Packing for Bikepacking: everything I carry after 7 years around the world
hey guys how's it going my name is Tristan in this video I'm going to go through my bike packing setup I'm going to show you everything I pack where I pack it and why I pack it this video has been requested for a long time so hopefully you find it useful for context I've been cycling around the world since 2015. I've covered about 70 000 kilometers to about 70 countries I ride all sorts of different terrain including a lot of rugged single track so I need my setup to be very versatile I've tried a tonne of different bike setups over the last seven or eight years and this for me has come out to be by far the best when I started out I was using the classic touring setup with four panniers and then I gradually transitioned I've used the more modern bike packing setup for a while and what I've ended up on is this kind of hybrid setup with bike packing setups it's always a balance between convenience and weight the modern bike packing setup is super light and really good for technical riding but it's also a pain in the ass to pack because you have very little space and you have to play Tetris to a very high level to make it work it also makes packing up in the morning quite irritating because you have to pack it very very carefully every time and over a long tour that definitely starts to get irritating the amount of time you have to spend packing and trying to get things quickly can also be quite inconvenient the bike touring setup with the panniers however much more convenient but on the other hand it's also far far heavier and it's nowhere near as good for technical riding and if you start having to do hike a bike it becomes quite inconvenient quite quickly so for me this is the perfect compromise I have almost as much convenience as a four pannier setup but it's far far lighter and far more capable when it comes to technical off-road riding so this is the setup that I've been using for the last two or three years I've been super super happy with it I am going to be making a few additions to the setup for my next trip which is going to be Alaska in the summer and I will be going through those additions at the end of the video in the interest of full disclosure I will say that some of my equipment was sent to me for free but I'm not receiving any money for making this video and being a perfectionist I'd much rather pay full price than use something subpar so you can be confident that everything I'm using is awesome and I'm not just using it because it was free right so let's dive into the pack list if I start with what I wear when I'm on the road helmet pretty straightforward this is a Giro fixture mips helmet fairly cheap but it works pretty well and it's comfortable gloves pretty basic these are gripgrab gloves try saying that three times drunk what I'm wearing now is pretty much what I cycle in every day starting from the top this is a Merino wool long sleeve top from isobar I massively swear by Merino wool I'd never wear anything else on tour it really is just so much better than any other material it keeps you cool when it's hot it keeps you warm when it's cold it breathes really well it dries super fast it's very comfortable and the best thing about it is it doesn't smell so you can wear it for days and days and you won't get any kind of funky smells coming out of it Merino wool is obviously a little bit more expensive but it's totally worth the money this one is from a company called isobaa in the UK which I got into about a year ago these are the best ones I've ever found they're incredibly comfortable and insanely soft it actually feels kind of like Silk shorts I don't wear padded shorts I've never really needed them with the brook saddle so I just wear whatever shorts I have these are some cheap I think Pilates shorts from decathlon main thing for me is they just want to have a bit of stretch and they also want to have good zippered Pockets Merino wool socks again Merino wool is the best way to go and these are specialized rhyme Flats mountain bike shoes I only bring one pair of shoes when I tour I don't have a second pair of sandals or anything and I prefer flat pedals partly for that reason so these are great for cycling in they're incredibly grippy combined with a good mountain bike pedal but they're also great for off the bike stuff so I can happily hike for days in these I can go running in these and they look relatively normal so they're decent for just walking around town okay I'm gonna go straight into the backpack next so this is a 35 liter waterproof backpack from sea to Summit the flow 35. I really love going with a backpack on a rear rack as opposed to a seat pack you have a lot more capacity and it's not that much extra weight and I like to do a lot of side activities off the bike I like to do multi-day hikes and I'm also the kind of person that often ends up doing hiker bikes but this is incredibly convenient when I have hiker bike I can just quickly take the backpack off the rack and wear it which makes hiker bike far easier then I also have a hiking backpack ready to go for multi-day hike so I want to do them it also has the benefit of making flying with a bike far easier because this is big enough that I can carry basically all of my stuff in this backpack and bring it on as carry-on and then I can just have the bike in a bike box and I don't need to pay for any hold luggage which is great I've