- 17/07/2025
If you're heading on your first bikepacking trip, working out how to pack your bike bags can be a daunting task. Here's our guide to getting your bikepacking setup correct as well as our tips and tricks on what to pack.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00If you've got your first bikepacking trip planned or perhaps you've been inspired to
00:04start plotting one it can be a pretty daunting prospect to get all of your bags onto your bike.
00:10And there's loads of different options for that as well so we're going to run you through some
00:14modern bikepacking setups to help you choose the best as well as some tips that we've learned
00:18along the way, not always the easy way either, so you can avoid making the same mistakes.
00:23Ready? Let's go! Let's go camping!
00:33So let's talk a little bit about different ways to carry your kit on a bike.
00:38What are they Catherine and what are the benefits of each one?
00:40Yeah so to start with I think most people will be familiar with panniers and pannier racks.
00:45So these are large bags that you can either fit on the front or the rear. They sit on top of racks
00:50that you need to fix onto your bike. Now you'll also need to have specific mounts on your bike
00:54to fit the racks on which you put the bags so that's one thing to consider. And these are really
00:59great for capacity if you need to take loads and loads of stuff. And they tend to be really good
01:05on the road as well. So when you start to take them off-road things can get a little bit spicy
01:10especially if you're on like really chunky gravel or mountain biking territory. And because they then
01:15come out of the side of your bike if you're on really narrow single track and you're a bit
01:19limited in terms of how much space you have on the sides then they can be a little bit limiting.
01:24But they do tend to give you a really good center of gravity near the bottom of the bike
01:29over the bottom bracket so that's good. So panniers are kind of your archetypal touring
01:35setup right? You see pictures of people with like front panniers, rear panniers but that can often be
01:42a quite heavy because you've got the rack and the bags might not be as lightweight as some other
01:48options but also it might be that your frame can't accommodate the racks. So to prevent you having
01:53to get a new frame which can there has been a rise in lightweight strap-on bike packing bags.
01:59So essentially it's just a combination of different bags that are spread all over your bike.
02:03So you can have everything from saddle bags to handlebar bags, top tube bags, down tube bags,
02:09cargo cage bags, loads of different ones. And these tend to be really really good because of their
02:14versatility. So you can have a handlebar roll and a saddle pack that you move from your road bike to
02:19your mountain bike to your gravel bike. You don't have to worry about the specific mounts and then
02:24on top of that they're really lightweight in comparison to a rack and pannier setup because you
02:30don't need the rack and they tend to just strap on really easily. If you're riding a mountain bike for
02:35example a full suspension mountain bike I've seen them where they can they can get fitted around your
02:40linkage of your suspension so they just allow you to use whatever bike you have and just to get out
02:46and get riding which I think is really cool. Yeah and maximize the space that you have on that
02:50particular bike as well. So there are three main types of bike packing bags. You nod your head like
02:56there's clearly loads more but the main ones you would want to get if you were to go on your first bike
03:01packing trip. Yeah so starting at this end saddle bags are really popular so they tend to affix to the
03:08seat post itself rather than the frame using one or more velcro straps then it's supported typically
03:14by straps which thread through the saddle rails so one to be wary of if you're running a carbon railed
03:20saddle probably not a good idea and these tend to be quite big obviously all different sizes are
03:26available but that's really good for quite a large capacity and just like on the handlebar front
03:33they're either a one piece or you can get a holster with a dry bag inside so it's worth thinking about
03:40whether you're camping right next to your bike for example or if you're staying in an airbnb or a hotel
03:46or whatever you might want to have a holster type so you can just pull the dry bag out and take it
03:50with you rather than having to take the whole setup off your bike each time. Yeah and then moving on to
03:55the frame you can get everything from a full-sized frame bag either one off the shelf or custom made
04:01specifically for your bike right the way through to like a little half frame bag that just comes
04:05down the middle or little ones like we've got in there and then finally at the front handlebar bag
04:11so like i said with the saddle bags these tend to come either as a one piece or as a holster and dry
04:16bag type thing and these mount directly onto your handlebars crucially like the saddle bags these tend
04:22to be expandable so you can have a play at home before your trip crucially a good little test ride is
04:30always a really good idea by packing different widths or probably taking out a little bit compared
04:38to how much you'd like to pack in there because if you have mechanical shifting you need to remember
04:41that you'll need to have full range of movement of the shifter flared bars like these are actually
04:46really great not only for confidence on the descents but it does give you a little bit more space for a
