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Preparation: what you can plan before the start
1. set daily targets: 50, 80 or 100 kilometres?
The best way to achieve the big goal is to set daily targets in advance. It can be a bit more than usual, after all you have the whole day. But make sure you allow room for breakdowns, breaks, finding accommodation and the weather!
2. packing with air
By the 3rd morning at the latest, the bags seem to have become smaller. You simply can't stow your things away as easily as at home. So don't stuff your bags to the last zip from the outset, but leave some space for any hectic or rainy packing moments later on.
3. scout accommodation or sleeping places in advance
Driving 100 kilometres and then looking for a place to sleep? That can quickly turn into stress when the sun goes down. There is not much accommodation in rural areas. If there's also a major event, the whole district may be fully booked. Even if you want to sleep outside, you can use the topo map to look for suitable places (e.g. forest edges, secluded stream banks, no mosquito-intensive moorland areas!
Incidentally, many bikepackers have failed to realise the romantic idea of simply asking the farmer for a place in the barn. It should be much easier on the other side of the German border!
4. do I really want to cook myself?
Well, that's all part of bikepacking! Yes and no. Most bikepackers rave about having their own coffee in the morning, but you soon get fed up with space-consuming cooking utensils, washing up with expensive drinking water or dirty equipment that has to be packed away again. It might be better to stop for a hot meal during the day and have a hearty snack in the evening. All you need to take with you is cutlery: knives and spoons!
5. the folding pot solution
The problem with rinsing remains, of course, but the folding pot (>> available here) at least it doesn't take up so much space in your panniers. Top invention for all those who absolutely want to cook for themselves on tour. Just because it's a nice evening activity.
6. supermarket: shopping and transport
Don't forget: Different (federal) states, different opening hours! It's best to shop for breakfast at the same time. However, if you have to look for a place to sleep after shopping with a full, swinging bag on your handlebars, you will hopefully only swear and not go over the handlebars. Perhaps take a light cloth gym bag with you that you can throw on your back. Or set off with an additional daypack from the outset (with hydration bladder?), which you keep as light as possible and only use as additional storage space for food or similar.
7. evening programme
Finding a place to sleep, eating and settling in for the night - it's best to do this when it's still light. Well, and then? Survival experts recommend not going to bed too early. If you completely break your own rhythm, you won't sleep well and your regeneration will be curtailed. Think of something to do!
Living in and with nature
8. the early bird...
Get up early, but not too early: The night is at its coldest one hour before sunrise. It is best not to leave your sleeping bag during this "blue hour". Even if the birdsong makes it difficult to fall asleep again. Nevertheless, try to make the most of the daylight. Collecting, sorting and packing bags takes up a lot of your time in the saddle in the morning.
9. take a break day
On long trips, plan at least one day off per week for regeneration, bike checks and washing.
10. shower chunks
No plastic packaging, it does not leak in the bags, it is biodegradable, pH-neutral and washes not only the body and hair, but also clothes and cookware. The shower block is available in different fragrances >> e.g. available here . We recommend coconut. #Mosquito defence!
11. keep breaks short
Cooling down is super fast. After an hour's lunch break, it can easily take two hours to get back into the swing of things. On long stages, it is therefore better to ride more slowly and possibly even eat on the bike. The food pouch was invented for this purpose, which you can conveniently clip to your handlebars for easy access.
12. sweet or savoury?
You burn up to 800 calories per hour when you ride sportily. Regular refeeding is therefore not only allowed, but important. Interesting fact: at first, your mind and body crave sweet foods, but after a few days you will switch to savoury foods.
13. rainy days
Everyone gets caught out at some point. No functional rain jacket in the world will keep you dry all day. So on rainy days, ride for half the day at most and plan the other half for drying your clothes.
14. water!
Not even the rangers in the Canadian wilderness drink the water from a clear stream. 50 metres upstream there can always be a dead animal or similar bacteria in the water. Therefore, always get enough water for the evening: Drinking, cooking, washing your cat, brushing your teeth and making coffee.
15. the shovel
Whether you really pack them or know how to help yourself with sticks - a code of honour among bikepackers is: A "big deal" that can no longer be stopped in the wild must be buried! Attention: The toilet paper used, on the other hand, does not rot for years. Experts have dog faeces bags for this purpose. This allows the used paper to be disposed of in the nearest rubbish bin in an environmentally friendly way. The scoop from Sea to Summit is, for example available here.
Tips for a restful night
16. insulation tricks for the night
With a hut sleeping bag, an additional layer of insulation can be pulled into the sleeping bag. This saves space and weight compared to a thick sleeping bag model. This keeps the cold out from underneath: Place a rescue blanket under the sleeping mat!
