I went on my first bikepacking trip this week, through Castilla-La Mancha, the lands of Don Quixote (the south-center of Spain).
I have some thoughts on the things I took and I would be interested if anyone has any opinion!
I also wrote a bit of the story and anecdotes of the trip below that.
— Gear review/discussion:
– I bought a Garmin Varia for the trip, I hesitated a lot but I do think it was worth it. It would sometimes detect my friends when they were behind me and they were accelerating so I went generally last. I didn’t find it very useful when there was a lot of traffic, because it was basically detetcting cars all the time, but it was great when there were fewer cars, or when the side of the road was narrow, we could ride closer to the lane, which was more confortable, and go back to the edge of the side when cars were near.
– I made a custom frame bag for my bike (I don’t like the color, but it was what I had at home) and I’m so glad I did it! It was super useful. I put an elastic strap along the top tube, and I used the screws on the other two tubes to secure it to the frame, and it was great. I think I will make a second iteration with better seams (and a better color), the fabric is waterproof but my seams are not. I tried to weld the fabric with an iron, it seemed like it could be welded, but I could not get the correct temperature, and my iron is big and I was starting to melting other parts of the fabric, and I just didn’t have enough patience. I was thinking on putting a second zipper and divide the inside of the bag, but now I can fit my tent structure in it, along the diagonal, which I don’t know if I could do otherwise.
– I decided to use a rack + dry bag instead of a saddle bag because the weight was similar and it seemed more versatile and stable, and I think that was a good choice. I got two fork bags and installed them on a cage mount with metal clamps but it felt weird on the bike, and unnecessary with all the unused rack space on the back so I just attached them to the rack, which worked well.
– My friends each had all their suff in two panniers, while I had all those smaller bags, and I’m still not sure of my opinion on that. I believe my weight distribution was better and my bike easier to handle than theirs, but.. when we arrived to the hotels each night I had to spend 10 minutes removing most my bags, and removing things from the frame bag into a bag to take into the room (we didn’t know if the place was that safe so we locked the bikes and removed most of our stuff), and then carrying all those ridiculous little bags around; while for them it was.. Click click, both panniers out, bike unloaded, done. And the morning was even worse. I imagine it would have been different if we were camping and didn’t have to take all out of the bike, but it felt very inefficient.
– I took my sleeping bag, mat, pillow and (most of) my tent and didn’t use any of it. I really didn’t know what I was going to sleep, I wanted to try to camp (which is illegal in Spain except in campsites or some special conditons, but you can ask a town’s mayor permission to camp, or do it somewhere hidden), or bivy (which is legal), but in the end the terrain was so flat, there was nowhere to have some privacy, I felt like everywhere was too exposed, and being on my own I ended up going to small hotels. There was a single camping site on my way in the whole trip, to which I was going on my last night, but I cut the trip short because of the weather and didn’t go there. In any case, I think it wasn’t worth bringing all that for a single night, I could have just planned the hotels a couple days before and left alll those things at home.
– I wanted to attach a bottle under the bottom tube (which has screws for mounting stuff), but nothing fit my frame size! Everything I tried (two types of cage, and a bottle with straps) would touch the front wheel or the cassette. I was sad to realize that a lot of the ideas I had for attaching stuff to my bike work only on bigger frames. Does anyone have a ideas for using those down tube screw mounts?
– I weighed the bike before leaving (I removed and added some things after, so it was not the final weight), and it was around 27kg, the bike weighs around 10.5kg (bare, without pedals), so 16kg seem pretty reasonable, including harware, computer, lights, food, water.. but it was heavy. It was a lot easier than I thought to move with it, but I almost toppled with it a couple times when stopping. Maybe a lower center of gravity would have been better? (like a bottle attached to the down tube :’))
– I’m pretty happy with everything I took, but in the end I washed my maillot/bibs every evening when we showered, because it was my lightest maillot and it was very hot, and my most comfy bibs, so I didn’t use the rest (though I think it was good to have a backup). I did use the t-shirt and shorts for dinner in town. I really missed having a light windbreaker in the mornings, I had thought I’d use my rain jacket for that but it was way too warm. I took sunglasses and clear glasses thinking that maybe it was stupid to take both, but actually it was very nice and I used each a lot.
