Bike
MTB
How to Pack Light for a Gravel Bikepacking Trip
Weight saving is a must for any gravel bikepacking trip! Here are five tips to help you optimise your set up and gear to have the best possible trip ever.
When you're travelling by bike, you’re lugging all your gear with you every step of the way—over hills and rough terrain, into the shop and across the campsite—so the lighter you pack, the easier this will be. However, if you’ve packed so little that you find yourself freezing your butt off in skimpy layers while you ration toothpaste, your experience might not be particularly fun. Besides comfort and efficiency priorities, your packing will also depend on the weather you’re expecting to encounter, how much time you’re planning to spend doing non-cycling activities, and how long you’re planning to be on the road. Whatever your style, these tips can help you be strategic with what and how much you bring along.
01
Prioritise Multipurpose Gear
The more functions a thing has, the fewer things you need to carry. For example, you can use:
- One off-bike outfit for everything: You shouldn’t need more than one casual shirt that you wear for sleeping, restaurants, or any off-bike activities. If you want to pack more than one of something, let it be for hygiene rather than fashion.
- Layering instead of bulky jackets: Instead of a thick jacket that you’ll only need when it’s freezing cold, pack a few layers (like a baselayer, long sleeve vest, and a windbreaker) that’ll give you more options at more temperatures for less space.
- Clothes as pillows: If you really value comfortable sleep, you can buy tiny roll-up pillow covers that turn into a nice pillow shape if you stuff clothes in them.
- Bike front lights instead of headlamps: For bikepacking trips, it’s best to have a front light in case you find yourself riding in the dark. If you find a light that is easily removable, you can use this instead of a camping head torch.
Payson McElveen takes a break in the film Crossing Tasmania
© Red Bull
02
Plan Your Food-Packing
Unless you’re heading into the bush for a few days and don’t know if you’ll find any shops, you don’t want to have too much food on you, because food is usually heavy, bulky and becomes less and less edible with every hour it spends being carried on a bike. That said, it’s better to have too much food than too little. Remember to:
- Leave room for snacks: When you’re doing your initial pack, remember that there will be times you’re going to need to carry food with you in your bikepacking bags and you’re going to want to have space for that.
- Get a tiny, foldable backpack (seriously): This is one of the best gear bits for any bike traveller—a small foldable backpack that you can use when you’re arriving in a town for the evening, and want to buy some food that you’re planning on eating for dinner. With one of these, you can easily and comfortably carry your food for a few km, without having to try and fit it into your bikepacking setup or balance a shopping bag on your handlebars.
- Pack a few dehydrated meals: These are crucial for when you’re planning on heading into the wilderness, but they can also save the day when you arrive in a town, starving, only to find everything is closed. Nowadays you can get ultra lightweight options that have impressive amounts of both micro and macronutrients.
03
Plan For Your Specific Trip
While there are a few things you’ll want to bring on every trip, most of what you pack will be dependent on the specific trip you’re packing for. You’ll want to think about:
- Where you’re staying: For example, if you’re planning to stay in hotels every night, you can probably get away with not packing toiletries like soap and shampoo.
- How much electronic charging you’ll be doing: Usually, you can get away with just bringing one type of each charging cable—consolidate as much as possible. Choose a power bank size based on how much you think you might genuinely need to use it.
- Availability of ‘just in case’ things: if you’re going to be somewhere where you’ll pass a bike shop every day, you probably don’t need to bring as many extra tools and spares as you would if you were going somewhere remote.
Practising packing means you'll be a pro when it comes to the real thing
© Karlo Ramos / Red Bull Content Pool
04
Pack Smaller Gear
Just like you’ll prioritise an item that can do the job of two items, you’ll also prioritise an item that can do the job of a similar item while taking up half the space:
- Decanting: Decant things like toiletries, sauces, and washing powder into ‘travel size’ bottles, bags or containers.
- Invest in mini gear: Ironically, tiny, ultralight things like sleeping gear, mini tools or foldable cutlery, often cost more than their normal-sized counterparts, but if you’re planning to bikepack often, the investment is worth it. (Pro tip, in seasons of gift-giving, these can be fun, medium-budget wrappable options).
- Creative deconstruction: Bikepackers are famous for figuring out how to take an item apart so that they’re only carrying the absolutely crucial bits. The most common (and silly) example of this is sawing off the end of a toothbrush, but it can also look like removing unnecessary packaging, or tearing out pages of a notebook instead of carrying a whole book, and so on.
05
Research and experiment
- Do a test ride: If you get a chance to do a short ‘test mission’ with all of your gear, you can quickly get a sense of what you actually use, which is often not what you thought you’d use. This is also the quickest way to identify what you’re definitely missing.
- Study the pros: There are a ton of articles online where experienced bikepackers go through their packing choices in detail. The more that you research, the more you’ll start to see patterns of what is universally crucial vs what is personal preference.
- Be ready to ditch on the go: If you do happen to find yourself mid-trip carrying a bunch of gear you doubt you’ll need, don’t be afraid to mail gear home, donate it, or leave it with friends or family along the way.
The more trips you do, the more you’ll be able to refine your personal packing style and, in the meanwhile, you can enjoy going a bit faster if you’ve underpacked, and enjoy having a few extra bits of gear if you’ve overpacked. Either way, you’re out having an adventure on your bike, which means you’re winning. Happy exploring!
If you’re feeling excited to set off on some bikepacking adventures and think you could use a little extra inspiration, head over to Red Bull TV now to check out some of these awesome cycling adventure films.
22 min
Crossing Tasmania
MTB rider Payson McElveen attempts to cross Australia’s least populated state: the island of Tasmania.
