Last week we couldn’t stand being stationary anymore and once the weather got a little better, we sat on our bikes again and cycled to the train station to start the week of freedom in the mountains of central Slovakia. In this article you will find bikepacking gear list we’re using for short trips like this.
At the moment we’re using still the same bikes as on our ride from Canada to Argentina. You can find our full gear list HERE!
The beauty of short trips in Europe is that you don’t have to carry four season gear (usually) and you don’t have to carry food for long periods of time because the infrastructure of shops is very dense. Also you can have a look at the forecast and significantly decrease amount of clothes. The bicycle shops are everywhere so your tool kit is cut down to bare essentials. Therefore we’re running pure bikepacking setup (apart from the usual trailer for the dogs but you’re used to that by now ;)).
Bikepacking gear list
Bags
Luba
- Acepac bikepacking bags – Saddle bag, Bar roll, Bar bag, Roll half-frame bag, Large fuel bag, 2x Fat bottle bags
- Titan Straps of various lenghts for extra fixation if needed
Tomas
- Acepac bikepacking bags – saddle bag, roll bag, bar bag, Roll half-frame bag, large fuel bag, 2x fat bottle bags
- small waterproof Giant fuel bag
- Titan Straps of various lenghts for extra fixation if needed
Camping gear
- tent – Ultralight Husky Sawaj 3 + MEC footprint
- mattresses – Thermarest Neo Air XTherm Max Large (T), Thermarest Neoair XTherm Max Regular (L)
- Sleeping bags – 2x Tundra Pure -5°C (female shorter version for L), we can zip them together
- 2x sleeping bag liner
- as pillows we use some unused clothes
- head torches: Black Diamond Storm + Black Diamond ReVolt
- water filter as a back-up MSR Trail Shot filter
Kitchen
- MSR Dragonfly stove with Quietstove cover
- medium MSR fuel bottle
- alternated with handmade alcohol stove for overnighters
- MSR ceramic 2,5l + pan
- 2 camping mugs
- water storage – 2x 1L bottles, 1x 10L MSR Dromedary bag
- 2x titanium Spork, 1x Swiss knife, 1x Morakniv Companion outdoor knife
- magnesium stick fire starter
- coffee filter GSI outdoors
- selection of spices, salt, oil, seeds, nuts, dried friuts, sugar, coffee, tea
- food for just one day usually
Clothes
Always check the weather before heading out and pack accordingly. If you’re going for 48hrs and it’s not supposed to rain, it’s highly unlikely you will need your full waterproof setup.
As a general rule, think about layering rather than separate items that function on their own.
On a short trip you usually don’t have to worry about separate clothing for cities or when you’re doing laundry as you can make it without doing laundry apart from underwear of course.
This is our clothing list for the last week’s trip, one week long in the mountains, with some rain, very windy the first day and temperatures in low twenties (degrees celsius) during the day and around 10 at night.
Luba
- 2x short sleeve T shirt
- 2x padded inner shorts (one of them always drying while L. wore the others) and 1x MTB overshorts
- 1x flannel shirt Horamy.sk
- long sleeve thin softshell jacket with zip off sleeves to make it a vest
- waterproofs: Mountain Equipment Goretex overpants, poncho, neoprene shoe covers
- 1x low hiking shoes
- 2x Buff
- 3x socks, 1x sports bra, 1x swimsuit
- helmet
Tomas
- 2x short sleeve T shirt
- long sleeve merino base layer
- 1x padded inner shorts + overshorts
- 1x flannel shirt Horamy.sk
- waterproofs: Mountain Equipment Goretex overpants, poncho, neoprene shoe covers
- 1x low hiking shoes
- 2x Buff
- 1x underwear, 3x socks, swim shorts
- helmet
Toiletries + first aid kit
- sun screen SPF 50
- insect repelent with DEET
- contact lens solution + cases
- tooth brushes + toothpaste
- toilet paper
- nail scissors within the Swiss knife
- soap
- 1x fast drying towel
- first aid kit: paracetamol, ibuprofen, disinfection, plasters, elastic bandage, antihistamines
Electronics
Also electronics can be cut down to what you really need for that week or overnighter depending on what you want to get out of it. For this trip we actually carried two 20000 mAh powerbanks as we knew we’d be purely wild camping without access to electricity and had the phone constantly running because of recording the route. We also didn’t need the laptop as we decided to upload and edit all the photos and videos afterwards. But we carried usual trio of DSLR with lenses, drone and GoPro as we wanted to nicely document the journey for further purposes.
- iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
- 2x 20000 mAh powerbanks
- Anker Sound Core mini Bluetooth speaker
- DJI Mavic Air Fly More Combo + Polarpro ND filter 8 a 16
- USB cables
- GoPro Hero 7 black + spare battery + mounts
- Nikon D7500 DSLR+ spare battery
- Lenses – Sigma 10-20mm, Nikkor 35mm, Nikkor 55-300mm
- Gorilla tripod
- cleaning kit for lenses and filters, microfiber cloths
- Kindle Paperwhite
Repairs
Here we carried only necessary. Puncture repair kit and spare tubes, chain lube and spare brake pads (that we both actually had to change). Few quick links of chain are needed if you’re Tomas and like to break your chain on a regular basis :D.
- spare inner tube 3x (1 each and trailer) + puncture repair kit + tire levers + pump
- multitool Crankbrothers
- chain lube + rugs for cleaning chain
- zip ties + leukoplast tape or duct tape – unbeatable combination with which you can fix almost everything that’s torn, broken or however else damaged 😉
- few quick links or centimeters of chain
- spare brake pads
Miscellaneous
- sunglasses 1x each
- rearview mirrors for glasses (when they’re trying to kill us on the road)
- prescription glasses 1x each
- contact lenses
- wallet with documents and cards
- 1x Kryptonite U lock + 2 cables
- 1x light packable backpack for shopping and dayhikes
- pen+ notebook
- rear lights for the bikes and the trailer
The setup was relatively light, easy to put on the train (trains in Slovakia are unfortunately not level with the platform so you have to pick up your bike fairly high) and we didn’t suffer (so) much on the steep climbs of central Slovakia mountains. What’s your bikepacking gear list like?
Tell us what you think