Bikepacking for beginners | The essential guide

You’ve seen some videos of people going on multi-day off road bikepacking cycle trips and you think you might like to have an adventure like that!
Where do you start? What bike do you need? What should you pack? Let’s break it down and take a look. Over the course of a weekend, I will show you how I go about bikepacking, whilst visiting Shelly Beach in the Myall Lakes National Park on my brand new Canyon, Grand Canyon 9.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MichaelColes

Good day today we’re not talking specifically about a route that I’m doing although I’m going down to the mile Lakes um what I’m going to be talking about today is bike packing so what is bike packing what does it mean how do you do it where do

You go and do it and what do you need to go bike packing that’s what this video is about so for those of you want to know where I’m going I’m going down to M Lake’s national park I’m going to go across the bomber Point ferry from

Bullard and then I’m going to turn left and go up to Shelly Beach which is a remote campsite a remote campsite has few amenities maybe a drop toilet it is usually only accessible to bikes hikers and boats and usually has little or no phone Reception I bought myself lunch in town which um happens to be a salmon sandwich a salmon Bagel looking forward to this so while I eat my sandwich my salmon bagel and cream cheese which is very nice by the way um let’s just get back to that definition of what is bike

Packing and I saw this written I think it was on bikepacking.com which was a multi-day cycling Adventure primarily off-road I like that because it’s loose and it’s big and it means we can all do pretty much exactly as we Please As I clear that Ferry I should say there’s something about going on a ferry that makes it feel like you’ve gone on a proper Adventure love them doesn’t matter which direction I’m going on on the ferry as well just feels good love Them so that’s straight in front of is the Boomer right Campground where people can drive into and Camp the beauty of where I’m going is I’ve just come through this gate which is locked and then we’re going to head up what’s called the old gibber Trail it’s for

Bikes and Walkers only if you want to know what sort of bike to use on these sort of trails basically anything with a bit of a fat tire to it will work perfectly a mountain bike a gravel bike if you haven’t got one of those a road bike with fat tires I remember the last time I came down through here I cycled through here when I came from T down to Newcastle and I remember thinking to myself as I was coming through this area that I’d like to come back one day and camp and lo and

Behold 2 years later here I am and I’m looking forward to it such a lovely area And this is my turn Shelly Beach 2 km Yahoo this is it so there’s a toilet block and camp areas Beautiful Now that we’re in Camp let’s talk about safety there’s three types of safety that I make sure I’m aware of I tell people where I’m I’m going and I’m aware of my environment and I’m looking around I also carry on my iPhone a bunch of apps which I will hopefully show on

The screen which are first aid apps fires near me And also bites and stings so that if I do get hurt by something I can do something fairly quickly and they don’t need phone signal to work the other thing I carry with me is

A first aid kit and I know how to use it it’s hopefully never going to get opened and used um but when one day when you have to do it you’ll be glad that you’ve got it with you so in this first aid kit I carry all the usual Band-Aids and

Creams and stuff like that um I’m in the mile Lakes area so I’m also carrying AA guard to keep away the mosquitoes I’ve got some panad doll some IB proen and in particular I’ve also got a list of phone numbers of the local fire brigade the local police uh friends

And family that I can contact and I’ve got a little bit of cash with me um cash because if everything goes down if the ATMs go down and you need to get help and you need to get it urgently you’ll be glad You’ got a little bit of Cash so what’s the bike I’m riding it’s a canyon Grand Canyon n so fairly new aluminium hard tail short travel front forks mostly XT gearing SLX brakes um yeah it’s quite a nice reliable bike 29in wheels uh Wicked Wheel tires as in Schwab’s um can’t remember 2.6s pretty wide um so I run

Them fairly soft and the front suspension very soft let’s talk about distance expectations if you’re a current road cyclist you probably able to do some pretty impressive distances on a bike um if you’re moving from that to bike packing you need to be aware that you’re

Going to move from a road bike to a gravel or a mountain bike which is slower you’re going to be on rougher trails and it’s going to be loaded so your distance expectations are going to have to come down a long way I would say

20 miles to 30 km should be your first couple of trips at the most um these days for me I can do 50 60 km quite easily and at a push I can do 80 90 off-road but the following day I’ll be pretty tired but we should also say it’s not

Really the distance that matters it’s the places you get to the places you go to um the the wild the offroad the remote that’s that’s what you’re after it’s not some impressive distance let’s also deal with the elephant in the room I’m now 60 I’m nowhere close to the fitness I was when

I was 20 so therefore my expectations of distance and Recovery have to be very different from how how I was when I was 20 but your Fitness can still improve your Fitness can increase over the last two or three years my fitness has gone up dramatically compared to where I was

A few years ago so it can improve but the recovery times they they they are much much longer for me these days if you’re going to do anything like bike packing you must speak to your GP first he will probably or she will probably want to do a heart function test they’re

Going to want to make sure that it’s safe for you go and talk to them I I would see my GP four times a year just about my fitness just to make sure that things are safe yes it costs a few bucks it’ll cost a hell of a lot more if

Things went wrong when I’m out Here I want to briefly mention hydration I work on about drinking 600 Ms of water per hour while I’m cycling and then a liter or two in the evenings and probably a liter to rehydrate my food and another liter to drink I will then spend about 45 minutes