used a bunch of different backpacks over the last few years I still haven't found one I'm 100 happy with this one is pretty good for me it just wants to be in the 30 35 liter range so I have enough capacity to carry food for three or four days on a multi-day hike having a waterproof one is super nice because I can just stuff everything into the backpack without having to worry about dry bags or a liner but you do also have the option of just using a normal hiking backpack whatever you have use a liner to keep everything dry and that would also work just fine using the magic of editing I'm going to take the backpack off the rack unpack it and then I'm going to show you everything that I pack into it by putting it in which I think is going to be more helpful okay so the backpack is off the rack and unpacked one thing to say first I've had a bunch of questions about this this little piece here that I have on top of the rack this is just the back piece from an old backpack that I just took off basically it's just a small piece of closed cell foam I just have this cable tied onto the rack the reason I use this is because it keeps the backpack clean and it keeps it protected from any sharp Rocks coming off the tire it also helps keep the straps out of the way so I think for me it's worth the extra 50 grams or so you could use basically anything for this this is just what I happen to have okay so this is the backpack emptied out one of the really nice things about using a big backpack like this is that you have a really wide opening so it makes packing super easy all of my stuff in this backpack basically just gets stuffed down makes it really quick I don't have to roll anything it all just goes in really quickly which makes parking up in the morning really convenient in the backpack goes basically everything that I don't need during the day once the backpack is strapped down on the rack I can't access it without taking it off again so the idea is I pack everything in here in the morning that I won't need during the day and then in the evening I just take it off unpacked so in here goes everything I won't need during the day so that is my sleep system my shelter extra loads and generally anything that I'm not going to need regularly or at all while I'm riding during the day to start with I have a spare belt for my Gates carbon belt drive I wouldn't bother taking this on a short trip but on a longer trip it's just nice to have the backup in case this one ever breaks very unlikely they'll ever need it but it's only about 60 grams so it doesn't hurt to throw it in there a couple of pairs of Merino boxes shorts when I'm riding during the day I actually don't wear underwear I just go commando because I find it works better for me so the boxes are there basically for days off definitely a luxury item this is a beard trimmer Remington nothing particularly special it's relatively lightweight the main thing with that is it charges by micro USB which I have anyway definitely a luxury item but on a really long trip it's nice to be able to freshen up a little bit my pillow is a seat of Summer Eros arguably a luxury item but for me it's worth paying about 60 grams to have a good night's sleep at this point what I'll do is stuff in my sleeping bag this is a sea to Summit spark sp4 down sleeping bag this is actually a winter bag that's supposedly rates down to -15 I wouldn't take this on a summer trip I have a different sleeping bag it's three season than I would take if it were warmer but my last few trips have all been to quite cold places I sleep pretty cold so for me it's worth carrying a slightly warmer sleeping bag just to make sure that I'm cozy even if it drops well below freezing with this I'd be comfortable down to at least -10 this works pretty well I can just unzip it when it's hot and I can still sleep comfortably in temperatures up to sort of 15 16 degrees or so my next trips to Alaska where it's going to be cold so I'm definitely going to be bringing this down sleeping bag should always be stuffed not rolled because it's better for the sleeping bag the way that I pack this I pack it with a fold so I pack it kind of from the middle first and then I just stuff it down into the sleeping bag the reason that I put it in half first is because the next thing that goes in is my laptop so this is a MacBook Air in a padded case just a cheap padded case that I got from Amazon the way that I packed this I just stuff it down in the middle between those two folds of the sleeping bag so the sleeping bag then kind of wraps around it which gives it a lot of extra padding and protection the only other thing I have in there is a USBC SD card reader for memory cards from my camera and drone next comes my sleeping pad this is a Therm-a-Rest Neo air X light any inflatable pattern for fortunately is eventually going to break that's just how it goes therm rests are pretty good with their warranty I think this is the fourth replacement part I've had over the last seven years it's frustrating that they do break eventually but for me it's still worth it considering how much more comfortable and compact they are than going with something like a closed cell phone pad this just gets stuffed in as well it's all extra padding for the laptop clothes pair of trousers it doesn't really matter what you use these are just a pair of climbing trousers from decathlon another long-sleeve Merino wool top from isobar I always want to have