Any thought about the setup or idea for improving it is welcome.
—- Trip story:
TL;DR: I went from Madrid to Ciudad Real in 3 days with two friends. I left them there, took a train, and came back to Madrid in 3 days. Very cool trip.
—
Two friends from work had to go to a congress in Ciudad Real (a city 200km from Madrid, where we live) this week. All three of us bike regularly to work, so we thought we’d go together to the congress, and then I’d come back on my own to Madrid, while they would stay there for the week and take the train back with their bikes.
I was taking my Trek gravel bike, one of my friends had an electric trekking/mountain bike, and the other a road bike which was not suited for unpaved trails, so we planned on just taking roads.
We left Madrid last Saturday and went to Ciudad Real in three days (70-90km each). It turned out to be the fiestas (annual festivals) of most of those towns we went through that weekend, so we had the chance to see all the decorations and the parties at night, and all the hungover teenagers going to the town square to have breakfast together under the amused eyes of everyone else living there, who were also having breakfast at the square, on Sunday morning. It was amazing.
On Sunday we were in a small town looking for a place to buy some food for lunch, when a lady with three heaping plastic plates of paella told us that because of the fiestas they were cooking lunch for everyone in the town for free (including those visiting). We promptly biked (full-speed) to the location, and found the whole town there waiting in line or sitting on benches and eating their paella, so we joined them (pic included of the giant paella) .
We arrived to Ciudad Real on Monday, and the next day I started the solo part of the trip. In order to shake things up I took a train to La Roda de Albacete (around 180km to the east but still at a similar distance to Madrid), and follow a version of the Camino de Santiago, el Camino del Levante, until Toledo, and from there go to Madrid.
That first day alone I did almost all unpaved trails and it was beautiful, with no one in sight, only occasionally a farmer on a tractor. I enjoyed it a lot, but at times the terrain was pretty bad for the bike, with sand and loose gravel, I was sliding around and moving slowly, so I ended up doing the last kms by road.
For lunch that first day I was planning on eating in a small town, but it was turning out to be totally empty. It was giving me a weird feeling and I was going to continue to the next town, when I saw a bar/restaurant with a terrace and some people and decided to go there. It was weird at first, the place was dark and they were all looking at me all the time. They were all older men, and they were asking what I was doing there, if I was not afraid of travelling alone.. at some point I realized they were actually being nice, and they were just.. people from a very small town, if that makes sense. I think I’m not used to that. One of them was the owner of the place and I think he was shocked to see a woman travelling alone with a bike. In the end, he offered me a job as a waitress, didn’t let me pay for the meal and gave me his phone number in case I needed help. It was very unexpectedly wholesome and sweet.
I arrived to a hotel that night and as I was asking for a place to store my bike, the host said “don’t worry, there are two pilgrims here already and they stored their bike, you can leave it there too” (pilgrims doing the Camino de Santiago). I went to store my bike not expecting ONE incredible tandem bike for two people (pic included). Sadly I did not meet them and their bike was gone in the morning.
The trip was great with no other major incidents. I crossed many small towns, most of them were very empty, and some were beautiful. I punctured on that first unpaved roads day, and I ended up doing mostly roads after that. I generally enjoyed the roads a lot, with the exception of the entrance and exit to Aranjuez, a city close to Madrid, where I felt very unconfortable among very fast traffic with the side of the road full of trash, trees and bits of metal, forcing me to invade the car lanes.
I cut the trip short because of the weather forecast for today, which was storm and a lot of rain, so yesterday I went straight to Madrid from El Tembleque, where I was staying. In total, the trip was 6 days, 500 km and 2630m elevation (it was generally prety flat).
by palomatanis
1 Comment
Usefull things and light.