The Weekender - Oberland Edition

I'm very fortunate to have friends whom I can talk about bikes and stuff with. I once talked about that I would love to go on bikepacking trip, not race (despite having almost no gear at all). Someone told me about IRIS and their bikepacking adventures called The Weekenders. They are female and queer bikepacking trips mostly in The Netherlands. Iris also sells nice clothes, so don't forget to check them out as well. Netherlands is quite far away from me, but I decided to keep myself in the loop with them anyway.

Time passed...

New edition of The Weekender dropped in... Munich! Considerably closer and fully doable by train.

My partner saw my eyes getting bigger and bigger while reading The Weekender announcement. She just said Go.

I'm also fortunate because I have a bike friend who had just bought shiny new bikepacking bags and he was happy to borrow them. I just bought Tailfin frame bag for myself and borrowed top tube one from IRIS folks.

My bike is not big. In fact, it is rather small and it does not have mounting points except for two bottle cages, but after this trip I realized it is not a big deal - bike size and clearance for bags is.

So, this is me and my stuff. Look how little space there is between my rear wheel and saddle bag. I managed to damage it at some point, because I didn't strap it properly to my seat post and it moved to the side. Had I more clearance I would have avoided that probably. The bag itself is pretty nice, but straps are straps and mistakes might be painful with so little clearance and imagine how it could have been if my tires were 45mm (actually I would love to have such, but this require rim change...).

Anyway

The biggest and the most problematic piece of equipment was my tent. I have older version of Fjord Nansen Tromvik II. It weights almost 2kg which is quite light, but... I bought it for hiking and kayaking purposes meaning it poses some challenge when it comes to putting it in bikepacking bags. I packed my tent into Restrap Holster Bag, but... The foldable poles even in folded state are quite long, definitely longer than the width of space between my handlebars. It was quite challenging to put all the gear there and fit it between handlebars. I ended up using extra straps to prevent movement of the bag. Apart from tent I put there some food- and hygiene-related gear (more on that later).

Weather forecast was quite nice, but I don't have bivvy and I'm not brave enough to try sleep only in my sleeping bag. Not to mention that I don't have bivvy and I was not going to buy brand new gear which I haven't ever tested and my current camping gear was battle tested.

Sleeping

Saddle bag was made by Polish brand Triglav and it was my desginated area for sleeping gear. I have an ultralight three-season sleeping bag which I love, but once again it was bought for different purposes. It's light, it's durable and does not take a lot of space in hiking backpack or drybag in kayak, but it does take like 1/3 space of the Triglav bag. This forced me to strap my sleeping mat outside the bag. It's quite light as well, but it does not agree much light bikepacking. I could have bought something cheap and smaller in Decathlon, but I like sleeping well and this mat is perfect for achieving this goal (it is similar to this one, I bought it years ago, so probably you can't buy it today).

Clothes

As you can see, I had quite limited space, but I had to take into consideration the neighborhood of Alps on our route and this meant that weather might be unpredictable and while September can be quite warm, the nights will be colder comparing to August's nights. I took two jackets - one very light rain jacket and one rather warm which was also on the lighter side, but it was still civilian jacket, not pro Primaloft thingie like Silk Road Race participants take with them. Fortunately, I have compression bags which neatly packed my jacket. I took one (or two, I don't really remember at this point) pairs of socks with silver particles. They are odourless. I packed as well extra pair of Smartwool merino socks to put something on my feet in the campsite. I took thermoactive pants which also acted as my pyjamas along with two merino shirts (one short and one long-sleeved). In case of me freezing I could also put my merino cycling long sleeve jersey and jacket (well, I might be merino fangirl). I did not take any flip flops being sure that my SPD shoes will be enough, but I regret it a bit. I would have been more comfortable with some flip flops, but fortunately my gravel shoes aren't bad when it comes to walking. I took my bibs as well and extra short-sleeved jersey and leg warmers (suitable for autumn weather).

Eating

Apart from being clothed, I also had to eat. There were restaurants available on the campsites, but we did not know if they will be open. But even if, I know I'm picky eater, so I took small light camping cooktop (gas fueled, you can buy really small gas containers) and rather bulky, but still on the smaller and lighter side comparing to typical camping gear, pot. I could make quite a lot stuff using this set. Of course spork was a must-have. I was very resourceful and I bought lots of carbs in Poland to have something to eat mid-ride. There were some shops and some cafes and I did restock just a bit.

Tools and other things

Frame bags were used for all the small stuff I had to take with myself and snacks as well. I got of course small air pump, multitool, spare tube, but also extra derailleur hanger and tubeless valves along with sealant magic pouch and quick repair sealant in aerosol. You might ask why did I put airpump in the frame bag - I can't do it elsewhere. I tried to put it under water bottle cage, but I touch it with my leg while riding and I don't have more mounting points. Apart from my own meds, I also took something for headache and sleep (as I might have troubles sleeping from time to time) and magnesium vials for cramps. Since I like being comfortable, I packed my headphones, earplugs and ereader (along with powerbank of course). I enjoy being around people, but I need to have some me-time to decompress after a full day of adventures. Besides, this is something I had to take anyway from home to make my train travel more pleasant. I could leave those things at someone's flat (as I did with my civilian clothes), but I don't regret taking them with me.

I don't feel like I took useless things. Maybe I could have taken pills for washing teeth instead of paste in small plastic container, but this would have been a really marginal gain. Maybe I will get them next time to see if they're good for me, who knows. What I need to do, however, is to figure out something else for rear bag. I think I will buy some lightweight rack and drybag (which will be considerably cheaper than Tailfin's solution). This would also provide some extra space for improvisation (like attaching my tent poles). I'm not sure what I would like to get for ma handlebar bag, though. I don't have any strong opinions on that matter, so maybe if I find something used and cheap I will just go for it.

A word or two about money

This shit is expensive. I'm lucky to know people ready to lend me their own gear which might be damaged. I took only one pair of bibs, because I have only one pair of them (for summer, I also have winter ones, but well, they're for winter). I find riding in bibs more comfortable than in pants or underwear with extra padding. I have few jerseys, because sometimes they're more functional for me than sport t-shirts, but I ride in sport t-shirts, because I don't really care about my image. But good glasses or helmet aren't cheap either. Bikes aren't cheap nor its their maintenance and I have an impression that even leisure bikepacking becomes more and more something for the rich. However, you don't really need latest Restrap or Apidura bag. Sure, they're nice, but I bet we could do equally well with drybag strapped to handlebar and some other items to the fork. It would be probably easier on the bigger bike, but I haven't checked out these ideas, but I know people go for them. I have some drybags and I would like to try strap it to my handlebars (although I don't have good straps, but they are nowhere as expensive as professional bag). From what I know there are multitude of different straps and you can ask your not only bikepacking but hiking friends for recommendations. Well, hiking folks know quite a lot about outdoors and can recommend clothing which might be cheaper than stuff labeled with "cycling" or "bikepacking".