one clean top to change into in the evenings to sleep in and I can wear that on days off while I'm washing the stuff I'm wearing now second pair of shorts these are just exactly the same ones as I'm wearing now in a different color basically I'll wear these until they're dirty and then I'll change into these and wash these while I'm wearing these so I can just rotate between them spare pair of Merino wool socks for the evenings and sleeping little microfiber towel for obvious reasons you always want to know where your towel is this is a little repair kit in here I have a sewing kit I have a tick remover tool Universal sink plug so that I can hand wash my clothes in the sink I have some ibuprofen I have my sleeping pad repair kit and I have a few little plastic clothes pegs for hanging stuff up to dry this is my toiletry bags pretty minimal I have toothpaste my toothbrush with a little cap thing on it I have a little pair of nail clippers and some rolling deodorant Old Spice for the manual man can smell like I don't use either soap or shampoo if you stop using them at first it's a little ropey but once your body adapts you just don't need them anymore and you can just wash with water which is a lot more convenient this is my insulator jacket this is an arc Terex atom LT hoodie this isn't particularly special but it does the job depending where I am this might not be stored in the backpack if I'm somewhere where I think I might need to access to this during the day I'll usually store it in my handlebar instead where I can get to it quicker if I'm touring in a warm place where I know I'm not going to need this during the day it'll sit in the backpack lastly is the tent currently I'm using the Dustin x-mid one person tent which is absolutely amazing I'm super happy with it insanely strong it's very light and it's very comfortable keep the poles and the pegs separate to the main tent body which I have just stuffed into a dry bag along with a ground sheet so that is the pegs and the poles for the tan I know stuff those down the side of the backpack and lastly I have the tent itself which just gets stuffed on top as I say the general philosophy is you want to pack this in the order in which you're going to be putting stuff in there so the tent is the last thing that I pack up in the morning so that's the thing that goes on top everything in the backpack is stuff that I don't need during the day so I can just strap it down and then forget about it generally I'll just put it on the ground put my knee down on it and just flatten it a little bit to help kind of get into a better shape there's a couple of different ways that this can go on the backpack but what I find is the easiest is if you just take the two straps kind of crisscross them over themselves like that to keep the straps in the middle and then you can just slide it onto the back rack and then just push it forward like that the setup might not work so well if you're a smaller Rider especially if you're also on 29 because you do need a fair bit of clearance between the rack and the bottom of the saddle but this does work really well for me the straps that I use to secure the backpack are cheap Rock motorbike straps I've just got two of those attached to the rack and then I can just pull them over and then I can get it cinched Down super super tight and that keeps it really really solid it's not going to move at all even on really really rough off-road I know that that's not going anywhere there and then just take the two straps and then just sort of tie them off to stop them from flapping around I just do a little knot and that's now really really solid that's not going anywhere if you don't want to bring a backpack you can just use a regular dry bag which is going to save you quite a lot of weight although for me the extra convenience of having a backpack is definitely worth it personally for anything other than a short tour I definitely think a rack is really worth it a lot of white Packers will do instead of using a rack is add a couple of cargo bags onto the fork but if you work out the weight difference it actually comes out lighter to go with a rack and a dry bag than it does to go with a seat pack and two Fork bags and with this you also get extra capacity easier packing and a hell of a lot more convenience so for me this makes much more sense okay so let's move on to the frame bag the first thing that I'd normally have on top of my frame bag is my tripod but I am currently using it to shoot this video I use a cerulee carbon travel tripod weighs about 900 grams it's really good it does the job the next thing I have is my grab bag so this is just a small three liter dry bag with stuff that I want to keep dry and I want quick and easy access to first I have my Journal have a Kindle Paperwhite I like reading so that is essential these are two 20 000 milliamp battery packs I do use quite a lot of power when I tour and I really hate having to ration it with these I'm generally good for at least a week without having to worry about it too much and obviously I can go quite a lot further if I'm more careful two pens for writing lastly I just have charging cables there's my iPhone charger and there there's just a few other charging cables for other stuff that I don't need very often so that's that for the dry bag so next is my pump that's a design micro four Drive really good pump so next is my drone and my remote so that's a DJI Mini 3 along