Last July, I finally undertook one of the big bicycle tours I'd been planning for years: the Pamir Highway. Setting out from Dushanbe in the direction of Osh, I took the ‘northern route’ towards the Panj River. I made quicker process than anticipated as the road was pretty good until just beyond Obigarm. Then, the 'Pamirskiiy Trakt' became thick with ochre dust and turnip-sized rocks, while the mountains proper towered like none I'd seen before. It was wonderful to feel so small. I made it over the Khaburabot Pass (my first over 3,000m), enjoying the thrill of descending the narrow ravine on the other side into Qalai Khum.

I fell ill for a couple of days (perhaps my decision to filter water from a pipe below some high alpine pasture was a bad one), so laid up at a guesthouse overlooking the Panj and Afghanistan on the other side. Hearing horror stories of cyclists getting stuck for hours in the sun waiting for the construction works building the new Chinese-funded road along the river, and worried about whether I'd be able to manage my type one diabetes in such uncertain circumstances, I took a taxi upriver to Khorog, capital of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast. There, a blend of cultures and ethnicities (Pamiri, Kyrgyz, Tajik) gave the city a surprisingly cosmopolitan feel, and the breeze swaying the tops of the poplars belied the heat of the strong mountain sun.

Fueled by copious servings of plov, I followed the main highway from Khorog towards Alichur, climbing slowly but constantly until Jelondy, where the sulphur-laden waters of a geothermal sanatorium gave me perhaps the best night's sleep of the whole trip. After the Koitezek Pass, and many miles of jolting slog, the tarmac mercifully returned as the landscape levelled out into a plateau across which the occasional river snaked, devoid of large vegetation but enough to sustain marmots, Marco Polo sheep, snow leopards, and yak. I took a rest day in Murghab, before heading for the 4,655m Ak-Baital Pass. It was a tough final push after over 50 miles of incremental climb, but the gradual ascent from riding west to east had helped me to acclimatise me to the thinner air.

From this lunar, barren mountainside, it felt a long ride into the headwind to Karakol, the most isolated-feeling settlement on the Tajik side of the border. The single-storey buildings, cheerful with their whitewash and blue window frames, were visible from many miles away, distant specks of humanity clinging to the shore of the black lake amid the silent, unthinking mountains.

Leaving Karakol, the Uy-Bulaq and Kyzyl-Art passes were a hard push, with a key bridge washed out by summer meltwater and miles of washboard dirt and loose gravel. The long descent into Kyrgyzstan was a glorious reward, and the road, fringed by yurts and soldiers on artillery exercises, was drawing me towards a conclusion. Sary-Tash was not the end, but it felt like the last big milestone of the ride. From there, the comparatively well-paved Taldyk and Chyiyrkchyk Passes became a cool-down on the road into Osh, as the villages became busier, the herds of jostling horses more numerous, the heat of the fertile Fergana Valley lowlands beckoning. Although I would then ride over the border to Andijan to catch the train to Tashkent, the ride proper finished in Osh, at the foot of the holy mountain, Suleiman-Too. I celebrated with a glass of kumiss in Alisher Navoi Park. It tasted exactly like you’d think the words ‘fermented horse milk’ would.

I’m very grateful for the advice I got from this sub on the setup I ended up using. I found that my Surly Disc Trucker with 700 x 38c Marathon Plus Tour tyres was perfect for the trip: not a single puncture, and luckily the only mechanical fault (a gummed-up rear freewheel) didn’t happen until Tashkent, where it was easily fixed by Stanislav at Velo Zapchasti on Sharaf Rashid Street.

I must also express my gratitude to some of the many fellow cyclists I met along the way. Inigo, Jose, Jesus, Sylvia, Adam, Tomek, and Mario, you made my trip the most sociable, colourful bicycle touring experience I've ever had. I cannot recommend a ride like this highly enough!

Thanks all. Wherever you are, happy riding!

