6 Reasons to Bikepack That Aren’t About Bikes or Packing

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I’ve written endlessly about bikepacking, but sometimes I think I’m missing the point with all the talk about bikes and packing. What is all this actually about, and why do we pedal loaded bikes through unlikely places for longer than most people think reasonable?

I’ve been “bikepacking” in various ways, some maybe called touring, on and off since 2019. From big solo adventures to shared trips with my husband, from funky cheap gear to carefully crafted setups, from pavement to singletrack and back again, I’ve shifted my cycling identity many times.

I recently went a year and a half without bikepacking at all, thanks to pregnancy and new parent life. I wondered many times what would be left of my enthusiasm, if anything, when I was ready to return.

I’m kind of an intense person. It’s my weakness and my superpower. My early bike trips were fueled by a burning passion that defied all logic and overpowered my considerable doubts. But this all-or-nothing approach isn’t sustainable. When the fire had burned itself out, when the fear was tamed and the long rough trips were no longer feasible or even, dare I admit it, desirable, would there be any interest left at all?

The answer, happily, is yes. And that’s because bikepacking isn’t just an activity, it’s a tool. A flexible, adaptable, multi-purpose tool (multitool? pun intended) that can shapeshift to meet changing needs throughout an entire lifetime.

Here are 6 things that bikepacking is actually about when it’s not about bikepacking. Will you eventually collect them all in your pedal-powered journey?

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Personal Rite of Passage

Some of us start this way – I definitely did. I couldn’t fully understand it at the time, but traveling by bike alone in other countries was my self-designed curriculum of growth from shy and sheltered young person to more capable and confident adult. (Nevermind that this happened in my early thirties… we millennials are a bit behind on the adulting thing.)

The bikepacking rite of passage has more in common with hiking the PCT or backpacking across a continent than it does with a local bike camping overnighter. It’s a hero’s journey, expected to be hard and scary and oh-so-worth-it on the other side.

Who takes this type of journey? Like any good rite of passage, a bikepacking trip can mark a transition to a new phase of life. Often it’s a young solo rider looking for adventure or to “find themselves” before moving on to the responsibilities of adulthood. Young couples take on the challenge together, if they’re lucky enough to be on the same page about such things, before “settling down.” Retirees mark their transition in the opposite direction, from responsibility to more freedom. People look for clarity between jobs, or after a marriage ends, or after getting a scary medical diagnosis.

Me personally, I’d been studying and working hard for 15 years but lacked real-world experience. I wanted to understand other lifestyles and cultures, and to prove to myself that I could function on my own in a big messy world. And I was considering whether I wanted to have kids and what I might later regret not doing first. (In hindsight this was SUCH a good move and I’m very pleased with my past self for figuring this out when she did!)

In a bikepacking rite of passage we make ourselves vulnerable in a world that’s both intimidating and benevolent. We trust in our ability to manage whatever comes our way even as we grapple with our doubts. We hope to emerge on the other side with newfound confidence, vitality, and some really good adventure stories to tell later.

Physical and Mental Challenge

Bikepacking is a tough hobby. At some point in a bikepacking trip almost everyone will be physically and/or mentally challenged. A bikepacking rite of passage is certainly heavy on challenge, but sometimes we’re not marking a life transition — we’re just trying to learn about our limits and fight off the complacency of comfortable daily living.

Racing is one built-in way to embrace the challenge of bikepacking. I race slowly, but I love having a defined time and place to run myself ragged out there and measure my results, albeit pretty arbitrarily.

You don’t have to race to bikepack for the challenge. It could be about picking a route that is longer, more rugged, or more remote than you’ve previously experienced. Or trying to pack lighter and go faster. Or just getting out there at all if cycling is new to you.

For me, this version of bikepacking offers similar rewards to endurance sports. Before I discovered bikes I ran trail ultramarathons and dabbled in rock climbing, both ways to push my physical and mental limits outdoors. The bike is just another tool in the box.

Relationship Growth and Family Bonding

After nearly 10,000 miles of solo bike travel, my husband realized it was more than just a passing phase and started joining me on a few trips. This was amazing and fun and relaxing, and…. different. Very different.

Rides with him were not a particularly significant life event — I had already completed my own bikepacking rite of passage years earlier. The challenge component, especially the mental aspect, was lighter with him by my side shouldering half the logistical and mental load. Although we took on some hard rugged routes, we kept the pace in the “fun zone” so the physical side was usually easier too.