17. camper safe
Some people always have valuables on their person (e.g. Hipbag), others prefer to hide them where even thieves don't like to put their thieves: e.g. banknotes in bike socks that no longer smell quite so fresh or a sat nav in a pasta bag.
18. night under the bridge?
Spending the night under a bridge seems like a good idea, especially on rainy nights. But it's not: the wind always blows through here and the pegs for the tarp as wind protection can rarely be hammered into the hard ground.
19. no more mosquito bites
Well, it would be nice. But with these tips, at least the little pests won't eat you up completely. The mosquito sprays "Anti hum" and "Nobite" contain synthetic repellents and therefore always perform best in various comparative tests.
What else you can do against mosquitoes:
- Eating garlic and chilli
- Rinse sweat from the skin after the tour
- Do not camp by standing water or in completely windless areas
- Pack a mosquito net
- Mosquitoes don't like the smell of coconut!
20. wild camping...
...is only permitted in Scandinavia (everyman's right). If you still don't want to go to a campsite, you may find a permitted site here:
- 1 Nite Tent: A surprising number of garden owners offer a parking space on their lawn for little money, Info: 1nitetent.com
- One Night Wild: Trekking and bivouac sites in Germany, onenightwild.com
- Trekking sites: From 1 April to 31 October, 200 of these secret spots in the forest are available in Germany alone. You book a spot via an app (5-15 euros) and receive the GPS data for these locations (including fire pit, firewood and toilet) on your mobile phone. trekkingtrails.com
Special tips from the pros
21. travelling by train
It is not always possible to transport the bike to the desired destination by train or it turns out to be too unwieldy due to repeated transfer manoeuvres. Experienced bikepackers sometimes send their bike and panniers by DHL in advance. For example, to the address of a hotel that you book for the first night at your destination.
22. the top 5 things that are often forgotten
- Corkscrew: You've taken a bottle of wine from the supermarket to celebrate a good day - and then you have to mess up the fine wine by popping the cork in the bottle?
- Toilet paper: The most annoying thing is when you first notice it while crouching in the coniferous forest.
- Small castle: I'm not going anywhere without my bike anyway? Yes: e.g. shopping
- Mosquito spray: They will rise from the ground and bushes. At dusk, when the cosy part of the day is about to begin...
- Small pillow: Oh, I'll take my jumper! The pros advise: A night out is long, the ground is hard and every minute of good sleep is worth its weight in gold! Nobody has ever regretted a small pillow to blow up.
23. transport by aeroplane
You can stow your luggage in the bike box on the plane. However, it is better to have a local address where you can store the box for the return journey. It may be difficult to find a comparably sized replacement box.
24. Sweden: Cabins & mosquitoes
Sweden is not only a country of everyman's rights, there are also self-catering cabins all over the country that you can stay in for a night on tour. Some of them have separate toilet and sauna blocks. A blessing and a curse at the same time: the midnight sun. Although you can sit on your bike for much longer, it's harder to get to sleep if you're not used to the constant light. As far as mosquitoes are concerned, there are no more up to Stockholm than here. Further north, however, a mosquito net is highly recommended!
25. watch out, shoe thieves!
Not only mosquitoes love the smell of sweat, but also foxes! They may not buzz as annoyingly and don't draw blood, but they do like to grab a shoe. Especially if they are parked in front of the tent for odour reasons!
26. masking helps twice
Where the bags rest on the bike frame or come quite close to it when first packing, you can secure the frame with Duct tape Protect against scratches. Apply a little thicker, because tape belongs in your tool bag anyway, because you can repair so many things with it.
27. pitfalls of the arse rocket
Almost every bikepacker has had this experience: If you clamp your shoes for the evening (slippers, flip-flops) into the rubber lacing on the saddle bag, at least one shoe is very likely to be missing at the end of the stage. Due to the constant vibrations during the ride, flip-flops in particular quickly work their way out of the supposedly tight clamping. It is therefore better to secure them with shoe laces or similar!
28. wait for plus temperatures
Bikepacking guru Gunnar Fehlau recently spent a whole year touring Germany on a cargo bike. He advises: "Bikepacking is too hard in winter. I even had a small stove with me, but very quickly realised that tent walls don't keep the heat in. If you want to have fun, don't start your tour until the nights are warm again.
29 Always think through your sleeping area!
It's worth thinking through a few what-ifs for every supposedly good place to sleep. Bike packers have woken up in the morning in the middle of a nudist area, or a stream has turned into a raging river during a thunderstorm. Gunnar Fehlau was also allowed to pitch his tent on a company site. A company employee commented: "By the way, we put the robot mower on display tonight."
Everything about bikepacking:
Gitta Beimfohr
Editor
