8 Pieces of Gear Bikepackers Should Copy From UL Backpackers
Before I start in with my hot takes, some context: I like hiking. I also like riding bikes. I have done a lot of both, and used a lot of gear over the years. I grew up backpacking and riding bikes as a kid, but getting into thru-hiking sent me down the rabbit hole into the culty, dogmatic world of ultralight backpacking. I spent hours cutting tags off my gear and sawing off my toothbrush handles. You don’t have to spend much time staring at a table comparing the CLO values of Polartec Alpha, Primaloft Gold, and Climashield Apex or hear people argue about which model years of the Patagonia Houdini jacket had the best CFM rating for moderate exertion (I think it’s 2010-2012, but some people say it’s 2007-2009) to realize that thru-hikers are some of the most fastidious gear nerds out there.
Since then, I’ve gone deep into bikepacking, culminating in the 2700-mile Tour Divide race from Canada to Mexico last summer. During my research and on the Divide itself, I realized that there really isn’t much cross-pollination between the worlds of ultralight backpacking and bikepacking, and consequently, many great pieces of ultralight backpacking gear that thru hikers have been using for years haven’t yet been adopted by bikepackers.
Finishing the 2024 Tour Divide
The following eight pieces of gear are things that have been embraced by thru-hikers but not yet by bikepackers, at least not to the extent I think they deserve. You heard it here first, folks. Or maybe you know all of these already, in which case I apologize in advance.
1. Sun Hoodies: On the Tour Divide, I was shocked to see so many people wearing short sleeve bike jerseys, stopping every few hours to put on sunscreen and then getting absolutely torched anyway. I hate sunscreen, especially on multiday trips. It makes me feel dirty and I always miss spots. With a sun hoody, the only sunscreen I bring with me is a little stick for my face and I never get burned. I stuck one piece of velcro to my helmet and sewed the other side to my hood so it stays put in the wind. It worked flawlessly. Sun hoodies are made of lightweight fabric so you don’t overheat in hot weather, and the loose fit is nice and breezy. “But what about aero?” I hear you ask. Wind resistance increases exponentially with speed, and at the moderate speeds most bikepackers are riding, the aero penalty of loose clothing is negligible. I wore my hoody every day on the Tour Divide and Arizona Trail, and wouldn’t have wanted anything else.
2. Bidets: This one changed my world. Butt hygiene is huge on multi-day backpacking trips and it’s even more important on bikepacking trips, when your butt is, let’s say, more heavily involved. I used a $5 wash bottle from the internet. I chose it because it has great water pressure. I didn’t see a single other person on the Tour Divide carrying one of these. Bidets leave you feeling clean and fresh, reduce the likelihood of chafing, and basically eliminate the need to carry TP, making following Leave No Trace easy. When you’re wearing the same chamois day in and day out, the benefit of being squeaky clean after doing your business cannot possibly be overstated.
3. Bread Bags: Literally just the plastic bags from grocery store loaves of bread. These little beauties are clutch for keeping your feet warm in cold, wet conditions. Wear them over your socks, but under your shoes. Sure, there are companies that make “waterproof socks” for cycling, but anyone who’s used those knows they wet out after a few hours and take forever to dry. Sure, the bags don’t breathe, but if it’s cold and wet enough to wear them, your feet probably aren’t sweating much anyway. For the Tour Divide, I made a homemade version out of silnylon. Not only were they great at keeping my perennially cold feet warm, but they made me look ready for an 80s workout video. The technical term for a non-permeable layer that prevents evaporative heat loss and water ingress is a Vapor Barrier Liner. Tell your friends this and you’ll totally impress them. Or maybe they won’t want to be your friends anymore because you’re such a dork. But they didn’t deserve you anyway. And you have warm feet, so the joke’s on them.
4. Shelters: Now, as a tent designer, this one really gets me. I’m not going to come out and say there’s one best ultralight shelter for bikepacking, but I sure know what I DON’T like. Bikepackers seem wedded to waterproof bivy bags in a way that I simply cannot understand. Bivys are basically a rain jacket for your sleeping bag. On the surface, they seem to make sense: they’re light, simple, pack down small, and keep you dry at night. But here’s the thing: they are not as light as modern ultralight tarp shelters, there’s no room for activities, they don’t pack down as small as ultralight tarps, and they are veritable condensation factories.
The Cinder Cone 4P mid I used on the Tour Divide weighed only slightly more than most bivies, but had room for daaaaays. Photo by Tyler Fox.
