The Pannier Journal
TOASTING Life at 15KPH...
A collection of adventure cycling journeys, conversations, events and news stories that celebrate the spirit of travelling by bike...
REPORT / TIAN SHAN BIKEPACKING EXPEDITION 2022
Travel-writer, round-the-world cyclist and friend of Pannier, Julian Sayarer, joined the first edition of our Kyrgyzstan Expedition in June 2022. As the second edition of Tian Shan nears, Julian shares his experience of our backcountry journey east, through the 'celestial' mountains…
by JULIAN SAYARER, STEF AMATO
LIVING WILDS: BIKEPACKING THE CAIRNGORMS LOOP
A signature British bikepacking escape amongst sparse, silent lands. Two-hundred kilometres of the finest gravel tracks, forest-floor and loch-skirting singletrack, and hike-a-bike? Bikepacking the Cairngorms Loop is hard to beat...
by STEF AMATO & JORDAN GIBBONS
KENT DOWNS LOOP: BIKEPACKING THE CANTII WAY
We discover the English county of Kent over three days, riding Cycling UK's latest multi-day bikepacking route - the Cantii Way. Expect coastline, cathedral and cinque-port towns, vineyards, and seafood shacks with this accessible adventure on London's doorstep...
by STEF AMATO & JORDAN GIBBONS
WHAT WOULD MARY DO?
Back in the summer of 1936, 17-year-old Mary Harvie set out from Glasgow with her two sisters Ella and Jean to ride their bikes more than 500 miles between youth hostels in the Scottish Highlands. Eighty-five years after Mary's trip, Philippa, Alice & Lee follow in their tracks - bikepacking north through Scotland..
by PHILIPPA BATTYE & Maciek Tomiczek
BACK AND PORTH: DAYPACKING CORNWALL
Stef joins Holly and Jack on the Cornish Coast for a couple of ace days riding the new Cotic Cascade bikepacking bike. Expect clifftop and copper mine gravel, sea-foam shorelines, trailers, surfboards, fins, hand-planes, and raclette on the beach...
by STEF AMATO, SAM FIRTH & RICH BAYBUTT
ESCAPE TRACKS: NORTH YORK MOORS BIKEPACKING
Katie, Stef and Duncan take the train to the coast - the end-of-the-line at Scarborough - and escape on an overnight bikepacking adventure into the heart of the North York Moors National Park...
by STEF AMATO & DUNCAN PHILPOTT
COASTING: BIKEPACKING THE NORCORN COASTLINE
Alighting the Sleeper Train at the south-western tip of Great Britain, Luke, El, Kitty and Stef journey along the North Cornwall coastline - meeting up with friends along the way. Expect coastlines and lanes, seawall pasties, mizzle, coffee roasters and clifftop crousts, beach riding and cookouts, ferry hops, and alcohol-free beers...
by STEFAN AMATO & JORDAN GIBBONS
LOST WAYS: E-BIKEPACKING THE WEST KERNOW WAY, CORNWALL
Seven head to Cornwall to ride Cycling UK's newest off-road bikepacking route - the West Kernow Way. Expect challenging coastlines, port pasties, hedgerows and hike-a-bikes, post-industrial gravel, seawater swims ... and electric gravel bikes
by STEFAN AMATO & JORDAN GIBBONS
THE RAREBIT RAMBLE: BROMPTON BIKEPACKING
Bikepacking on Bromptons? Oh yes. We hire bikes from one of the Brompton Hire Docks in Birmingham, and ride/train/push our way through the heart of Mid-Wales on a cross-country adventure to Carmarthen. Connecting cities, people and places, by bike...
by STEFAN AMATO & DAVID SEAR
FURTHER ADVENTURES IN ROUGH STUFF: BOOK
Introducing the much-anticipated follow-up to the first Rough Stuff Fellowship Archive book. Archivist, Mark, has been busy unearthing thousands more slides from RSF club folk, whose remarkable images document intrepid trips from a bygone bikepacking era. Available now on Kickstarter...