04:51handlebar bag so that's worth noting. And then on top of those three main bags there's i guess additional
04:58storage solutions yeah so there's lots of different ones uh this is a stem bag so that's just a small
05:04little bag that you can fit between the stem and the handlebar that just straps on there it's kind
05:09of a fill all thing that is now i like to use it for my little mirrorless camera i have which is really
05:14useful because it's very easy to get at whilst you're riding along right in front of you great for
05:18snacks your phone if you're just wearing a t-shirt that sort of thing rubbish if you're eating a lot on
05:23the bike and you need to be able to put it somewhere it's a little bin bag on your handlebars so that's
05:27good if you have a bike which is enabled with cargo mounts on the forks then you can have bags on the
05:33forks or water bottles for more storage so they're really handy in general it's best to keep most of
05:40the weight on the bike from personal experience the lower down and more central towards the bottom
05:44bracket the better it'll be for handling you need to pay particular attention to how much clearance
05:49you've got between the saddle and the rear tire and the handlebars and the front tire because that
05:53can be a little bit troublesome for shorter riders and also you're less likely to have so much space
05:59in the main triangle for frame bags you might have a very sloping top tube which limits that
06:04now this bike we've got here is a really good example of a very small framed bike and you can see
06:09it would be really hard to fit a frame bag in there for example so we've alleviated this problem by
06:14using some wolf tooth b-rad components now these are really cool little tools which just allow you
06:20to sort of expand your storage basically by using your existing bottle cage mounts you can fit a base
06:26to it that you can then move everything up or down much further inside the down tube or on the seat
06:33tube so for example we've moved two full water bottles much further up the frame so we can fit two
06:39additional dry bags on the seat tube and on the down tube which is kind of allowing us to get away
06:43was not running a little frame bag yeah it's really handy and i think it's a bit cliche but
06:49it's so true they say that the best bike packing bike is the one that you already own and even if
06:55it's not specifically made for that purpose or ideal for it like little handy tools like this can really
07:00help absolutely and this had three sets of bottle mounts and we've managed to fit so much more in that
07:07frame because of it it just goes to show that you can really customize and make your fitting solutions
07:12quite bespoke to you so how would you pack all of these different bags let's start at the front
07:18what are you putting in your handlebar bag so that's where i tend to put my sleep system
07:22um if i'm camping out so things like your sleeping bag sleeping mat if you've got a bivy or a tent or a
07:29hammock um all of that tends to fit really nicely in there yeah it's a decent little space and depending
07:36on your bars it can be pretty wide as well so you can get quite a lot in there in the frame bag i tend
07:43to find it's really good for little bits and pieces things like electronics tools a battery pack
07:50um my top tip um you could use like a hammock or some other slightly squishy soft thing maybe a
07:57waterproof to pack just here in this corner um if you're using a half frame bag that is because if you
08:04have to do any hiker bike and put the bike on your shoulder like cyclocross then you have a nice
08:09little pad and the top tube won't hurt your shoulder that is smart i just tend to find that the frame bag
08:14is my catch-all anything that i don't have another space for just goes in the frame bag yeah sandwich
08:20straight in there fits perfectly now at the back in the seat pack it's more accessible than the front i
08:25think but you still have to get off the bike to get into it so personally i tend to pack
08:32slightly bulkier things like spare sets of clothes a pair of bibs every day fresh set is definitely my
08:41go-to after many years of learning um clothes extra layers toiletries i tend to put something like if
08:49i'm taking a mini stove to cook on bits and bobs like that really essentials you try and pack them
08:57easily accessible and near the top absolutely so things like a spare layer i am absolutely swear by
09:04a down or a synthetic jacket that's like really puffy really warm even in the summer you always get like
09:09chilly evenings and that's really really good to have as soon as you reach camp or the pub or wherever
09:14tools emergency spares a survival blanket is really good idea especially if you're going somewhere
09:23quite remote a waterproof jacket near the top because the last thing you want to be doing when
09:29it's just suddenly out of nowhere started hammering it down is rooting all the way to the bottom of your
09:34bags with everything getting soaked to find them so there you go there are top tips for packing your bike
09:40bags if you do have any great tips yourself or any funny stories then please do leave them in the
09:45comment section below because we'd love to hear them in the meantime don't forget to give us a
09:50like and to subscribe to the cycling weekly youtube channel and we'll see you soon
10:00wow mastermind subject bike bags oh boy no it was rubbish sorry ed
10:10so
Recommended
10:15
|
Up next
2:21
5:54
4:16
0:43
20:32
11:38
9:52
4:54
10:16
4:25
15:20
11:25