Your touring/bikepacking setup

Thought it would be interesting to have a thread where people shared their setups (or rigs if you’re that way inclined…).

Anyway, my current setup is as follows. Has been the same for about 5 years now. Previously this bike had a rear rack and panniers.

Tokyo fixed wide open, 2 x 9 with 43/34 and 11-34. 700c x 32mm.
Carradice bag man and Nelson long flap. Cheap bar bag from Edinburgh cycle coop.
Nitto front rack for tent (not always)
Foam sleeping mat, sleeping bag varies depending on weather and country.
Stove is either a Alpkit koro or speedster meths depending on trip. Alpkit ti pan with lid and ti mug.
Tent is a Trekkertent phreeranger or Rab ascent bivvi.
Clothing depends on trip but v minimal, one set of cycling clothes, one set of off bike. This tends to be the same for 3 days or 3 months.
If there’s already a thread for this (I did utfs but didn’t find anything) I’ll delete this one!

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Freshly built Fairlight Faran 2.5

2x wheelsets and some larger Ortlieb Back Rollers will cover most tours and terrains.
Gearing at 38x 11-42 is not my ideal and will change with time. Larger frame bag in the post.

amazing, where is the 2nd pic from?

Rainbow road, New Zealand South Island. Rode the Rainbow and Molesworth plus a bit of the great taste trail over about 10 days. Best bit of NZ imho, very little traffic.

That's wild on 32mm tyres...

nothing special re set-up but has served me well for many 1000s of k's. This is 'credit card touring' - camping/bivvying would see panniers added.

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My Surly Straggler in its “big tour” set up. 50mm tyre front and 40mm rear, 46/30 11-42t. Would love a slightly lower gear and bigger tyres but that’s for a future bike.

Son dynamo with lights and usb charger - I wouldn’t bother with this again, the wiring is susceptible to damage and on any kind of unpaved road or hilly days it doesn’t generate enough power to charge effectively. A decathlon solar panel and big power pack is the way to go.

Front left pannier - sleep system
Front right pannier - clothes
Back left pannier - tools, spares, helinox chair, waterproof trousers and gloves, any misc items
Back right pannier - multi fuel stove, pots and pans, aeropress, other cooking stuff, wash kit

Basket bag - electronics, sunglasses, multitool, lock, whatever gloves/gilet I’m wearing that day

Fab’s Chest style saddle bag - waterproof jacket in a side pocket, bug spray, sun cream, water filter in the other. Main compartment is full of food, can carry up to 5 days at max capacity. We refuse to risk running out of food and also carry loads of spices and extras so it’s definitely a luxury item carrying so much food.

My partner has a slightly lighter set up and carries her stuff plus the tent and first aid kit.

Adding more water capacity is a point for improvement, we’ve tried various water bladders but they are awkward to deal with.

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That is lovely that.

This was my last setup for the last few years.
Bigxtop rando bag, super c front panniers, Blackburn sausage bag.

However for this year, I've now got a Velo Orange rando bag, will be keeping the Super C front panniers, and will be using my carradice Super C on rear, as I've found I'd like a little more space now.

Can't go back from 1x now though. 38 up front, 11-46 on rear gets me up anything (including Port en Bessin!). No front mechs to worry about etc.

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This is awesome. Have been very inspired by your trip and my next bike will be a ‘big trip’ one! Interesting to hear real world experiences with dyno charging setup

I definitely need more food and water carrying capacity. Always end up having hungry days in remote places because I can’t take enough to eat with me

Spent six months cycling around Europe last year with my partner. She had a Riverside 520, almost stock but with wider gear range and marathon plus tyres. I had a Trek 920 that I got as frameset on here and built up with a flat bar.

We were both running dynamo lights, for a bit of extra safety, and I had a cycle2charge usb headset attached to mine - it worked well on flat days to charge a battery pack, but as soon as we hit hills I was either going too slow to charge or the downhill was too short a time period. I wouldn't bother with the usb again, a fast plug charger and a battery pack would be better.

We carried loads of stuff as we were in no rush and wanted to enjoy off-bike time too, so all panniers were stuffed and heavy. Big Agnes 3 man tent, little chairs, multiple pans etc.

