Cycling
This is the ultimate beginner's guide to gravel bikepacking
Ready to conquer the trails? Our ultimate beginner's guide to gravel bikepacking has the tips, gear picks and expert advice you need for an epic adventure.
Gravel bikepacking, criminally not known as ‘travel by gravel’, involves strapping a bunch of bags to the frame of your bicycle and setting off on a self-supported off-road adventure.
It’s grown in popularity as people want to get out of traffic and into nature, inspired by cycling icons like Lael Wilcox and Lachlan Morton as they’ve captivated the cycling world with their epic, aesthetic gravel missions. While this type of bike travel is known for being zippier and sexier than traditional pannier-laden cycle touring, there’s no rule that says gravel bikepacking adventures can’t also be cruisy and social. It’s about enjoying the journey at any pace, so long as you have fun, make it yours and look good (kidding, although it’s honestly hard not to look good on gravel).
01
Planning your first trip
Payson McElveen eats gravel for breakfast, lunch and dinner (not literally)
© Thrainn Kolbeinsson/Red Bull Content Pool
If you’re thinking about planning a gravel bikepacking trip, know that the bulk of your most useful knowledge will come in the form of experience, because bicycle travel ultimately comes down to personal preference. It’s common to set off on a carefully-planned trip, only to immediately realise you want to change your set-up, ditch half your gear, or start riding in the complete opposite direction. Luckily, it’s easy to do most of these things as you think of them, so there’s no need to get overwhelmed and overthink things before you leave. That said, here are a few useful things to consider in the planning phase.
02
Optimising your bike set-up
Your bikepacking set-up might look a little like this
© Tegan Phillips
The first rule of gravel bikepacking is any bike can be a gravel bike if you just believe (within reason). You don’t have to blow a load of cash on a fancy bike if you want to go on a gravel bikepacking adventure. If you don’t have a gravel bike, a mountain bike (ideally a hardtail) will do the trick. If you have the option to optimise or are planning on buying a bike, you can look at:
- Frame material: anything will work, so your choice depends on your priorities; aluminium is the most budget-friendly, carbon is the fastest, steel is the hardiest and titanium is the most comfortable.
- Tyres: tubeless tyres are arguably the most practical option for off-road. In terms of width, a good rule of thumb is 32-38mm for smoother gravel, 38-45mm for ‘regular’ gravel, and 45mm+ for more technical gravel. If you think you might want to do anything technical at any point, it’s best to pick a bike that has decent tyre clearance, even if you don’t need it initially.
- Brakes: disc brakes with their extra stopping power in rough conditions are your best bet for a gravel trip, especially on a loaded bike.
Pro tip: whichever bike you choose, get a professional bike fit done before setting off on a multi-day trip, and make sure you’ve thoroughly tested your saddle. Small niggles can turn into pesky injuries when you have a sudden increase in load.
03
Designing your route
Payson McElveen in Crossing Tasmania (which you can watch on Red Bull TV)
© Thrainn Kolbeinsson/Red Bull Content Pool
To adapt a quote from management guru Peter Drucker, gravel bikepacking is less about making the right route choice, and more about making your route choice right. Embrace the fact that no matter how much route planning you do, you’ll probably still end up carrying your bike over a fence and through a muddy field of sheep at least once. Don’t let that put you off route-planning, though.
- Build a route: you can either find and adapt a route that someone has already planned or ridden, through a site like Bikepacking.com, or build your own route from scratch, using a route-planner like Komoot, RidewithGPX or Strava.
- Remember, not all kilometers are created equal: don’t neglect to factor in things like elevation, road surface, likely weather conditions and cumulative fatigue when estimating how far you might be able to ride in a day.
- Identify key points: check food and water sources, bike shops, sleeping options and other points of interest that you may want to pass by.
- Have a route-specific emergency plan: it’s helpful to be prepared for a few worst-case scenarios. If there’s something weird in your tent, your bottom bracket, or your right knee - who you gonna call? And what are you going to do? You should know.
Pro tip: if you put your whole route into Komoot and tell it how many days you want to ride, it can factor in both distance and elevation and split the route up into roughly equal stages. You can also create a route ‘collection’ which can give you an overview of your whole trip, as well as an overview of each individual stage.
04
Organising your gear
An idea of all the gear
© Tegan Phillips
The best gear for your first bikepacking trip is gear that you’ve begged, borrowed or stolen (not from a shop, but maybe from an unfaithful ex). Or bought second-hand. Because (a) new gear is expensive and (b) it’s ideal to test out a range of things and see what works best for you before you invest in the high-end stuff.
Here’s a basic breakdown of gear for a gravel bikepacking trip:
- Bike bags: a typical gravel bikepacking set-up includes a frame bag, saddle bag, top tube bag and a handlebar bag. You’ll find your own system of what to carry where, but a common strategy is to use the top tube bag for snacks and stuff you want to access on the go, the frame bag for bike tools, the saddle bag for things you’ll only access at night, like clothes (with casual shoes strapped to the top), and the handlebar area to strap rolled up sleeping gear.