The “waterproof breathable” fabrics used in bivy bags aren’t very waterproof or breathable. They’re also heavier than non-breathable waterproof textiles, so bivy bags often end up weighing more than silnylon or DCF shelters, even though bivies have basically no interior space. And because the fabric of the bivy is touching your sleeping bag, you often wake up soaked in condensation. It’s like a single wall tent on steroids. On a multiday trip where you don’t have the opportunity to dry your gear, this can seriously compromise your insulation and become a safety hazard. Sure, you can throw a bivy on the ground and crawl in without needing to think much, but as soon as you spend a rainy night in one, I think you’ll agree that these soggy body socks aren’t worth the time you save setting up a real shelter.
5. Running vest-style backpacks: Most bikepackers will agree that it’s better to avoid wearing a backpack on the bike if at all possible. But if you have to wear one, either for additional water storage or easy access to gear, you can’t do better than a running vest-style pack. As the name implies, these packs are halfway between ultralight backpacking packs and running vests. They have lots of storage options and pockets in the straps for on-the-go access, something that I haven’t seen on many cycling-specific packs. This is perfect for getting to small essentials during the day without having to stop riding. Running vests are designed for a secure fit that doesn’t bounce around when you’re running, which makes them a great stable option for cycling as well. Some riders just use standard running vests, which are great for when you don’t need much storage volume, but I gravitate towards something larger like the Nashville Pack Tiempo, which has 15L of storage- enough for some layers, a water bladder, and any food overflow that doesn’t fit in my frame bag. I wore one on the Tour Divide, and having easy access to my gear was great. I kept my headlamp, sunscreen, chapstick, etc. in the straps for easy access. If I can’t avoid riding with a backpack, I’ll pick something like this over a cycling-specific pack every time.
6. CalTopo: while not technically a piece of gear, I think CalTopo is an indispensable tool for anyone who plans their own routes. Yes, I know you can plan routes on Ride with GPS or Strava, but if I’m building a complex backcountry cycling route that involves trails and dirt roads, I always build it on my computer using CalTopo. The capabilities of the CalTopo browser app are far beyond any other mapping tool I’ve used. It has more layers, often with roads and trails that don’t show up on other platforms, plus lots of great overlays like public lands, cell coverage, and fire history. Heck, it even has a geology layer so you can learn about which cool rocks you’re riding on! I used CalTopo to chop up my Tour Divide GPX file into smaller chunks that my Garmin head unit could handle. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but believe me, it’s worth it. For navigating in the field, I download the maps on the CalTopo app so I can use it offline. With the maps downloaded, you can visualize the surrounding area and plan spontaneous detours much more easily than you can with Ride With GPS or Strava, especially when you’re offline.
7. Polartec Alpha Direct: this is hands-down the best midlayer material for high-intensity aerobic activities. It’s unbelievably light. My midlayer hoodie from Senchi Designs weighs 3.8oz- less than a cotton t-shirt, and it’s super breathable. The material has visible gaps that allow moisture from your body to escape easily with high-loft tufts of fleece in between for insulation. This means you can keep wearing the layer longer comfortably over a wider range of temperatures, keeping you comfortable and reducing the number of layering breaks you have to take. Some cycling apparel companies are starting to use this in their clothing, but they always try to get fancy by adding stretch panels or windproof face fabric or pockets or other bells and whistles that make the garment heavier and less breathable, negating the benefits of the fabric. You can’t beat the weight, breathability, and packability of a simple Alpha Direct midlayer like a Senchi or Farpointe.
8. Vagisil: okay, so this may seem like a curveball, but hear me out. Vagisil is the best chafe cure in the world. When I was revisiting the Washington PCT on a section hike a few years back, I hopped on with some thru-hikers who were doing 30 mile days. By day two I had chafed so badly that my inner thighs were bleeding. I thought my hike was over until one of the hikers brought out a tube of Vagisil and I applied it liberally to my undercarriage. Half an hour later I was pain-free, and I hiked another 250 miles to Canada without any more issues. It felt like a miracle. But it’s not a miracle, it’s drugs! Vagisil has a topical anesthetic to relieve pain and an antiseptic to reduce the risk of infection. For whatever reason, this seems to actually stop chafe from worsening in addition to alleviating the symptoms. Don’t ask me why it works, but it does. Don’t question it. Just try it and thank me later.
These are all hard-earned insights from many cold, sweaty, chafe-filled miles on foot, but I believe they have a place in any bikepacking setup. Hopefully at least one of these was new to you, and if not, congrats- you’re just as much of a dork as I am.