Hello everyone,

My first time here and first time bikepacking.
Basically I've never bikepacked but I was told about this site by a friend of mine.
I'm a keen mountain biker and occasional gravel rider, so my fitness is pretty good.
After waiting for a few years I now have the opportunity to do the Way of the Roses coast to coast ride this year, in August. Planning to do the ride over 3 days. I've got a Kona blast hardtail which I'll be using for the ride.
My question is I'm not sure what kind of bikepacking equipment I'll need to carry my stuff in. I'm not camping, staying in BnBs.
So I've been looking at frame bags & pannier racks and panniers. But all the stuff I've seen (Amazon, eBay etc) doesn't fill me with confidence. Bit cheap looking to be honest. It just didn't look very sturdy and durable. One of the limitations is I don't have any bolt holes on the rear of the bike to fix a pannier rack. So I've been looking at racks that fix to the seatpost, it's not a carbon seatpost.
So any help/advice/recommendations would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Ian.

Welcome

Staying in B&Bs you don't need a lot - one set of clothes (the second B&B won't know you wore it last night ), a pair of shoes/sandals if your cycling shoes aren't walking compatible, toothbrush and toothpaste. That's about it.

There's a lot of generic "Chinese" bikepacking bags that get rebranded. Above those you have companies like Acepac (not sure if they've a UK importer now, Stu will know), Alpkit who make decent bikepacking bags. Then at the top end you have companies like Wildcat and Revelate, much more expensive but it's top notch kit. For the above kit you probably only need a seat pack of about 10L and say a top tube bag or Stemcell for to-hand riding snacks. The seat pack straps to the seatpost and saddle rails - a cut up inner tube over the seat post helps protect it.

The other option, it looks a bit old school, are the Caradice saddle bags. My wife did Lands End to John o'Groats using one in some "interesting" weather so it's more than doable.

Hi Ian. Doing the WoR on a Blast. Isntit better taking the gravel bike especially since there's hardly any offroading from what I recall. I did the western half on 25mm tires and they were adequate

Welcome to the world of BPing btw and like me, Imsure you'll learn and appreciate loads...

As Bob says, if you've accommodation sorted then you need very little, thus not much luggage either ... remember, the more space you have available, then the more rubbish you'll take.

I'd be tempted to go for for a saddle-bag of 12l -15l for my main capacity. While some are 'better' than others, bad luggage is hard to come by now and all will work - it's really just a matter of budget. To that I'd add a TT bag or small frame bag for tools and snacks and also a small bum-bag to carry the essentials that I'd rather not lose.

Way of the roses is a road ride unless there is a different off road one . planning on doing it this year as well but setting off from homw adds 30 ish miles

As for luggage what they all say
Rear seat pack as big as you want( generally use a 7 litre one as forces you to TLS ( take less stuff) and some form of front rack that allows you to fit a dry bag to it as much easier to load and unload. Acepac ALPKIT wildcat whomever you prefer / can afford.
B and B bike whatever you want when you get to the hotel ( change of clothes for me )and the tools and clothes for the ride.

Hi everyone,

Hope I'm replying to everyone and thanks all for your help.
Firstly I'm very much a believer in buy cheap buy twice. So I'm after decent stuff & who knows if this trip goes well I might take up more bikepacking.
At least now I've got some decent brands to start looking at & more ideas about what I'll need to take & how to pack. The other consideration is weight distribution on the bike. I assume you don't want all the weight on the back of the bike?
To the person who mentioned the gravel bike. I don't actually own a gravel bike. The blast is my kind of all round road/gravel bike with low rolling resistance tyres.
I'll start looking online now for bikepacking stuff.

Ian.

Welcome Ian, enjoy

Ian... If you want the very best saddlepack (IMO) then it has to be the Spinelock by Revelate. Comes in two sizes so you could go for the 13 (or is it 11) litres to help you take less stuff Strong as anything too and the shape means you don't lose any capacity whilst carrying unhappy shaped items (ie. ones that don't squish small enough to yake that funny space between the seatpost and before the pack becomes normal sized/volume).

Welcome! I got loads of good advice when I posted before heading out on my first bivvy. You can see what I asked and the advice I got in that thread -> viewtopic.php?p=201830#p201830

Weight distribution- depends how much you're carrying. Better more at back or frame bag than on a bar bag.

Most bags are fine, even secondhand. Just get whatever you can, if the bug takes then maybe get particular about it.

All IMO

IGGY1969 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:35 pm Hi everyone,

Hope I'm replying to everyone and thanks all for your help.
Firstly I'm very much a believer in buy cheap buy twice. So I'm after decent stuff & who knows if this trip goes well I might take up more bikepacking.

Hmm, not sure about that at all.

I’ve been using a tapered Alpkit airlok dry bag as my only seatpack for the last 6 or 7 years. Think it cost about £12 when I bought it.

If you don’t know if you are going to do this regularly, I would definitely buy cheap (or buy used).

Footwear is probably the biggest issue for BnB style riding and going minimal, flip flops or sandals for compactness or I’ve used inov8 barefoot shoes in the past. Other than that, you won’t need more than a t shirt and shorts for the evening and maybe a thin fleece for heading to the pub plus basic wash kit

Refining your gear is a journey in and of itself if you get the bug and a bottomless money pit if you want to let it be

I've been B&B touring on my gravel bike a couple of times and I just used my usual bikepacking gear but with a smaller dry bag for my bar harness: a 6L dry bag in a seat harness, 8L dry bag in a bar harness, 4L half frame bag all from wildcat and a top tube snack bag from acepac. Spare clothes, toiletries and puffy went in the seat pack, electronics & tools / tubes go in the frame bag, snacks in the top tube bag and the bar bag contained the stuff I'd need during the day: extra layers, water proofs, etc. If I was to make things slightly touring friendlier at the cost of a bit more weight, I'd consider getting a top loading bar bag to make things easier to access, something like a CamelChops Mr Heckles or a Restrap Bar Pack. If I was going for more than 3-4 days I did look at getting a Ortlieb Quick Rack and their gravel panniers but ended up just getting a bigger seat pack because that forced me not to overpack and that bag only really gets emptied at the end of the day anyway so accessibility isn't really an issue.

Ok thanks everyone. At least now I've got a few ideas about what & how to pack. I'm looking on ebay and Facebook marketplace for used saddlebags and panniers and racks. There seems to be more saddlebags available so I might go down that route.

If you're a Cycling UK member, then you get 10% off at Restrap...
And, Alpkit have discounts quite often too, like now.

Bikepacking bags regularly come up in the classified here too.

First off welcome.
If you are staying BnB then you can go real minimum. For that type of trip I’d go flat pedal and therefore no second pair of footwear needed.Spare t-shirt and shorts that would do three days in accom, you can dry the riding gear each night if it gets wet. IME better to go minimal and build up as you gather experience. If BnB then any misery is limited to one day

IGGY1969 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 23, 2023 10:19 pm Ok thanks everyone. At least now I've got a few ideas about what & how to pack. I'm looking on ebay and Facebook marketplace for used saddlebags and panniers and racks. There seems to be more saddlebags available so I might go down that route.

I have a 15 litre Topeak Backloader saddlebag I'm looking to move on. Used a handful of times. I cam send photos tonight if you're interested?

If we're whoring our wares I've still got all this stuff:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23042

The Apidura bar bag and pocket might be of interest. I have better images and am open to offers.