If you're heading on your first bikepacking trip, working out how to pack your bike bags can be a daunting task. Here's our guide to getting your bikepacking setup correct as well as our tips and tricks on what to pack.
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00:00If you've got your first bikepacking trip planned or perhaps you've been inspired to
00:04start plotting one it can be a pretty daunting prospect to get all of your bags onto your bike.
00:10And there's loads of different options for that as well so we're going to run you through some
00:14modern bikepacking setups to help you choose the best as well as some tips that we've learned
00:18along the way, not always the easy way either, so you can avoid making the same mistakes.
00:23Ready? Let's go! Let's go camping!
00:33So let's talk a little bit about different ways to carry your kit on a bike.
00:38What are they Catherine and what are the benefits of each one?
00:40Yeah so to start with I think most people will be familiar with panniers and pannier racks.
00:45So these are large bags that you can either fit on the front or the rear. They sit on top of racks
00:50that you need to fix onto your bike. Now you'll also need to have specific mounts on your bike
00:54to fit the racks on which you put the bags so that's one thing to consider. And these are really
00:59great for capacity if you need to take loads and loads of stuff. And they tend to be really good
01:05on the road as well. So when you start to take them off-road things can get a little bit spicy
01:10especially if you're on like really chunky gravel or mountain biking territory. And because they then
01:15come out of the side of your bike if you're on really narrow single track and you're a bit
01:19limited in terms of how much space you have on the sides then they can be a little bit limiting.
01:24But they do tend to give you a really good center of gravity near the bottom of the bike
01:29over the bottom bracket so that's good. So panniers are kind of your archetypal touring
01:35setup right? You see pictures of people with like front panniers, rear panniers but that can often be
01:42a quite heavy because you've got the rack and the bags might not be as lightweight as some other
01:48options but also it might be that your frame can't accommodate the racks. So to prevent you having
01:53to get a new frame which can there has been a rise in lightweight strap-on bike packing bags.
01:59So essentially it's just a combination of different bags that are spread all over your bike.
02:03So you can have everything from saddle bags to handlebar bags, top tube bags, down tube bags,
02:09cargo cage bags, loads of different ones. And these tend to be really really good because of their
02:14versatility. So you can have a handlebar roll and a saddle pack that you move from your road bike to
02:19your mountain bike to your gravel bike. You don't have to worry about the specific mounts and then
02:24on top of that they're really lightweight in comparison to a rack and pannier setup because you
02:30don't need the rack and they tend to just strap on really easily. If you're riding a mountain bike for
02:35example a full suspension mountain bike I've seen them where they can they can get fitted around your
02:40linkage of your suspension so they just allow you to use whatever bike you have and just to get out
02:46and get riding which I think is really cool. Yeah and maximize the space that you have on that
02:50particular bike as well. So there are three main types of bike packing bags you nod your head like
02:56there's clearly loads more but the main ones you would want to get if you were to go on your first bike
03:01packing trip. Yeah so starting at this end saddle bags are really popular so they tend to affix to the
03:08seat post itself rather than the frame using one or more velcro straps then it's supported typically
03:14by straps which thread through the saddle rails so one to be wary of if you're running a carbon railed
03:20saddle probably not a good idea and these tend to be quite big obviously all different sizes are
03:26available but that's really good for quite a large capacity and just like on the handlebar front
03:33they're either a one piece or you can get a holster with a dry bag inside so it's worth thinking about
03:40whether you're camping right next to your bike for example or if you're staying in an airbnb or a hotel
03:46or whatever you might want to have a holster type so you can just pull the dry bag out and take it
03:50with you rather than having to take the whole setup off your bike each time. Yeah and then moving
03:54on to the frame you can get everything from a full-sized frame bag either one off the shelf or custom
04:01made specifically for your bike right the way through to like a little half frame bag that
04:05just comes down the middle or little ones like we've got in there. And then finally at the front
04:10handlebar bag? So like I said with the saddle bags these tend to come either as a one piece or as a
04:16holster and dry bag type thing and these mount directly onto your handlebars crucially like the saddle
04:22bags these tend to be expandable so you can have a play at home before your trip crucially a good little
04:29test ride is always a really good idea by packing different widths or probably taking out a little
04:36bit compared to how much you'd like to pack in there because if you have mechanical shifting you
04:41need to remember that you'll need to have full range of movement of the shifter. Flared bars like these
04:46are actually really great not only for confidence on the descents but it does give you a little bit
04:51more space for a handlebar bag so that's worth noting. And then on top of those three main bags
04:56there's I guess additional storage solutions. Yeah so there's lots of different ones this is
05:02a stem bag so that's just a small little bag that you can fit between the stem and the handlebar
05:07that just straps on there. It's kind of a fill all thing that is now I like to use it for my little
05:13mirrorless camera I have which is really useful because it's very easy to get at whilst you're
05:16riding along. Yeah right in front of you great for snacks your phone if you're just wearing a t-shirt
05:20that sort of thing. Rubbish if you're eating a lot on the bike and you need to be able to put it
05:24somewhere it's a little bin bag on your handlebars. So that's good if you have a bike which is enabled
05:30with cargo mounts on the forks then you can have bags on the forks or water bottles for more storage
05:36so they're really handy. In general it's best to keep most of the weight on the bike from personal
05:42experience the lower down and more central towards the bottom bracket the better it'll be for handling.