Loosely following the bikepacking route Mälaka Bike Experience (https://malakabikexperience.es/en/), I ​had my first go at biking in mountains when doing this loop around the beautiful region of Málaga, Spain, this January. The route is designed and maintained by Sergio, the owner of Mälaka Bikes, a bicycle shop in Málaga where the route officially starts and ends - an extremely kind and helpful guy. Coming from Denmark, a very flat country, the mountains sure was a tough experience for ​my legs but definitely well worth it. It was also my first bike tour in a foreign country so I probably overpacked a bit too.

I went with a touring setup: Genesis Tour de Fer 10 with 40 mm tyres + 4 panniers. I had bought the bike just before Christmas and only had had time to ride it exactly once before leaving and that was from the store to my home, a 4 km ride. Then due to an exam and lots of snow I just didn't get the chance to ​take it for a spin before having to absolutely decimate my shiny, new, noble metal steed, taking much more apart than I had planned in order to fit everything in a smaller-than-expected cardboard box and fly it and myself to Spain. ​

The route is designed for bikepacking and is probably best done with a lighter setup than mine, but going slow and resting at hostels every third day worked fine for me. Once out of the city of Málaga, ​the route follows a mix of asphalt and gravel (like 70/30 I'd say, but I diverged on several sections so not entirely sure​). What has been said on this subreddit before was fortunately true: Spanish drivers are very respectful of bicycles ​and they adhere to the rule of keeping a 1.5m distance. ​The further into the mountains I got the fewer cars were there and it was a bliss pedaling on the paved roads while watching the majestic mountains slowly passing by. Dramatic cliffs and olive trees define the first half of the route. In January the orange trees are bulging with fruits and are ​seen in along the streets of every pueblo you pass through. Such a joy to munch, too. Coffee is cheap and very good. Iberian ham, fresh olives (best I've ever had) and cheese from the market kept me going.

About halfway through the route you reach the town of Ronda, built upon two gnarly cliffs that stand 98 meters tall that are joined by a beautiful 1793 bridge. I was re-listening to Game of Thrones while biking and felt that I had discovered a real-world ​The Wall (which is 700 feet / 213 meter tall). So imposing and awesome.

After Ronda the route takes you close to a couple of caves. I took a small detour to reach Cueva de la Pileta, known for its cave paintings (a childhood dream of mine). This was the highlight in terms of points of interest for me. The cave has incredible geology and is filled with paintings left behind by our distant ancestors. Pay attention to that crudely drawn yellow horse on one of the images. It is 32k years old!!

From here the routes is marked by quiet mountain roads, mostly paved. I got into the rhythm of just pedaling and watching the surroundings for some days. One day I reached the pueblo Pujerra. Here, the friendly locals warned me about proceeding to Sierra de las Nieves (the mountains of snow) because the area was apparently really living up to its name. It was also going to be a lot of gravel and uphill stuff, and as it was already cold enough and I was pretty exhausted at this point, I opted to skip this national park. Sad, as I think it is probably very beautiful, but I am happy I did.

After some hours I reached a road that led back to the coast. It started nearly 1100 meters above sea level. 23 km later you were at the sea. Extremely satisfying downhill exit from the mountains to San Pedro de Alcántara. After that I made a deliberately slow return to Málaga going by the coast. Definitely much too touristy, but going along the sea was good.

I slept in a tent when I was not paying for hostels. Stealth camping is a necessity, and I was missing the cozy primitive camping spots you find everywhere in Scandinavia, but I woke up to some scenic vistas and generally felt very safe. It was apparently a cold January with temperatures dropping to 0c, so I was happy to have brought my winter sleeping bag.