- Camping: for nighttime accommodation, bikepackers usually pick some combination of wild camping, staying in campsites, or hotels and AirBnbs. So depending on your sleeping plans, you may need an inflatable sleeping mattress, sleeping bag, bivvy bag, or lightweight tent.
- Nutrition and hydration: you’ll want to make sure you always have more water than you need. If your frame bag limits your bottle space you can attach bottles to your front fork or use a light hydration pack. You may want to bring a small stove, some eating equipment and a few cooking staples, or you can buy all of your food along the route. Also, a tiny, foldable backpack is great for when you’re grocery shopping for a meal and just need to carry food for a few km.
- Kit and clothes: if you’ve got space, you’ll want two sets of kit (cycling shorts or bibs, and a jersey), so you can keep alternating between washing and wearing. Staple kit extras will be sports bras, socks, gloves and warm layers. Off the bike, you’ll want at least one set of clothes that you can both wear in a cafe and sleep in (comfy, lightweight and versatile). Add underwear, casual shoes and a hat.
- Bike accessories, tools and spares: a bike computer with navigational capacity is a key piece of gear on a gravel bikepacking trip, as well as a front light, a rear light and potentially a GPS tracker. You’ll need chargers and charging cables for all of these things, as well as a power bank. You’ll also want to carry tools to fix a puncture, maintain your bike and MacGyver your way through any other challenges. Think: a multitool, tyre levers, a hand pump, a spare tube, plugs, sealant, chain lube, a pocket knife, duct tape, some string and some cable ties. You can add things like a spare derailleur hanger, spokes or chain links if you’ve got the mechanical skills to use them.
- Hygiene and medical: the essentials here are a toothbrush and toothpaste, sunscreen, soap, chamois cream, personal medication, bug spray and a basic medical kit. A menstrual cup is an eco-friendly, space-effective option for anyone who might get their period. It’s useful to buy a set of tiny ‘travel toiletry’ containers (cheap and easy to order online) and decant your favourite products into there.
- Personal: keep things like your phone, money, bank cards, a passport and any other valuables in a waterproof bag or pouch, that you can easily remove and carry on your person if you need to leave your bike unattended. Also, if you want to impress (or possibly annoy) your gravel crew, bring entertainment accessories like a speaker, a notepad and pen, a camera, or a pack of cards.
05
On the road
Don't forget to fuel
© Patrik Fluck/Red Bull Content Pool
Once you’ve set off, ideally after at least one test ride, consider these things:
- Service stations and cafes are your friends: when you’re riding, you’ll always want to keep an eye out for places where you can (1) fill up your bottles, (2) buy snacks, (3) ingest caffeine (a Red Bull can hit the spot for fuel and focus), (4) charge your electronics, (5) use the toilet, and (6) ask for local tips and route insights. A service station and/or a cafe often ticks all of these boxes in one go. Mark them out on your route.
- Off-road traffic safety: gravel roads usually have less traffic, but drivers still speed and are often not expecting to meet cyclists, so stay vigilant and use lights.
- Be environmentally conscious: keep the wild, wild. Leave no trace, be mindful of conservation areas and private property and don’t disrupt wildlife.
- Make friends with strangers: locals and fellow travellers will often be able to tell you about secret restaurants, photogenic detours and hidden camp spots. They may even offer you a place to stay. If there was ever a time to put yourself out there and be friendly, this is it (also, you will probably never see these people again, so you have nothing to lose).
06
Post-trip
After your trip, you’ll probably want to dump all of your bikepacking things into some kind of dark storage space and forget about them while you have a long shower and plan out the tastiest meal of your life. After you’ve done that, do this:
- Clean and store your gear properly: scrubbing and sorting dirty kit and camping gear isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time, but unpacking dirty stuff after a few weeks have passed is much less fun, and having to buy a new tent because you have no idea where that one tent pole went after your last trip a few months ago is less fun still.
- Make notes for yourself: this isn’t crucial, but it can be a big help. After (or during) every trip, jot down a few notes about things you want to try, buy or do differently in future in a few categories like gear, nutrition, set-up and ride-planning. Make sure you read them before your next trip.
- Contribute to the bikepacking community: this is completely optional, but sharing your route or adventure stories to a blog, forum, social media channel or cycling platform like Strava can be a great way to record your memories as well as create some handy resources for other gravel bikepackers.
This is the part of the article where the writer usually says, ‘and finally, remember to have fun’, so I will add to that by saying ‘—and remember that Type 2 Fun (AKA fun in hindsight) is still fun.’ It’s maybe the best type of fun.
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. Or watch Crossing Tasmania right here:
22 min
Crossing Tasmania
MTB rider Payson McElveen attempts to cross Australia’s least populated state: the island of Tasmania.
