Bikepacking or bike touring with rack(s) and panniers? Online and at the numerous events related to the world of bicycles, discussions are increasingly animated… But does the perfect travel setup exist? In this article we will try to analyze the two most popular ways of carrying your luggage, by evaluating the advantages and the disadvantages of bikepacking and bicycle touring.
The concept is one and only: gravel! And when we talk about this world, we cannot fail to mention one of the main components of this type of bike that is increasingly gaining ground in the cycling and bicycle tourism environment: I'm talking about gravel handlebars and I say it deliberately in the plural as there are so many, of various shapes and facets. For this reason, below I will try to explain how to choose a gravel handlebar and what are the features of some of the best gravel handlebars for your bicycle adventures.
Roswheel bags and in particular Roswheel Tour Pannier 40L (the pair) are one of the products that marked the entry into the world of bicycle travel of this Shanghai company. Roswheel has been producing accessories for bicycles for years and has recently launched the production of bags for classic bicycle touring and bikepacking. We have tried a few of these bags over the last year and what you find below is our review on the larger model of panniers.
The time to pack up and leave is always an important and exciting moment. Before getting there, we are often assailed by a Hamletic doubt: where to carry the weights on the bike when cycling? Panniers and racks on the front, or on the rear, or better yet both front and rear? Below I will try to answer these questions based on my experience, trying to explain bike weight distribution on touring bikes.
The rear area is one of the most used areas for transporting luggage by bike. In bikepacking you work in the absence of luggage racks, but fortunately there are many bikepacking saddle bags in which to store clothes, sleeping bag and mattress, food... Surely this is the largest area, but everyone chooses what to place in these bags. In this article we will see the main features to take into consideration for the purchase of a bikepacking seat bag and I will present you 18 of the best on the Italian and International market.
"I didn't consider the triangle". And you were wrong, I will tell you, because in bikepacking it is the first element to consider. In this article we will see the various types of specific bicycle frame bags (but not only) for bikepacking, with an overview on the criteria for choosing the most suitable bag for you and a collection of the 15 best bikepacking frame bags on the market.
How do you organize the distribution of weights and volumes in bikepacking for a bicycle trip? In this article you will be able to compare two bikepacking setups and, if you are approaching the varied world of bikepacking or if you want to compare your experience as a traveler with mine and that of Alessio founder of Cicloslavisti, you are in the right place.
When carrying our luggage on the bike, fork loading is undoubtedly a very sensitive issue because the fork itself is an extremely delicate element of our bike. To exploit it in this sense, there are numerous supports on the market to be fixed to the fork to carry bikepacking waterproof bags, the famous Gorilla cage, also more generically called Cargo cage. Today I want to tell you about my experience with one of the best-known products belonging to this family of small fork racks, the Anything Cage HD by Salsa, which I have been owning and happily using for a couple of years now.
What are the best gravel bikes of 2021? If you are reading this article it is because, most likely, you are deciding to face the big step and buy a gravel bicycle. I will not dwell on what a gravel bike is or why you made this decision because these elements, although worthy of being treated, are not of interest to those like you who have to decide which gravel bike to buy.
Just know that in recent years more and more people have decided to marry this "philosophy" and try an intermediate vehicle between a racing bike and a mountain bike, for travelling or for day trips on the white roads near home. So I decided to do a short (and certainly not exhaustive) research, trying to understand which are the most popular gravel bikes and those that are used with more satisfaction by lovers of dirt roads. Then I recommend the best ten gravel bike models of 2021.
There is only one concept: gravel! And when we talk about this world, we cannot fail to mention one of the main components of this type of bike that is increasingly gaining ground in the cycling and cycle tourism environment: I'm talking about gravel handlebars, in their many shapes and facets. For this reason, below I will try to explain how to choose the best gravel handlebar for your adventures.
Buying a touring bicycle is always challenging, especially because we usually travel once or twice a year and it's not easy to face a purchase - besides, expensive - for an item that will mostly live in our basement. Luckily during these last years, the concept itself of bicycle tour has been changing, and along with it, the bikes evolved as well, becoming everyday things.
This allows us to make a more thoughtful choice, and maybe pledge a higher budget for this mixed-use means of transportation. This year too I decided to do a short (and surely not exhaustive) research, trying to understand which are the most popular travel bikes (touring bikes) and which are used with more satisfaction by bike travellers. See below the 15 best touring bikes of 2021.
How can I choose the right cycling shoes? A simple question that requires such a complex answer! Especially because talking about cycling shoes is as reductive as speaking about bicycles in general! There are so many disciplines in our cycling world, that we'll have to evaluate in a deeper way how to choose between the different cycling shoes compatible with your use.
Salsa bikes universe broadens in a very wide range of models, from the fast road bikes to the huge tyres of fat bikes, from the agile gravel bikes to the trustworthy and versatile adventure bicycles. In this article we'll be diving into these last two categories, focusing on new Salsa touring bikes available in 2021.
By now using a GPS for bicycle, outdoor activities or trekking has become very important, let me say essential. We have been using it for 15 years now. We started with a non-cartographic GPS together with paper maps, in order to track our routes, to then switch to a cartographic GPS more similar to a cyclo-computer. Now we are using a more generic one, more outdoor-oriented than bicycle oriented. Enough talking: let's see which are the best bicycle GPS in 2021 in my personal opinion and online research.
At Decathlon Headquarters it's bicycle touring time: the French brand renovates its line by redesigning its Riverside models and getting into the bikepacking market. Today, the brand new Riverside Touring 920 came to light, very interesting from features to pricing. Let's take a look at it in detail.
Are you a daily urban commuter, or a weekend bikepacker, or maybe a world bike tourer? Brooks England released Scape bikepacking bags: a new and elegant line of bags and panniers. Let's take a quick look!
Maybe you've noticed... or maybe not. Anyway, starting from this year, Vero and I will be cruising a Trek bicycle. We're hoping - taking the current pandemic situation into consideration - to ride our new Trek 920 the furthest possible... but for now we've tested them around the corner and we're more than satisfied! Waiting for the real test of the Trek 920, in this article I'm listing 2021 Trek bicycles, in particular their touring models.
Until a few months ago, Veronica was a happy owner of a Genesis bicycle.
Being one of the most active brands producing touring and adventure models, Genesis and its new 2021 bicycles will be the focus of this article.
The front region is definitely one of the most important areas to carry objects when cycling. This is valid also when bikepacking: you can find so many handlebar bags. Depending on the type of bicycle traveller you are, you'll need more or less space, a different hooking system, different materials... In this article I'll be analyzing all the features to be considered before purchasing a bikepacking handlebar bag, then I'll list and compare 17 of them.
Gorilla Cages, Anything Cages, Cargo Cages, Fork Cages... you can call them as you want, but none of them can give a clue about what these things are... It's some sort of cages, made of different materials, bigger than a usual bottle cage but smaller than a rack, to be mounted on the bicycle fork. They are used mainly to carry (on the fork) smaller bags (from 1 to 5 litres) in a bikepacking setup, but we're allowed to mount them on an MTB or a gravel bike... In this article, we're going to analyze the main features and functions of these Gorilla Cages, then I'm listing the 11 best in my opinion.
