The Gravel Bike Encyclopaedia (2): Party Pace, Flare, Credit Card Bikepacking… what’s that?

1 Creditcard Bikepacking

Credit Card Bikepacking (or Credit Card Travel) refers to multi-day cycling tours with extremely light luggage. The name says it all: instead of lugging around a sleeping bag, sleeping mat and warm clothes – or even a camping stove and tent – you simply use your credit card (or cash) to get by whilst on the road. You can also use it to pay for guesthouses or hotels.

The key features of this style:

• Pack light: As there’s no need for camping or cooking kit at all, you often only need a small saddlebag (Arse rocket) or a handlebar bag for a change of clothes, tools and toiletries.
• Focus on comfort: You’ll be staying in hotels, guesthouses or Airbnbs, and eating in restaurants, cafés or bakeries.
• More speed and lightness: Without the usual 5 to 10 kg of extra weight for camping, the gravel bike handles much more nimbly, is faster and requires less effort, which makes longer daily stages possible.

2 Party Pace

​Party Pace In gravel biking and cycling in general, this describes a relaxed, non-competitive approach to a cycle ride. Please, no stress! Not even when gravel biking. It’s not for nothing that many see gravel biking as yoga on wheels. Instead of Strava records, wattage figures and top speeds, it’s all about Party Pace to make driving fun or – if you’re travelling together – the sense of togetherness within the group. Listening to the blackcap’s song, hearing the wind rustling through the beech and oak trees, looking left and right at the countryside rather than having tunnel vision.

Typical of the Party Pace:

1. Keeping in step: The pace is always set by the slowest person in the group (“Nobody gets left behind”).
2. Long breaks: Stops for coffee, cake, photos, a dip in a river or lake, dark beer and bratwurst with sauerkraut in a beer garden are all part of the trip.
3. Pleasure rather than stress: There’s no pressure to perform. The focus is on the scenery and deep conversations.
4. Motto: The aim isn’t to get there as quickly as possible, but to have a good time on your bike.

3 Flare

​The Flare In the context of gravel bikes, this refers to the process of flaring the ends of the handlebars (known as the Drops) outwards. Whilst the lower sections of a classic road bike handlebar run vertically downwards, on a gravel handlebar they are angled slightly outwards. The flare is measured in degrees (°). A road bike handlebar has a flare of almost 0°. A gravel handlebar usually has a flare of between 12 and 24° – though for extreme terrain, there are also models with a flare of up to 30° or more.

The benefits of Flare:

• Greater control off-road: The wider grip position on the lower link gives you significantly better leverage on bumpy paths, trails and descents, and therefore greater stability when steering.
• Ergonomics: When you have your hands on the lower handlebars, the angle means your wrists are in a more natural, relaxed position.
• More space for luggage: The handlebar ends, which are flared outwards, create more space in the centre, allowing for a Handlebar bag (Bar Bag) without your hands getting caught on the lower link.