with the remote I keep that in a hard protective case for obvious reasons I have the remote setup with Peak designs leash strap which I can easily disconnect and attach to my camera for when I want to have my camera on the strap most people obviously aren't going to carry a drone but if you're into filmmaking then these things are an absolute Game Changer I also have another dry bag depending on the conditions I will sometimes store my drone and my room remote control in a dry bag because this particular frame bag is not 100 waterproof and I don't want to take any chances with an expensive piece of equipment most of the time the Drone and remote controller are not in this because it makes getting to it a little bit more inconvenient but I do just have this for if I'm riding through a few days of very heavy rain some more Electronics these are some spare batteries for my drone and this is a two terabyte external hard drive these are just stored in a plastic Ziploc bag for waterproofing this is a power plug as well as the charging cable for my laptop that's also just stored in a Ziploc bag for waterproofing and lastly at the bottom of my pack is the pinion lock ring tool which just goes on my cranks there I'm incredibly unlikely to ever need this but it's the only part that is proprietary so for me it's definitely worth carrying that on a longer tour that's it for the frame bag I should say this Frame bag is a roll top frame bag from spokes I'm a massive fan of roll top frame bags because I find you can fit more stuff in them and they're easier to use zippers are going to fail eventually so with this I know it's going to last a lot longer topchi bag this is a bag from halawa in Argentina if you're in South America highly recommend checking them out they make amazing bags so I have first my headphones this will usually be on my head when I'm riding these are shocks open run Pro bone conduction headphones they're really good because I mean I can listen to music or podcasts and also hear my surroundings so those are really nice Merino will buff often I'll wear that while cycling Sun cream sunglasses in a little microfiber bag these are sun god Zephyrs massively recommend sun god I've been using these for a few years and they're absolutely amazing so I really like these lenses this is my head torch I just have this in a small bag this is a petzl head torch I'm not really sure which one but it works really well USB rechargeable which is great multi-tool this is a park tools one I'm probably going to be replacing this with something lighter actually soon the main thing for me is that I want to make sure I have a number eight Allen key so that I can remove my pedals using that if I need to Leatherman squirt PS4 little multi-tool with a pair of pliers on there and also a pair of scissors so that's really useful little spare disposable lighter this is my locks this is a Bordeaux light 6055 folding lock choosing a lock is always going to be a compromise a cable lock is basically useless and something much heavier is going to be much heavier this weighs about 450 grams and it should be strong enough to keep out a pair of bolt cutters or a very casual attack for at least a little bit so hopefully this would buy me a little bit of time to come out the supermarket and grab my bike this is basically my tubeless tire repair kit so I have a valve core remover tool in there I have a bunch of bacon strips and I have the tool for putting the bacon strips into the tire lastly just sitting in the front I just have a little thing of hand sanitizer a couple of spare straps these are just useful if anything breaks you can just use Royal straps or whatever you want just come in handy and finally the last thing I have in here is just a tiny little rechargeable red light Blinky for the back of my bike I hardly ever ride at night but occasionally obviously I want one of those so that's it for the top tube pack two bottles of water there's a one liter each these are just now Jean bottles I keep them there makes it really quick to access I really really like those the front of the bike currently I have my iPhone 13 Pro on a quad lock out front mount and then I have a Garmin Edge 530 on a Garmin out front mount and then lastly on the bike we go to my handbook bag this is actually a custom prototype from spokes but the bag I was using for two or three years before I got onto this one was the jumbo Jammer from Road Runner bags absolutely awesome bag so I massively recommend it this one comes out quite a bit lighter and it has a few extra features that we're working on but obviously this one isn't commercially available just yet firstly I have these two stretchy side pouches which I really like so this makes it really convenient for grabbing quick access stuff so on this side I just have my water purification kit so I have a sawyer squeeze water filter and I have a little platypus two liter bag if you're going to get a sawyer I really recommend going with the squeeze that's the slightly larger one rather than the Sawyer mini I was using the mini for quite a few years and it's absolutely crap it clogs up all the time and it takes forever to filter whereas this one is far far better and it only weighs a bit more so definitely worth grabbing one of those this is my leave no Trace kit so that is a little titanium trowel from the juice number two so that is for digging a little cat hole if you know to go to the toilet in the woods