encounter a single pothole or anything like that. Swedish drivers also stopped at every crosswalk—usually even several meters before it—even though I didn’t not signal.

How do we manage that in Germany? :D

And your English is top-notch, too, and you’ve all been so nice and helpful—love it! :)

Iran, Iran, Iran...

A country almost everyone told me not to visit... except the people who had actually been there.

From them, I only heard incredible stories: unmatched hospitality, unbelievably generous people, delicious food, breathtaking landscapes, and one of the oldest civilizations on Earth.

I had the privilege of crossing Iran by bicycle during peacetime and go to the island of Hormoz just before the war that would later reshape the region. Looking back, I'm incredibly grateful I got to experience the country as I did.

After spending one month cycling through Afghanistan, arriving in Iran felt like night and day. The contrast was fascinating, and you'll quickly understand why in this video.

Join me as I cycle across a country that is so often misunderstood and discover the Iran I experienced.

Here is the link to the video : https://youtu.be/ZrIBag8uDho?is=Ybqv9sLuFz--QQbV

Enjoy! :))

Hi, had a last second bike pack trip come up with some friends and had to whip up some bullshit out of scrap metal real quick for a wasteland bike. The large horizontal piece was originally supposed to be a Starlink antenna bracket, the part with the holes was supposed to be a collet holder for R8 collets, and the side parts where prototype avionics shelfs that ended up not working out. So these parts all got second life to carry alcohol up a mountain 😂

Edit: the glare while unladen is unbearable and I’m pretty sure I got sunburnt up my nostrils

Ps: “Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he’s created? …here on Earth?” ~Dr. Romero (spy Kids 2)

I didn’t expect the last post the blow up, so here’s more highlights plus some answers to your questions. We spent a total of 30 days crossing remote central Afghanistan, almost completely on dirt roads. We took the route that Max Roving pioneered over a year ago. After confirming this online and with the local Taliban authorities, I am pretty confident in saying we are the third person or group to ever bikepack this route (at least that’s documented). We specifically passed through Hazara majority regions the majority of our time in the country, so we got a very rare glimpse into a historically oppressed and anti Taliban side of the country. It was absolutely the hardest tour of my life, mentally and physically, but one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I’ll be coming out with a much more detailed trip report soon, and in the meantime you can follow me at @liamtheimpaler on all socials. I got a ridiculous amount of photos and videos from this trip, let me know if you want to see more!

Looking for two bike boxes in Dushanbe. Will be there on 15-17th of July and on 4th of August, anyone arriving and disposing their boxes by any chance? Will pay you handsomely in plov, bread and good stories 😉

For German Readers :

Ich hab heute den ersten Teil meines Reiseberichts fertig gestellt.

Ich schreibe über meine Erlebnisse bin meiner Reise von Slowenien nach Bayern.

Ich wünsche gute Unterhaltung auf meinem privaten Blog.

https://blog.jobinski.de/2026/07/05/back-home-bikepacking-ueber-die-alpen-teil-1-3/

I went out on a sub 24 hour adventure with around 60km of riding, mostly on day 2. This area is about an hour South of Stockholm, Sweden and features great chunky gravel roads, rideable xc singletrack, lakes, trees, and excellent camping. Weather was perfect swedish summer and I slept great. Just an amazing little reset for a quick weekend trip to the woods. Bike is setup for a 12 day trip to Norway and the main goal was just to test some new gear. Everything worked well so I'm ready to go next weekend!

I’ve done a few bikepacking trips over the years but they’ve all been to hotels and road exclusively.

This summer I took the plunge on a gravel bike and a tent and I’m loving just getting away for a night here and there and next weekend I’m doing a 4 day trip.

I’m definitely trying to slim the packing down though!

I started out on Prague and cycled the Vlatva and Elbe to Dresden. Then I took the most direct route to Berlin. I had intended to finish the tour travelling from Frankfurt to Amsterdam but cancelled trains in Berlin threw a spanner in the works. I ended up cycling across lower Saxony and then the Netherlands. It was beautiful, heat was a challenge but plenty of water stops and forest trails made it manageable. The people in Saxony and Netherlands were a lot warmer than I had anticipated. Cycling in Germany was fantastic.

Clockwise or anti-clockwise? Thinking four days. Planning to enjoy Sweden’s allemansrätt with a hammock. Any tips welcomed.

I just came back home from my biggest bikepacking trip so far. Before i only did some weekenders but this time I rode for 17 days in total and did more than 1800km.

I startet at home near Koblenz and followed the Mosel up to the source. Then I went through the Vosges, where I had to carry my bike a lot and followed the Saône up to Lyon. From there I went along with the Eurovelo 6 for a bit along the Rhône, but made a turn to go into the Ardèche Region and did a 25km tour on the Ardèche by kajak.

I stayed at that place for two nights, wich was the first time on that trip and already had to go back around 50km to reach the place I wanted to rent the kajak.

After that I did another 3 nights to reach the Mediterranean sea and went along to the border of Spain.

As I met with a friend who was car camping and wanted to take me back home in that area, and the coast being really touristic I decided to end my tour before crossing the border to Spain and went back to Ardèche with my friend, where we chilled and made another kajaktour and some exploring of grottes and the area in general for the last 5 days until we had to head back home.

Until we met and went back, I only camped in the wild and didn't use any official campgrounds or hotels, except the two nights in the Ardèche.

The last days we spent on an official campground too, as the Ardèche river is in a national park and we wanted to respect that.

The trip was one of my most adventures holidays and I already know that I will do something like that again pretty soon.

The bike with all my stuff and 2 filled bottles of water was around 31kg wich wasn't as bad as I expected. I was still able to do near to 200kms a day with more than 1000 meters of height.

The only bad thing was a terrible headwind for the whole trip except one day and a lot of rain in the first and a lot of heat up to 44°C in the last week.

I also tracked the whole route on my Karoo amd synced it to komoot if anyone is interested in that. The link leads to the first day of my journey and the route is mostly correct, despite the karoo making some mistakes saving them when the battery was low or the heat to much.

https://www.komoot.de/tour/3012546346?ref=aso&t_s=referral&t_cid=route_share