Bikepacking for beginners: how to start, from bike to first night out

Bikepacking for beginners: what's the short version?

Bikepacking for beginners comes down to one rule: start small and close to home. Ride the bike you own, borrow what you can, and spend one night out before planning a week.

The steps are the same in the Scottish Highlands, on a forest road in Oregon or on the Munda Biddi Trail in Western Australia. Each section below summarises one of our detailed guides and links to it. The last turns it all into a first overnighter, with a checklist.

What is bikepacking, and how is it different from touring?

Bikepacking is self-supported cycling, usually on dirt roads and trails, with your kit in soft bags strapped to the bike. Bikepacking.com calls it the synthesis of all-terrain cycling and self-supported backpacking.

The real differences from touring are luggage and surface:

Cycling UK notes that bikepacking bags keep the bike slim and easy to push, which off-road can be a lot of the time. Plenty of riders mix the two. Our guide to bikepacking vs bike touring explains where the lines blur. For the road-touring side, see how to plan a multi-day cycling tour.

Want this for your own route? Windline shows the wind for every stretch, timed to your pace. Free. Make a free ride page →

Do you need a special bike for bikepacking?

No. Bikepacking.com's own beginner advice is that the best bike to start with is probably the one you already have. Match the route to the bike, not the other way round.

What matters most is tyre width and gearing. Wider tyres ride more comfortably on rough ground, and low gears help you climb with a load. Cycling UK's Great Rides feature on King Alfred's Way, a 350 km (220 mile) loop in southern England, says gravel or adventure bikes work well with a light set-up. In winter, it suggests a hardtail mountain bike instead.

A road bike suits smooth gravel and towpaths, and a mountain bike opens up rougher tracks. Don't buy a bike for a first trip. Our guide to the best bike for bikepacking compares the types by surface.

What bags and kit do you need?

You need somewhere to sleep, something warm to wear in camp, food, water, basic repairs and a way to navigate. Soft bags carry it, but dry bags and a daypack do the job for a first trip.

Cycling UK describes the classic set: a seat pack behind the saddle, a roll pack on the handlebars, a frame pack inside the main triangle, and one or two small pouches on the top tube. For a barebones start, Bikepacking.com suggests dry bags of 5–7 litres under the saddle and 14–20 litres on the bars, plus a comfortable daypack.

Pack heavy things such as food, tools and water low and central in the frame bag, and light, bulky things at the ends. Cycling UK lists the trade-offs: bikepacking bags are light, but hold less, are slower to pack and can't carry heavy loads. Panniers carry more, but need racks.

Rivendell's fair-weather kit list for one night comes to about 4–8 kg (8–18 lb). See our bikepacking gear list for a printable checklist, and bikepacking bags explained for what goes where.

How far should you ride each day?

Less than you'd ride on the road. The Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) pace chart gives 40–80 km (25–50 miles) in five hours of riding off-road, and 24–64 km (15–40 miles) on rugged tracks.

Real trips vary. Cycling UK's King Alfred's Way feature rode 350 km (220 miles) in four days, about 88 km (55 miles) a day, on a light gravel set-up. On the Great Divide, the same 80 km (50 miles) a day would take about 62 riding days.

Camp chores, pushing and water detours eat into the day, and headwinds cost more on a slow, loaded bike, as our headwind numbers show. Read how far to bikepack in a day for planning ranges, and how far you can cycle in a day for road riding.

How do you plan food, water and resupply?

Plan your days around where you can refill, then decide how much to carry between those points. Water is usually the heavier problem.

On remote routes, the gaps are long. Adventure Cycling says finding water on the Great Divide can be a problem between Pinedale and Rawlins in Wyoming, USA, and advises carrying at least 11–15 litres (3–4 US gallons) a person. In New Mexico, it lists stretches of 76 km (47 miles) and 80 km (50 miles) between springs.

Munda Biddi Trail campsites in Western Australia have rainwater tanks, but the trail foundation advises carrying extra water in warmer months, when tanks run low.