and there's just a little bit of toilet paper in a Ziploc bag on the other side I have another long sleeve Merino wool top from isobar generally if I'm going to warmer climates I won't bother with this one I'll just have the one I'm wearing and my spare in my backpack but if I'm going to colder places then I like to have an extra one so that I can double layer when I need to generally I do prefer long sleeves because I find they're more versatile but obviously in a hotter climate I'll sometimes go with a t-shirt instead of a long sleeve just depends on the trip next if we go into the bag itself the advantage of this kind of bag is that they're really really quick to access so I can just unclick that then I've got access to a huge amount of storage space on the front of the bag right now this bag is actually mostly empty because this is where I store the majority of my food I do have space for a little bit of food in my frame bag as well but most of my food is going to go in here so to start with I have my cooking kit this is an Avenue 900 milliliter cooking pot with a Sidewinder tie try alcohol stove on the inside I really like alcohol stoves because they burn really clean and it's really straightforward there's nothing to break and you can generally find alcohol in most of the world I have this wrapped in a homemade pot cozy generally the idea is I bring my water to a boil I put whatever food I'm cooking into it and then once I've got it boiling again I just turn off the stove wrap this up in the pot cozy and it can continue cooking without using up any fuel so that is amazing it saves a whole bunch of fuel and it makes cooking really easy everything fits into the pot I absolutely love this system so I would massively recommend it sun's out now so I'm wearing these that is just a little bit of plastic which I use as a chopping board for vegetables and that's two little pieces of titanium I use that as the base for my stove so this is all my bad weather gear this is everything I carry most of the time I will be bringing a few extra pieces for Alaska but this is generally my go-to first is my rain jacket this is an old Artemis rain jacket from mama not anything special sure I bought this in Buenos Aires and it was the only thing I could find and it does the job the main thing I like about this jacket is it has armpit Zips which I consider to be really important in a rain jacket because they make things a lot more breathable next is a pair of Gore-Tex waterproof socks I absolutely swear by these for when it's raining and it's cold they don't necessarily keep your feet dry but they do keep your feet warm when worn in combination with a good pair of Merino wool socks these are Merino wool gloves from defeat nice thing about these is you can still use your phone with them I find with these I can keep my hands warm enough down to about freezing so those are really good and lastly I have a pair of Merino wool leg warmers these are just cheap ones from dhb I got into these a couple of years ago and I absolutely love them they're so versatile I can wear these when it's cold and I can also wear them in the rain I don't usually bring waterproof trousers for a trip because I find that most of the time these will keep me warm enough that even though I'm wet it's not a problem my general philosophy with rain is that if it's going to be raining all day you're going to get wet no matter what you do so it's much more important to stay comfortable around other than to stay dry so it's no problem if you soak through as long as you're warm and these do a really good job of keeping my legs warm they're also super quick and easy to take on and off and unlike waterproof trousers I find I don't overheating them so these are absolutely brilliant when I'm not using these regularly I just keep them in this little bag to keep everything compact but otherwise these will often be stuffed into the side pockets to make them even quicker to access and then lastly I have another little grab bag with a bunch of spares and tools for the bike this is all stuff that I very rarely need but I want access to it if I do need it sometimes here we have a little bottle of tubeless tire sealant got a few extra cable ties got a little thing of Tenacious Tape that's gear repair tape which is really helpful if you have any tears in any of your equipment that is a spare pair of brake pads this is a tiny ultra light tube I run tubeless but I'd always want to carry at least one spare tube just in case anything goes wrong these are ridiculously small ones I can't remember the name but I'll put the name up on the screen again hopefully I'll never use this but one day I might really need it and that is absolutely tiny last little patch kit that goes with the tube in case I get a puncture while the tube's in there which could easily happen so that's worth having a couple of Tire levers that's a tire boot one spare tubeless valve and lastly that's just a little bag of bolts and nuts I just want to have at least one spare for every bolt on my bike in case anything breaks there's still a ton of space in here so with this setup I can carry food for up to about three days pretty comfortably and I can go a bit further but then it starts getting quite tight and cramped I have to start playing Tetris but I absolutely love this bag it makes it really really quick to access I can just roll it up and it sits there really really tight and strong it doesn't move