I ran tubeless tyres which I began to regret about two months in when a valve failed, leading to needing an inner tube and more punctures. They worked well when actually tubeless though, gravelking 50mm lasted about 4.5k km. Otherwise everything was perfect and haven't made any changes since.

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If you’re mainly road riding and want to convenience of dynamo lights (which are great) then it could be worth it but it’s a lot of cash and the wires aren’t exactly easy to deal with.

Once we hit dirt roads and the Andes we were travelling way too slow for any kind of usable power. We stayed in paid campsites or hotels every 7 days (or less) so could recharge our power packs then.

We had a decathlon solar panel for the first 12 months (until it got squashed and broke) and I was so impressed with the output. If you can rig it up on a bag while you’re riding you can easily generate enough power for daily phone usage.

I have a SON hub and Sinewave usb charger. The connectors to the hub corroded and needed fixing twice throughout the trip but that could have been related to my dodgy soldering/heat shrink work.

Like that second image, good thread :)

Last summer's summer trip set-up. The Wald started as a support for a Chrome bag but ended up just filled with all sorts, plus sandals (and rain boots) dangling. Definitely sold on baskets in general now.

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Earlier, lighter set-up with bikepacking bags front and rear.

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Mine from a couple of years ago:

Triban RC520 with a rack and panniers.
Err, that's it.
It was the trip I discovered I'd taken way too much for a week-long tour and bought some bikepacking stuff instead. Did a weekender to test that out and it was fine, though I'm planning on reattaching the rack and strapping a podsac to the top for my next longer outing. I like the discipline of having to only pack stuff you'll really need, but can't get everything into my bar bag/saddle bag/frame bag set-up.

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Lomo 13l motorbike panniers strapped to an Ortlieb Quick Rack Light, no wobble or rattle but heavy.
Carradice on a bar bagman fouls the brifters slightly.
Decathlon stem bag seems as good as any and only £6.99.
Zefal frame bag which takes my tent poles and an Altura saddlebag.

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For a road trip in the South East US. 853 touring frame with S&S couplers, triple cranks, 25c tyres. The couplers were handy for going on a bus and a train. Bikes not allowed on either.

Primus ti omnifuel stove (very good but overkill). Fuel bottle under the down tube contains petrol (mistake). Next time I would have one of those folding pocket stoves and burn twigs. One saucepan, one frying pan and a tiny camping moka pot.

The frame bag is actually two small Jandd frame bags, one containing the tent, the other a sleeping bag. Tent is a big ultralight thing, discontinued. Thermarest Neo Air ultralight mat. V thick and comfy. But light.

The panniers are Angletech stiff-sided. Claimed to be more aero than cycling without panniers, assuming you don't also have rear panniers. The theory is that the panniers and your legs make a nice egg shape. Not sure I believe it. But they're good panniers and I like the neat unwrinkled look. Tubus front rack. Very light and completely trouble free. Next time I would have enormous rear panniers as well, not to carry more stuff but to make packing quicker and easier. I spent ages every morning cramming everything in. Supermarket trips required lots of time to get rid of packaging and find space for things.

The clip-on tri bars are Profile Design. V comfy and aero. I can relax on them all day. Infinitely better than dropped bars for me. Big tick. The bottle on the tri bars is Podium Quest 1.3 litre. Hands free drinking! Plus a 1.5l Sigg metal bottle on the seat tube.

In one pic there's an Ortlieb water sack resting on the tri bars. This is for a shower. Most successful. I would try to fill it just before I stopped for the night. It sat quite happily on the bars without a strap.

Carradice Camper Longflap with Bagman support. No problems.

Perfect set up, very nice

I like this but the hiking pole pointed at my crotch gives me pause.

Does anyone take a laptop? I took a Sony Vaio P series. 635g, fits in a jersey pocket and runs W10. I also took a wifi booster which can connect to wifi at quite a long range.

This works a treat for 2-3 nights in credit card set-up. 1 dry set of clothes and casual shoes and 1 set of riding gear suitable for Wales in October. Tools on saddle, spare riding gear/food in frame bag, bar bag for casual clothes and insulated jacket, red dry bag with shoes. I need side release cages.

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This set up is pretty dialled now, and covers me for everything from a luxurious overnighter to a week long tour.

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