05:47You need to pay particular attention to how much clearance you've got between the saddle and the rear
05:51tyre and the handlebars in the front tyre because that can be a little bit troublesome for shorter
05:55riders and also you're less likely to have so much space in the main triangle for frame bags you might
06:01have a very sloping top tube which limits that. Now this bike we've got here is a really good example
06:06of a very small framed bike and you can see it would be really hard to fit a frame bag in there for
06:11example so we've alleviated this problem by using some wolf tooth b-rad components. Now these are really
06:18cool little tools which just allow you to sort of expand your storage basically by using your existing
06:24bottle cage mounts you can fit a base to it that you can then move everything up or down much further
06:31inside the down tube or on the seat tube so for example we've moved two full water bottles much
06:36further up the frame so we can fit two additional dry bags on the seat tube and on the down tube which
06:42is kind of allowing us to get away with not running a little frame bag. Yeah it's really handy and I think
06:48it's a bit cliche but it's so true they say that the best bike packing bike is the one that you
06:53already own and even if it's not specifically made for that purpose or ideal for it like little handy
06:59tools like this can really help. Absolutely and this had three sets of bottle mounts and we've managed to
07:06fit so much more in that frame because of it it just goes to show that you can really customize and make
07:11your fitting solutions quite bespoke to you. So how do you pack all of these different bags let's start at the
07:17front what are you putting in your handlebar bag? So that's where I tend to put my sleep system
07:22if I'm camping out so things like your sleeping bag sleeping mat if you've got a bivvy or a tent or a
07:29hammock all of that tends to fit really nicely in there. Yeah it's a decent little space and depending
07:36on your bars it can be pretty wide as well so you can get quite a lot in there. In the frame bag? I tend to
07:43find it's really good for little bits and pieces things like electronics tools a battery pack
07:51my top tip you could use like a hammock or some other slightly squishy soft thing maybe a waterproof
07:58to pack just here in this corner if you're using a half frame bag that is because if you have to do
08:04any hiker bike and put the bike on your shoulder like cyclocross then you have a nice little pad and
08:10the top tube won't hurt your shoulder. That is smart I just tend to find that the frame bag is my
08:15catch-all anything that I don't have another space for just goes in the frame bag. Baguette sandwich.
08:20Straight in there fits perfectly. Now at the back in the seat pack? It's more accessible than the front I
08:25think but you still have to get off the bike to get into it so personally I tend to pack slightly bulkier
08:33things like spare sets of clothes a pair of bibs every day fresh set is definitely my go-to after
08:41many years of learning clothes extra layers toiletries I tend to put something like if I'm taking a mini
08:50stove to cook on bits and bobs like that really. Essentials you try and pack them easily accessible and
08:58near the top. Absolutely so things like a spare layer I absolutely swear by a down or a synthetic
09:05jacket that's like really puffy really warm even in the summer you always get like chilly evenings
09:10and that's really really good to have as soon as you reach camp or the pub or wherever. Tools, emergency
09:18spares, a survival blanket is really good idea especially if you're going somewhere quite remote
09:23a waterproof jacket near the top because the last thing you want to be doing when it's just suddenly
09:30out of nowhere started hammering it down is rooting all the way to the bottom of your bags with
09:35everything getting soaked to find them. So there you go there are top tips for packing your bike bags
09:40if you do have any great tips yourself or any funny stories then please do leave them in the comment
09:46section below because we'd love to hear them. In the meantime don't forget to give us a like and to
09:51subscribe to the Cycling Weekly YouTube channel and we'll see you soon. Bike parking!
09:58Got the echo! Wow. Mastermind subject. Bike bags. Oh boy. No it was rubbish, sorry Ed.