You certainly remember them: they had white socks, sandals, bikes loaded like Indian elephants, and most of all they were ugly.
I’m talking about German (although German should be understood as “non-Italian”) cycle tourists, the ones who, when you were a kid, rode through Italy and were looked at with the same gaze that Americans reserved for aliens in Area 51.
Still, those people there, in their own way, were pioneers, and today bicycle travel has become not only one of the most vital and dynamic tourist sectors, but also fashionable: and so by bike you see couples or groups of young people, even with children, arriving with wonderful bicycles and well-dressed. In short, today being a bicycle tourist is cool. It went like this.
In all this, the most trending phenomenon is bikepacking.
And what the hell is that, you will say?
And in fact you are right.
To understand what we are talking about, we had a chat with Michele Boschetti, founder of the bikepacking bag brand Miss Grape.
Michele, what the hell is bikepacking?
Bikepacking is bike backpacks, said in an easy way. The term is derived from backpack.
Basically we are talking about panniers that can be attached, like backpacks on the shoulders of Christians, to any type of bike, which no longer need special arrangements, much less racks.
So?
So bikepacking allows you to use any bike as a travel bike: racing, mtb, gravel bike, it doesn’t matter. It is the bike backpack, and so just as the backpack allows you to carry what you need to go a little farther, even to the top of Everest, so bikepacking bags make you go a little farther, carrying what you need.
What are the advantages?
Since a rack is not necessary, any type of bike can become a travel bike, even a carbon racing bike or an enduro mtb, models on which fitting racks is not easy. This allows you to go farther, little does it matter if the destination is a hotel or a peak, and to take as much as you need to continue even for several days, depending on the trip you have planned and your way of biking. Getting your bike ready is also quick, which makes it easier to plan a weekend riding even at the last minute, after the weather and your wife (or husband) have given you the okay.
Before bikepacking, it was difficult to do this if you didn’t have a bike set up for racks.
This is of particular interest to road cyclists
Sure, because you can keep the nature of your bike intact, go hard, go high, and then maybe to set up the ride to go fast and far, as also happens for example in ultracycling events, which more and more people are taking part in.
Is bikepacking also a philosophy?
Of course, bikepacking requires you to deal with the essentials, to be minimal. If you have luggage racks and large bags, you will inevitably fill them up, as happens when you go on vacation and half the things in your suitcase go unused. With no room for the superfluous, preparing bags for a bike trip also becomes a mental exercise.
Give us an example of a setup for a short bikepacking trip
Let’s imagine a non-autonomous trip (i.e., we don’t bring the necessities for eating and sleeping outdoors), lasting a weekend, with daily distances between 60 and 100 km: you wear, depending on the season, what you need to pedal, putting the necessities in your bag in case of rain.
Then load clothes for the evening at the hotel: underwear, shoes or sandals, pants, jacket, and sweatshirt. Bike clothes can be washed every night if you want, so you don’t need a change. With this setup you only need a frame bag, the kind that clips onto the top tube, to be clear, and a 13-liter saddle bag, as well as a small handlebar bag. With 15 to 20 liters of total capacity you have enough to be away for a long weekend.
As you may have guessed, it is a “different” way of understanding travel: more essential, meditative, economical, and imposing a different approach than usual.
We like it because it brings us back to a dimension in which we perceive distance and, above all, enjoy every meter we conquer with our sweat, free to go a little further, a little harder or, if we want to drink a beer. In short, we like it because in some ways bikepacking is a form of freedom.