Hi! I‘m planning to go bikepacking through sweden (halmstad to oslo) this summer. I don’t have a bike yet but it’ll be an endurance road bike. My fitness level is, I‘d say, medium (5/10), but I’m still young and can adapt to physical strain. Do you guys think this is a manageable first bike packing trip? I‘m planning to cycle around 80-100km (50-62 miles) per day and want to sleep in airbnbs since I’m not comfortable camping alone as a woman 🙂
by borntodillydally24
7 Comments
I am planning to do this same trip (to copenhagen) later in june.
From my experience bikepacking, around 60 to 80 km with 500 to 1000 m elevation a day is doable if you use the bike lightly during your routine (commuting, etc).
I haven’t been training daily and I always aim for this numbers.
Doing 100 km is a bit harder, I have done it before (140km with 3000m) in a day in a previous trip and its costly, even considering that I was in a good shape.
If you are looking to do this distances, I would recommend you train and do a couple of century rides (>100 km) before doing this just to understand what I mean.
RemindMe! -2 day
If you have set aside the time to complete this by doing 80-100 km every day, then it is absolutely doable. I have done maybe half of this stretch (From Göteborg and south) and it is a very accessible paved cycling path, so it should be a breeze. Have fun!
I think you’ll be totally fine. I started with below average fitness last summer and did ~100km/day with 1000m of elevation and a total bike weight of 30kg through Norway. If you’re staying in AirBnBs you don’t need to bring all the camping gear along, so you should be able to have a lighter setup.
Yes. Definitely possible!
Things to consider, since you seem to not have a lot experience. On bikepacking trips always some unplanned stuff can happen, so best prepare for them, also makes you feel more confident.
– plan some extra rest days so you‘re not time crunched and stressed. (This could be due to bad weather, road closures, fatigue, mechanicals etc). If possible book accomodations day by day.
– make sure you have the tools and knowledge or at least access on the phone to tutorials on how to fix a mechanical (flat, chain issues etc)
– test equipment before, especially your bike, since it seems to be going to be a new bike. And adjust it accordingly. You don‘t want to ride this much as a beginner if riding is painful due to bad bike fit.
Yes, sounds pretty realistic. If there is any part in the world where solo camping as a woman is safe, it’d be Scandinavia, but bringing all that additional camping gear would certainly be a challange on a road bike (and slow you down a bit), so AirBnBs are fine of course.
Have you ever done a 100km ride? It shouldn’t be to hard to do daily on a light road bike, but if you’ve never done distances like this before, either plan to train up to that before you tour, or start the first days a bit slower/shorter and build up to that daily distance (a good idea in general). Especially on your first tour you want to get a feeling for how your body handles this without overdoing it right from the start.
What I like to do, is to plan optional shortcuts or extensions. E.g.: If you feel like you are slower than planned or its getting a bit to much for your body, you might have a segment of your route where you can take the train/bus to make it shorter. On the other hand, if you feel particularly fit and easily manage more than 100km daily, you might want to have some additional loops you can add (e.g. a loop to lake Vänern and back?). This gives you a lot of flexibility and peace of mind to react to your current conditions, especially on your first tour where you don’t really know what’s going to happen.
Yeah seems like very doable distance and elevation. Ideally have one rest day in the middle, and ideally have a decent bike fit before you go – repetitive strain can be quite tough if you haven’t adapted to it, and especially if you aren’t riding in a good position. After my first trip I got bad knees for a couple weeks after doing 110k for 5 days, with my previous longest ride being 80k, so definitely try to train up to it as well.
Pretty much OK, although I’d possibly take a few shortcuts through the inland, rather than strictly following the coast (especially in Sweden). You’ll save yourself a lot of extra distance and not much to see and rather experience some variety during the trip.
Edit: done the Oslo-Göteborg trips and some variations (including ferry to Sandefjord from Strömstad) and the trips taken through the Swedish countryside were much more pleasant with rolling hills, fields and forests with occasional farm here and there and very little traffic overall.