Bikepacking packing

[Mactheknife68]

I’m sure it’s been asked before but here goes. After many months of an on/off bikepacking night wife is finally well enough for me to go on an overnighter. So simple question where do you pack what? Plan to have a handlebar harness, seatbag, framebag and I have a revelate mag tank.

Cheers

[Mark E]

I suspect that there is a degree of personal preference here, but this works for me:

Front roll: mat, quilt, bivvy bag and tarp. Also a down gilet and hat if likely to be cold.
Rear pack: stove and pan, evening meal and any spare clothes for the evening.
Frame bag: poles for tarp, waterproofs, tools.
It varies a bit depending on time of year and location-happy to eat in a pub if that is an option etc, but this is my usual way of organising my stuff.

[Mactheknife68]

Cheers, there is the option to eat in local pub and cafe in local village for a nice cooked breakfast before heading home, have a stove and an Evernew solo cook kit for a brew so should be well fed and watered. I’ll be carrying a Nordisk Svalbard tent and an Exped UL mat. Toolkit is in bottle under the downtube, probably spare clothing and a down jacket in the Seatbag. Probably better to get a water filter rather than carry water but for just an overnighter this might be overkill?

[ScotRoutes]

Mine varies. I try to balance the weight out front and rear (I rarely use a frame bag). Usually, tent/shelter in front with quilt, overnight clothes. Rear will have cooking, food, spare jacket/clothes. Water on frame. Spares/tubes etc live in a small top-tube bag permanently. Removable bags in harnesses help easy loading. including being able to pack them under cover.

But I'll also jump on my current bandwagon - buy the lightest, most compact stuff you can afford and try carrying it in a rucksack before you go furnishing your bike with a complete set of bags.

[Mactheknife68]

@scotroutes I’ve read some of your comments on threads on singletrack and agree about buying the lightest I can afford, at the moment that’s my train of thought also but prefer the idea of a tent over a tarp at the moment. I’ve a handlebar harness coming from Pawel of BikePack. PL for the tent and sleeping bag. But until Wildcat Gear gets up and running again for the Tiger Drover I might just get a cheap lomo one

[frogatthefarriers]

I like to keep all the stuff that I don't want to get wet (quilt, clothes and sleeping stuff) separate from the rest, so it goes double-bagged on my handlebars. Shelter, cooking stuff and food spread between frame bag and seat pack. Water in camelback.

[Asposium]

For an overnighter I take “day ride kit” plus a tent and sleeping gear
Tent and sleeping bag on the bars
Thermarest in saddle bag
Head torch for tent
Maybe a down jacket if cold
Don’t bother with cooking gear
Overnighters are a good way to practice TLS

[In Reverse]

Not much to add on the packing front as I think that's dependent on preferences/weather/length of ride/amount of comfort you want.

This though:

there is the option to eat in local pub and cafe in local village for a nice cooked breakfast before heading home,

sounds like my pefect overnighter. Enjoy!

[Mactheknife68]

really sound more like a night in a b&b

[Bearbonesnorm]

Sleep kit kept away from everything else. Quilt, mat, down jacket, spare socks, pillow all up front on their own.

Cooking kit, food, waterproof, bivvy bag / tarp in the seatpack.

Poles, pegs, multitool / spares, water filter and more food in a half frame bag.

Spare tube taped to frame.

That's it really. Very rarely deviate from that although in summer I might ditch the saddlebag altogether.

[whitestone]

Depends on the bike I'm on but generally stuff I want to keep dry in one bag. "Wet" stuff like tarp, bivy bag will go in another. Sometimes the dry stuff will be in a bag which then goes into a bag containing the wet stuff.

Tools and the like will be either in a frame bag or top tube bag.

Cooking stuff (mug and alcohol stove) might be in a stem cell or maybe in the saddle bag.

Food goes wherever there's space.

Seems a bit chaotic but it's so variable as to what I might take that it's not worth sticking to a specific setup. The last BH weekend - cooking stuff was in a stem cell, the other stem cell was for trail food; tools were in a top tube bag; I got everything else into the saddle bag. At the JennRide in similar weather but a different bike: wet bivy kit in handlebar bag; dry stuff in saddle bag; tools, cooking stuff and food in frame bag. Both setups were very similar kit wise for a single overnight stop.

[Mactheknife68]

Agree about keeping sleeping kit and clothes separate from tent, possible to have two separate drybags on handlebar harness??
Don’t think I could fit tent in seatpack

[ScotRoutes]

I double bag a lot of stuff. If my packing sounds chaotic, I partially get around that by using the coloured dry bags consistently. Food in yellow, dry clothes in orange, electrics in green etc. Makes for more efficient repacking and for finding stuff, especially at night under a tarp.