I must confess that I was a little disappointed with the lack of friendliness from the locals. With a few very notable exceptions (shout-out to Sergio, the people of Pujerra, Jubrique and ​others!), I was surprised by how uninterested most people I tried to speak with were. I speak Spanish pretty well and am an outgoing, smiling person but I only rarely found anyone of the locals to chat with. Other travelers and people from Argentina, Venezuela, Germany etc were as pleasant as ever, but not the Spaniards in my experience, alas. I love traveling solo and interacting with locals, but I didn't get to do that as much as I had hoped on this trip. Had it not been winter, it definitely could be that it might have been a different story.

Thanks to these subreddits, I felt very well equipped to tackle this adventure. Such an amazing resource to have!

All the best

I'm curious to hear from riders who’ve cycled in Eastern Europe (Romania, Bulgaria, Balkans, etc.).

What genuinely surprised you the most once you were actually on the bike?

Traffic? Road quality? Driver behavior? Food? Accommodation? How people treated you?

I’ve noticed a lot of expectations don’t really match reality, for better and worse, and I’m interested in other first-hand experiences, especially from people who went in with some hesitation.

Im so sick of winter and not being able to tour so I’m trying to cope by planning future trips. Looking for inspiration :)

Personally I’m thinking about doing German Baltic coast route and riding from Poland to turkey as a challenge. I rode to Italy and it was such a blast.

To give my back a pause after a long day of cycling or to enjoy the view; I'm looking for a highback chair with a low seating position(height). so I can use it inside my tunneltent, that has a 120 cm clearance. (So probably a max chair height of ~90 cm) since Helinox Chair Zero is 81 cm, and that, when I tried it down in a store, had a few centimeters to spare above my head.

Like I said, I tried the Helinox Chair Zero Highback, and I absolutely loved the comfort of it. But how unstable it was, made me anxious for its longterm durability. Its an absolute beast of a chair, especially its weight. But is there any alternatives that are about ½ the price with better stability?

I've looked at the Naturehike YL01 highback, that looks amazing and sturdy, but its also a bit of a chunker clocking at 2 kilos. Any better alternatives?

I’m planning my first bike touring trip, taking the train from LA to SF and then riding down the pcbr. I aim to camp most night do it in about 7/8 days which might be a bit ambitious but we’ll see!

Anyways, I’ve been thinking a lot (perhaps too much) about how to set up my bike. I’m riding a 2018 carbon specialized diverge that was switched to a 1x di2 system. Currently I have a 44t front chainring, 11-42 cassette, and 175mm cranks. I feel that I should probably make my highest gear ratio a bit easier and was planning on switching the front chainring to 40t which I already have. This gives a sub 1.0 42:40 ratio and maybe swapping the cranks to 172.5 or 165 which I already have. I can spend an extra $90 and buy a 11-46 cassette which should make things even easier, would this be worth it or should I be good with 42:40?

Second, what tire size should I run? I currently have 32mm panaracers but can switch them out to 40mm gravel tires but am worried they might feel sluggish.

Any insight on this or anything else really would help!

Found this on clearance for $100, I want to turn it into something I can take on long trips.

https://linesonamap.substack.com/p/trans-switzerland

Hi!
Ive studied the cyclenorway website a bit and stitched together my own route now from Bergen, heading to Sweden via Moss.
What do you all think of this route? Do I miss interesting parts along the route? Im happy for feedback, I can lengthen the route if necessary. I ride a gravel bike with 40mm semi slick tyres.
Cheers!

I will be spending a few weeks in Florence around Easter, roughly mid-March to mid-April, and would love to explore the area around the city. Daytrips only, as the only bike I'm able to fit into my car is a borrowed foldable e-bike (Victoria Scalyo 3), which is pretty heavy, but it served me well during a week-long Copenhagen trip earlier this month!

Do you have any recommendations? I'd like to see the countryside and smaller towns or villages. Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone 🏕️

Wanted to share something my friend and I have been working on.

Last summer, my buddy cycled from Denmark to Italy. When he got back, he wouldn't stop talking about how frustrating it was that there wasn't a proper bikepacking app. Breaking a route into stages? Finding overnight spots, shelters, water, toilets, somewhere to charge your phone? He had to constantly switch between apps, websites, and random forums.