In the evenings before I go to bed stretching otherwise I will get the dreaded cramps in the middle of the Night Well good morning I slept really well um you know for an old guy with a dodgy hip um I slept really nicely last night that was Fantastic so a bit more boiling water this morning for a coffee and um some breakfast which is like a porridge mix I’ll show you in a second second overnight um I didn’t hear any creatures at all but it looks like one of them has nicked my coffee cup it’s about the only

Thing I left out um I put all my rubbish away in my bags I put everything away I cleaned up everything but I left the coffee cup out because it’d be nice and easy to get to in the morning well yeah something’s taken it so my coffee is in my pot today

Still tastes the same I’ve never had one of these but this is what I’m having for breakfast it’s a mixed berry nutrition with a bunch of protein so as long as it tastes reasonable it’s got lots of calories lots of protein which should be ideal for me

For uh breakfast when I’m about to go cycling 30ks um this Berry nutrition it’s it’s pretty good um I purposely didn’t choose chocolate or any flavors that I would know and just got something vague Berry um so that I’m not really comparing against something I already know and yeah for

Breakfast it’s it’s really quite nice it’s it’s basically like a very nutty Berry porridge it’s good recommend it [Applause] and we’re off for the day um I’ve got i’ got to tell you I’m not generally someone who likes camping particularly I’m old bit of me hurt um

Yeah getting up and down I just much rather going into a motel or a hotel but that camp would be by Far and Away the best nights Camp I’ve ever had it was beautiful place it was comfortable I slept well it was great so I thought as I got a little bit of

Time this morning I should actually explain what I’ve got on my bike now there is no perfect setup it’s going to be different for every time I go away it’s going to be different for you compared to me but this is what I’ve got okay I think I’ve mentioned before

This is a new bike to me this is the canyon Grand Canyon 9 nine being the top of their range um it’s got relatively short travel Forks 32 foxes it’s got XT gearing it’s an aluminium hard tail frame on that I have then put sirly Maloo bars I’ve put sirly

Malocco bars because I like the angle that they come back at stops my wrist from hurting on a long day and on the end of them I’ve got ergon gp2 grips so it just gives me a lot of different options to hold on to up front I’ve got a tent that’s the

Nature hike Cloud up to it’s about four years old great little thing I’ve got two feed bags I put my drinks in at the moment for this trip and I’ve got a top Tu bag which has got basically everything that’s left over like my glasses it’s got a battery pack

It’s got some sweets things like that the rest of my kit basically breaks into three separate Parts in the frame bag that’s a I think a Blackburn frame bag um is my cooking stuff so there a gas canister my pot the burner spoon it had a cup in it until

Something stole it last night it’s got some coffee and some sugar then on the back I’m using the tuler pack and pedal system so these things fit onto the down tube they do not need to screw in so they’ll fit on they’ll fit on full squish bikes as well

As uh hard tail bikes and then the tuler pack and pedal bags I got these secondhand off some bloker on the other side of the country really fantastic bit of Kit so in one side I’ve got all of my intent stuff so my matte pillow um can’t really think there’s a

There’s a little LED light that I’ve got various bits and pieces like that and in the other one I’ve got my uh Camp stuff so my Camp clothes so pair of shoes trousers shirt the stuff you saw me in last night I’ve also got a triology chair um generally I wouldn’t travel

With one but I was pretty sure this place wouldn’t have any seating and um yeah look at the end of the day you’ve got long evening I don’t particularly want to spend a long evening sitting on the ground couple of minor extra bits um

This is um all my tools for the bike and then I’ve got a backpack on and in my backpack uh I came out with water there’s no water in there now but I’ve got the two bottles there so I’m absolutely fine for the day um and I’ve

Got a first aid kit in the bottom of that spare tube um yeah various bits and pieces it’s basically again all the other crap that’s left over when you go camping uh the other bit to mention here that’s a Brooks c17 so um it’s their galvanized rubber saddle pretty much

Overall um everything I’ve got I’m trying to be relatively light I’m not going massively lightweight remember there’s a lot of me on that bike um but I don’t particular want to shlep around big heavy stuff and in particular what I’m trying to go for is waterproof stuff so that if there is a

Drama if it is raining um then yeah I’m going to be pretty okay no matter what if you like me you’ll probably carry far too much stuff initially you need to find out what you can do without you can do without carrying food if you’re near

The shops you can do without a tent if you’re near a hotel you can do without water if you’re near a tap now I’m back on the mile road heading back up to the Ferry for me less is more the less I have to carry the more I’m going to enjoy the Trip One of the things I’ve learned to do over the last 12 months is to enjoy these rest moments to take it all in to um rather than just hurrying to get from one spot to another is just to take a moment to breathe and you know if you

Got to sit and wait for a ferry they come every 30 minutes enjoy the serenity enjoy the peace and quiet well it looks like this guy’s having to bring the ferry across for me and me alone um yeah this should be a blast hey I don’t know what you’re doing

This Sunday morning but for me I’ve got my own private fairy Crossing so I’m now back on bomber point so back on the road that goes up to badila where I started from um there’s about 15 km to do up that way but it’s such a Serene peaceful little area there down Here and all of a sudden I’m back in Civilization if you can call it civilized uh that’s the main freeway between Sydney and Brisbane and so I’m back into Bola I’ve finished my weekend away thanks for watching I hope you like this sort of thing if you do please consider

Subscribing and hit the like button thank You Oh I