Shelter (tarp or tent) is usually the first thing out/last packed so that needs to be borne in mind too.

Two long/thin drybags in a harness shouldn't be a problem but watch for them slipping sideways over rough surfaces. Alpkit and Revelate bags have strapping points that I use to alleviate this.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Agree about keeping sleeping kit and clothes separate from tent, possible to have two separate drybags on handlebar harness??

As long as the weight doesn't get too much, then no reason why not. If you're using a bar roll rather than a harness then you could pack two seperate bags in there but I suppose you could do that with a harness too, obviously longer / thinner bags would be better in that case.

Also worth remembering that tent poles don't have to be packed alongside the tent. Often it's much easier to put them somewhere else.

[Mactheknife68]

Was thinking of packing the tent poles in the non driveside of the frame bag, good idea about the different colour drybags, I think Exped do a set of varying colours and sizes.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Just bear in mind that packing things like the seperate parts of your sleeping kit into different bags then putting them in another bag, will sometimes lead to flappage, lose straps, etc as the straps will often push the individual bags apart. I line my front drybag with my Schnozzle bag, then cram (carefully) all my sleeping kit inside. That bag then won't be touched until bedtime.

[Borderer]

Yeah, like Stu, I like having all my bedding kit in one place. It makes everything so much easier. We also use coloured dry bags, but mostly the small Karrimor ones which are all red unfortunately! To differentiate I write on the side what they usually contain. You can get these pretty cheaply from Sports Direct btw.

[whitestone]

Like Colin (Scotroutes) I have the shelter packed last - in our less than arid climate protecting the dry items is one of those things you pick up on very quickly Tent/tarp up then rest of kit sorted out under that. Having separate harness and bag helps in this as you can remove the bag and bring it "indoors". Interesting to see that Revelate have pretty much moved all their seat packs from being integrated to separate.

Using coloured bags for different "classes" of kit - I think I subconsciously do this to a degree. In my case it stems from bivvying on Alpine routes where stuff might be covered in snow in the morning, knowing where everything is so you can reach out and grab it even in the pitch black (headtorches used to be a bit temperamental) sort of becomes second nature.

Tent poles (providing they don't have one of those central "spiders") in the side pocket of the frame bag is something I do. When we started bikepacking I reused some poles from an old tent and cut them down to just the right size to fit my frame bag

Looking at the answers, there's quite a bit of "convergence" in how we pack things which sort of suggests that we're all close to an optimal system given we've all taken different routes to get there.

[Lazarus]

Pretty much the same

Camping stuff up front [ assuming a dry tent]- i tend to just put it in a bittle cage if its soaked and let it get more soaked if raining
Rest in saddle bag [ dry clean clothes, cooking food etc]
For an overnighter i would just use either the saddle or the handlebar bag- or in winter psooibly just put in a big camelnak and be done with it
Top tube bag for food when riding and a water bag on bars
Multi day solo trips get a little bit more stuff as i try to cover all weather possibilities
Frame bag for winter/kids rides/ family bikepacking when i take more stuff and probably some gorrilla cages as I am carrying for more than me - family will do long days cycling but the price is I carry most of the cmaping gear.

[ScotRoutes]

Just bear in mind that packing things like the seperate parts of your sleeping kit into different bags then putting them in another bag, will sometimes lead to flappage, lose straps, etc as the straps will often push the individual bags apart.

Yep - keeping poles in the front bag can help give it some structure to help prevent this.

[Mactheknife68]

Brilliantly replies thank you.
I think I understand the logic in packing tent and sleep kit separately, the only cumbersome item that will throw a spanner in the works is my Mountain Equipment Starlight II synthetic sleeping bag?

I’m also off to Florida for Xmas and plan to grab s Revelate Terrapin with the removable drybag as recommended in the earlier replies

[benp1]

I moved from a Viscacha to a Terrapin for exactly that reason - easier to pack having been removed and also easier when it's wet!

[Mactheknife68]

Was hoping Wildcat would be trading before I head to the States but likely to be 10 weeks away or so , Terrapin cheap in States so should be fine.

[Mactheknife68]

This is the harness I bought it comes with a separate front pouch and the long thin drybag that has been recommended. Got a discount code so was s good deal. What do you think??

https://www.bikepack.pl/sklep/dt-evo-co ... k/?lang=en

[ootini]

This is the harness I bought it comes with a separate front pouch and the long thin drybag that has been recommended. Got a discount code so was s good deal. What do you think??

https://www.bikepack.pl/sklep/dt-evo-co ... k/?lang=en

I've got a bikepack.pl bar harness, it's an excellent bit of kit!