around at all even when I'm on single track the last thing to show you is my hip pack which I wear when I'm riding this is a decline hot lapse five liter bag although I'm going to be replacing this pretty soon with a rock ice big dumpling which will be waterproof the main reason I have this is to carry my camera which is a Fuji xt4 it's not in here at the moment because I'm using the camera to shoot this I also have a spare lens in here this is a 35 millimeter F2 Prime and the main lens that I've been shooting on for the last couple of years is a 16 to 80 F4 although I am also about to make some pretty big changes to my lens setup for Alaska other stuff I have in here is my passport have my wallet I normally carry a little rode lapel mic but I'm currently using that but that would normally sit in there have a little open nail pocket knife and I have a little MSR salt and pepper shaker snow peak titanium Spork and a backup pair of headphones just in case my first pair of brakes so that's just about it that's everything I carry for bike packing this setup has been absolutely amazing for the last couple of years and I've absolutely loved it gives me plenty of capacity it's all pretty streamlined but it's also pretty lightweight even though I'm carrying quite a lot of camera equipment a drone and a laptop I'm still able to lift this bike up over my head if I need to and you'd be surprised how often you need to do that because fences exist everything here is really nice and durable I have the setup optimized for convenience so anything that I might need to access during the day is going to be really really quick and easy to access it's also nice that it's a very dialed setup so I don't have to have things dangling off the bike which personally I don't like everything is nice and tidy I think it's a great looking setup and it works incredibly well in terms of water capacity I've generally got two liters here on the front and then I'll have a one and a half liter plastic soda bottle on the down tube which gives me three and a half liters of water capacity for normal use I also then have the two liter platypus bag which I can store either in my frame bag or on the front so that gives me about five and a half liters of capacity which is more than enough for normal riding if I ever need more than that I can also strap extra water bottles on top of the backpack on the rear rack so last but not least I mentioned at the start that I'll be making a few small additions for Alaska so these are the things that I'm going to be adding for this particular trip in Alaska which I don't normally carry this stuff I wouldn't bring on a normal trip but Alaska is a little bit different so this is going to be very helpful first of all I'm bringing a pair of extra large rubber gloves these are just about the only gloves that will actually keep your hands dry and I'm expecting a lot of rain in Alaska so these are going to be much appreciated on the same note for Alaska I will will be bringing a pair of waterproof trousers I'd never normally bother with these but I'm expecting a ton of rain in Alaska so these are going to be well worth having this is a mosquito head net I wouldn't bother with this on most trips except if I'm going back up to Scotland but I am expecting a lot of mosquitoes in Alaska so that is going to be essential and lastly as far as equipment the other thing I'll be bringing is a second two liter platypus water bag and a length of tubing the reason I have this is it lets me convert my Sawyer squeeze into a gravity filter so instead of having to squeeze it out manually I can just hang one bag from my bike handlebar and gravity will just pull the water down and filter it without any extra effort I wouldn't normally bother with this because I don't normally filter water that often but in Alaska I am expecting to be filtering water basically every day and it saves a lot of time so for me it's definitely worth carrying that the biggest addition for Alaska is that I am for the first time in many years going to be once again using panniers these are mini Nano panniers from Mountain Laurel designs in the U.S penny is a very small the capacity is only six to nine liters so they don't take up very much space they don't get in the way with hiker bike and they only weigh 140 grams each which is pretty ridiculous for panniers main reason I haven't used panniers for the last few years is that they're very heavy and bulky but these are insanely light and very small so they don't get in the way and it's going to be really nice to have all the extra capacity I'm expecting quite a few stretches in Alaska where I need to carry more than a week's worth of food and now that I'm also dragging a drone around space is getting a little bit tight so these are just going to give me a lot more breathing room and make packing even easier than it already is so I think that is just about it that's everything I carry and that's why I carry it the setup works really well for me so hopefully you found this video useful please do give this video a like And subscribe it really helps me out with the YouTube algorithm there's no such thing as perfect and I'm definitely still improving this setup so if you have any suggestions I'd definitely be glad to hear them let me know in the comments what you think of this setup and if there's anything you would change and if you have any questions just let me know [Music] thank you
2023-06-12 07:58