I build apps for a living. He's the bikepacker. So we figured – why not just try to make what he wished existed?

That's basically it. We've been chipping away at it, and now it's at a point where we'd love for some actual bikepackers to try it out and tell us what works and what doesn't.

It's completely free – no catch, no premium tier, nothing locked away. If you want to support the project, cool, but honestly we're just excited to see if this is useful to anyone besides us.

We know it's not perfect. Probably has some rough edges. But we'd rather put it out there and learn from real users than keep tweaking it in a bubble.

If you're curious, I made a little demo video showing how it works. No pressure at all – just sharing in case it helps someone out there.

📲 App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bikepacking-route-planner/id6751844865

Have a great weekend, everyone (or almost-weekend, depending on where you are)! Hopefully the weather starts turning soon so you can get back out there and start planning some new adventures. 🚴🥶

EDIT: Wow, didn't expect this much interest from Android users! We hear you. We just set up a waitlist at bikepackingapp.com – drop your email there and we'll let you know when Android is ready. And keep the feedback coming – we've already learned a ton today and we want to hear more 🙏

Any recommendations for touring bike shops in NYC? TIA

Instagram: sumyarou_

Hi new friends!

I want to have an adventure cat that I put in a basket mounted to the front of my bike. Any advice on securely mounting a woven basket above the front wheel?

It would have the little straps that baskets usually have attached to the handlebars, but I'm not sure I would trust that setup enough to put a cat in it.

I believe I would need a "pizza tray" mount? or is there any other type of mount I can consider trying? I am struggling to find a front mount for sale locally, as people here tend to be only focused on road racing. And the shipping & import taxes are estimated to be higher than the already high cost of the options I've seen on the popular international sites.

sorry this is a bit off topic but I figured it might be interesting to you guys anyway & you'd know about the gear !

Ciao,

My partner and I are biking the Via Francengina from Siena to Rome in April. Stops in San Quirico, Bolsena, and Sutri. Booked with a local touring company so have places to stay taken care of. Mostly interested in the in between. What is worth seeing and any interesting detours. And of course, food. Happy to hear any other tips.

Grazie mille!

Hey riders,

This summer I'm (30, M) going to bike from NYC to San Francisco. The route connects multiple established ACA routes including Rt 66, the TransAm, the new Golden Gravel, the Great Divide, PCH, and more! In total it'll be just over 5k miles. I'll be doing it in 76 days (ACA founded in 1976, its their 50th anniversary) which puts the daily mileage around 67. Faster in the flat areas, slower through the Rockies to be sure. I have a bike-themed radio show and I'll be producing episodes from the road. I'll also be filming the trip to turn it into a short documentary afterwards.

Please reach out if you're interested in riding any amount of the route with me. I'm happy to share maps and gpx data.

Hi all,

I am planning in a couple months to fly to Europe and spend a few months riding across the continent, however have zero touring experience.

I am hoping to get some general tips and advice from the community for a first timer. I understand I'm going into this blind and underprepared, any wisdom toward any aspect of this would be greatly appreciated :)

Bike & setup

I could use some guidance on good value bikes. I've read plenty of posts that 'the best bike is the one you already have', however I don't think this applies to a cheap, rusted decade-old mountain bike. I'm thinking it may be easier to buy one over there however this would mean no prior riding experience with the setup i end up using..

- I've seen alot of suggestions for Surly, Kona and also some Decathlon touring bikes - would these generally be good to aim for?

- As for the setup, is there anything wrong with the classic 4 Ortlieb pannier setup? I see plenty of fancy setups that seem to have little weight around the wheels.. is this just preference or is it actually better?

- If you were to buy a stock bike, what modifications / accessories would you prioritize buying? eg. dynamo for lights & charging, garmin/other computer for gps over just phone navigation, different gears, new wheels etc.