So what were these trips about? Relationship boot camp. Weaving the fabric of our shared history. In some ways they had more in common with our shared backpacking and climbing trips, or even some life challenges we’ve faced together, than my prior solo bike trips. They were co-created experiences, with all the benefits and challenges thereof.

There were arguments. Lessons were learned about how to be good partners in stressful circumstances. And a lot of fun and adventure were had! Like any good shared adventure, we acquired stories we still retell each other over the dinner table on a random Wednesday, weaving a glimmer of edginess into the routine of daily life. “Remember that crazy time in Kyrgyzstan when….”

This spring we’ll go a step further as we take our first bike tour with our one year old son. What will emerge from the messy blend of parenting and bike travel? We’ll go somewhere easy and safe, someplace I would have previously called “boring,” and it will be hard because babies make everything hard. I can’t wait.

Cultural Experience

Sometimes I use the term “bike travel” to cover both bikepacking and bicycle touring where the emphasis is on experiencing a new place and culture. Many people love to travel. Some do it by train, bus, car, and of course airplane. And some of us do it by bike!

For me, bikepacking is bike travel when the main goal is to experience a place I wanted to see anyway. Sure, I would have wanted to travel in Southeast Asia or Patagonia or Northern Africa in other ways, if I’d never discovered bikes. But doing it by bike was even better!

In my biased opinion, pedaling through a new country is actually the very best way to see it, assuming the roads are safe enough. It’s slow and immersive and spontaneous, all the things speedy packaged bucketlist-focused trips are not. If there is still such as thing as authentic travel, even in touristy places, bike travel is it.

Cultural experience was a top goal of many of my bike trips: Southeast Asia, Egypt and Sudan, Central Asia, and others. Heck even traveling through parts of the United States, my familiar yet highly varied home country, feels like a cultural experience. For me these bike trips have more in common with other types of adventurous travel — my backpacking trip through West Africa for example — than they do with wilderness-focused bike trips.

Outdoor Recreation

Some bikepacking trips aren’t about people or culture at all. They’re about getting out into the wild and spending time with our own thoughts in a scenic, remote, peaceful place.

These bike trips are often shorter — it’s hard to avoid civilization for too long — and more dirt or gravel focused. Singletrack bikepacking is the epitome, in my opinion; rugged landscapes, good views, and no cars to distract from the flow state reverie of trying not to crash my bike.

I think of these bike trips more like backpacking trips on two wheels. I usually seek them out when I need a break from relentless consumer technology, the responsibilities of daily life, or the complacency of being clean and comfortable and well-fed. They can pair well with physical and mental challenge, as well as family bonding. They also make great solo getaways and can be relaxing at a mellow pace.

Friendship and Community

My first 10,000ish miles of bike travel were solo and everyone I knew thought it was really weird. So you can imagine my delight when I discovered my first supportive community of people just as weird as me! The Idaho Smoke ‘n Fire 400 was my first bikepacking race and the first place I really felt accepted into this wacky tribe. I think that’s the main reason I can’t stop going back (4 more times since then!).

Bikepacking races and events are a fantastic way to build collective stoke, even if we spend much of our pedaling time alone. I sometimes call them bikepacking celebrations. There’s something so darn satisfying about doing this tough unusual thing together with a bunch of other people who love it just as much.

I’ve also been lucky enough to bikepack with a few friends over the years. Good bikepacking companions are hard to find, but the right match truly elevates a trip. At the end of the day, sometimes literally as we sit around a campfire, bikepacking with others scratches that itch for belonging and community that humans are hardwired to seek.

Why do YOU bikepack?

Bikepacking holds the potential for many opposites. It can be about self-actualization or connection, civilization or wilderness, pushing limits or relaxing and recharging. This variety has brought me back to bikepacking through different life stages, and I hope it will see me through another few decades.

There’s a bike trip out there for everyone at every stage, as long as you can figure out what you’re looking for and seek it out.

I like to name my purpose during the planning stage of every trip, so I can be straight with myself and any riding partners about my goals. Planning an ambitious itinerary when you actually want to relax, or riding with a group because you’re afraid of the solo time you really crave, are surefire ways to add tension to an otherwise lovely trip.

So find your why first, and craft the logistics of your trip to support it. If you do this honestly I think bikepacking can be yours to enjoy and benefit from for a very long time. At least that’s what I hope for myself.

More Bikepacking Resources

If you liked this post, you might also like these:

• Why Single-Sided SPD Pedals are Perfect for Bikepacking
• California Bikepacking: Route Ideas in Every Region
• Bikepacking Pace Calculator Tool: How Long Will This Route Take YOU?

Or visit the bikepacking home page for lots more.