Treat water from streams and lakes: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says to filter and then disinfect, or to boil it. Carry a day's spare food in case a shop is shut. Our guide to bikepacking food and water has a resupply plan worked through.

Where can you sleep on a bikepacking trip?

On a campsite, in a hut or a B&B, or wild camping where the law allows it. The rules change from country to country, and sometimes from one valley to the next.

Wherever you sleep, follow the seven Leave No Trace principles, published by the US National Park Service, including camping on durable surfaces and packing out waste. Local rules, fire bans and landowners' wishes override this table. Our guide to wild camping rules by country covers more countries.

How do you plan for wind and weather off-grid?

Check the forecast for the hours you'll ride before you leave signal behind, and plan a way out for every exposed stretch.

For each day, read four things:

• Wind against your direction, stretch by stretch. A loaded bike is slower into a headwind and harder to hold in side-on gusts. Check them against our too-windy table and our guide to cycling in crosswinds.
• Rain amount, not only the chance of rain. Heavy rain turns chalk, clay and mud tracks into pushing.
• Thunderstorms. The US National Weather Service says mountain storms typically develop in the early afternoon, and that a tent offers no protection from lightning. Ride exposed ridges early.
• The overnight low. Cold nights catch beginners out more than cold days. See wind chill on a bike for how it feels at speed.

On long routes, choose your direction by the prevailing wind, as in our research on which way to ride the great routes. Official weather warnings override any rule of thumb, including ours. Our guide to bikepacking weather covers camp sites, heat and bail-out points.

Where should you go for your first multi-day trip?

Choose a well-known route with plenty of towns, water and ways to leave it early. Save the remote classics for your third or fourth trip.

Good first routes have firm surfaces, short gaps between shops and somewhere legal to sleep every night. Examples include King Alfred's Way in England, the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal between Pittsburgh and Washington, DC, and the Otago Central Rail Trail in New Zealand. Our list of beginner bikepacking routes compares them with their best months and wind.

When you're ready for more, the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route is the best-known bikepacking route in the world. Adventure Cycling lists it as 4,985 km (3,097 miles) from Jasper, Canada, to Antelope Wells on the Mexican border, with more than 60,000 m (200,000 ft) of climbing. It recommends not starting before late June or early July. Most of it is bear country.

For splitting any long route into days, see GPX files for cyclists and splitting a route into stages.

Bikepacking at a glance: the master table

The whole plan on one page:

Glossary of bikepacking terms

• Bail-out point: a place where you can leave the route safely, such as a town, a station or a road with a bus.
• Frame bag: a soft bag that fills the main triangle of the frame, the best place for heavy items.
• Hike-a-bike: a section too steep, rough or muddy to ride, where you push or carry the bike.
• Resupply: a stop where you can buy food and refill water.
• S24O: a sub-24-hour overnight, a bike camping trip that lasts less than a day from door to door.
• Seat pack: a tapered bag strapped under the saddle and to the seatpost, for light, bulky kit.

How do you put it all together on your first overnighter?

Leave in the afternoon, ride a few hours to a legal place to sleep, and ride home the next morning. Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bicycle Works, writing for Adventure Cycling, calls this an S24O, a sub-24-hour overnight.

His advice is to leave with enough daylight left to set up camp, and to stay close to home. Here's a step-by-step plan:

1. Pick the place to sleep first. A campsite, a hut or a spot you know is legal, 20–40 km (12–25 miles) away on tracks you know.
2. Plot the route and save it as a GPX. Note water, a shop and one bail-out point.
3. Pack the night before, then ride the loaded bike round the block to check nothing rubs or rattles.
4. Read the forecast for the afternoon, the night and the ride home: wind, rain, thunderstorms and the overnight low.
5. Tell someone your route and when you'll be back.
6. Leave with daylight to spare, with at least two hours to find your spot, pitch and eat before dark.
7. Ride home the next morning, then write down what you didn't use and what you missed.

Then build up: two nights, then a weekend on a known route, then a week. The planning stays the same: realistic distances, water first, a legal place to sleep, and the weather read for the hours you'll ride.