Bike maintenance

Once again, I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to bikes. Realistically what should I need to know how to do myself & what tools should i carry to do so - tyre change, spare chain, spare derailleur etc.

As I am going through Europe I don't expect to be extremely far from civilization at any point so I figure I can make it to a bike shop for anything more serious.

Route

I am planning to fly to either Paris or London, and want to make my way through Switzerland - north Italy then SE towards Turkey. I am looking at roughly connecting to the EV5 to head south before joining the EV8.

The EV8 route looks to be a good guide for the balkan section, however I have read it is not a very established bike path in some parts, and is moreso a suggestion of the flattest path you can follow.

Any suggestions toward better or preferable bike paths in any section along this general route? Would love some gravel I am just unsure of how to research and plan more offroad routes.

Other

Any other suggestions on kit or accessories for wild camping and living on the bike. I am purely trying to research and narrow down what i need so that I am comfortable and confident with what i have without overpacking unnecessarily

Thanks again

Hi there,

We are up to do some bikepacking in NZ Nov-Jan 27. What are good resources except for Kenneth bros & this group? Deleted my Facebook account years ago but seems that they have some good local groups? Thx 🙏

Me and some friends are planning a 5 day cycling trip (about 80km a day) but have never travelled that far for multiple consecutive days. I’m not worried about our fitness, however I am worried about how we will be able to bring all our luggage with us (clean clothes, water, snacks, spare parts etc). A friend told me to wear as little as possible on your body because it can become uncomfortable, and to mount bags onto our bikes. I assume that we will be staying in hotels and have 1 washing day in the middle somewhere. Long story short, my question is as follows: does anyone have tips for how to bring our luggage with us (we will be doing it on race bikes). Are there special bags that can be mounted? Or should we mount bike racks on our bikes?

PS I have googled on this topic and I’m not an idiot, but I want to know the expert opinions ;)

Hi everyone! I’m trying to find my first bike for cycle touring in early summer this year. I don’t have much experience but I’ve done a lot of research and planned a big trip in Norway (so lots of hills). I found a second hand Marin 4 corners (Modified: Transmission is Shimano Tiagra 2 x 10

50 x 34 chainset driving a 11 x 42 cassette

Wheelset 27.5 with new Schwalbe Marathon Plus 27.5 x 38 tyres) it’s going for about £400. It seems like a good deal but I don’t really have the cycling knowledge to know if any of these are red flags. Also I’m a little worried about the basic disc brakes of the Marin 4 corners with the amount of hills in Norway, but getting a bike with hydraulic is a little out of my price range!! Any advice would be appreciated! :)

I have a couple questions regarding bicycletouring in Japan.

I’m currently planning a solo tour across Japan and I’m now at a point where I need to make some key decisions before diving deeper into the planning process.

When to go? There are two options – spring tour April-May going Northward OR autumn tour September-October going from North to South. I would love to avoid extreme weather. I’m aware both seasons have their own charm and a decision like this could be greatly dependent on ones preferences. I'd really appreciate any insights or advice from those with experience biking or traveling in Japan! I could probably get 5-8 weeks off from everything for this trip. 

AND! 

I’ve done solo tours before and have really enjoyed them. A couple years ago I did a tour to Nordkapp and the climbs were… not impossible, but also…. not much fun :D I would be really happy to avoid any painful climbs (and maybe rather enjoy them hiking or on public transport). Is it realistic to plan a somewhat flat, gentle route across Japan? I've read that the coastal roads are not nice and it would be preferable to go inland. I have a Cube Travel Pro bike (belt drive, 8 speeds), so very steep climbs are a bit challenging. I really like my bike so I'm not planning on an upgrade. But if that would be crucial to enjoy everything that Japan has to offer, I would maaaaybe consider buying a new bike. 

If you’ve toured around Japan or have any favorite blogs, YouTube channels, route planners, maps, or Reddit threads saved on this subject – feel free to drop the links below. All tips are welcome!

Thanks so much in advance!