by PANNIER
FILM: THE LONG WAY AROUND
Lael, Chris, Erik & Rue explore the High Sierras of California with bikes and bike backpacks. With their initial plans for an east-west traverse of the Sierras burning down time-and-time-again, they opted for a 300KM circular bikepacking route - upwards, further into untamed country where roads turned to trails...
by PANNIER
BIKEFISHING THE SECRET DALE
Bikefishing? Oh yes. We strap fishing rods, flies, and overnight kit to our gravel bikes for a bike-fishing journey along the River Nidd. Along the way, we meet up with Nidderdale AONB fly fisherman, Oscar, who takes us upstream fishing in the river and stillwater fishing at the local upland reservoir. Time to see what the bike fishing hype is all about...
by STEF AMATO & DUNCAN PHILPOTT
REPORT // PEAKLAND RAMBLE 2020
Pannier Rambles are our series of weekend bikepacking experiences. The Peakland Ramble sees us leave the centre of Manchester at 9.00am on a Saturday and ride an ace mixed-terrain route through the heart of the Peak District National Park, before finishing up in Sheffield around 4.00pm on a Sunday. It's a goodun...!
by PANNIER
WESSEX WANDERINGS: BIKEPACKING KING ALFRED’S WAY
Five Ride Out Of Covid-19 Lockdown, onto King Alfred's Way - a new 350km bikepacking route around the ancient kingdom of Wessex; across vast downlands that somehow echo the comfort of a countryside in which man has always been at home...
by STEF AMATO & DAVE SEAR
THE WILDS OF SIERRAS DE CAZORLES
Valencia-dweller, Pedro, sets off on a five-day circular bikepacking route, from local-ish Elche de la Sierra, to explore the wilds, back roads, tracks, and trails of Sierras de Cazorles National Park by bike...
by Pedro Mecinas Martínez
PEAKLAND 35MM
Liam is no stranger to bikepacking. Having finished the Transcontinental Race a couple of months prior he joined the 2019 Peakland Ramble, shooting a lovely roll of film on his trusty Yashica T4 camera, along our road & gravel Sheffield to Manchester route through the Peak District National Park...
by LIAM CLARKE
WARBIRD – THE FLIGHT OF THE ‘OG’ ORIGINAL GRAVEL BIKE?
What makes a bike a gravel bike? Tom Hill heads back to 2008, and delves into the development of The Salsa Warbird - widely considered the original 'og' gravel bike - a genre-defining machine that has changed the perception of what is possible on drop-barred bicycles…
by PANNIER
FILM: BIKEPACKING THE SOUTH DOWNS WAY
Last summer, four friends rode the South Downs Way - an ancient 100-mile ridgeline that spans the southeast coast of England. From Winchester to Eastbourne the historic chalk path has over 3500m of climbing and not a car in sight; rolling steep hills as far as the eye can see - an ideal UK bikepacking playground...
by GEORGE MARSHALL, NEIL, ANNA, LIAM & SOPH
A HIGHER CALLING // OPENING THE ‘HIGHEST ROAD’ IN EUROPE
While we’re locked down, work is going on in the Alps to clear the roads for another season’s cycling. Have you ever wondered how these majestical, treacherous alpine roads and passes are opened for us cyclists and bikepackers? Max Leonard transports us to the highest paved road in Europe...
by MAX LEONARD
THE GRAVEL-RIDING ADVENTURE-CYCLING BIKEPACKING CYCLE-TOURING ‘RULES’
Call it what you want: bikepacking; adventure cycling; gravel riding; cycle touring ... these are our lighthearted list of so-called 'rules' for you to check out, add to, and/or call out! Some more serious than others, obviously. See what you think...
by PANNIER
DOWN TO JERICHO
Cycle touring author, Julian Sayarer, released his latest work today - Fifty Miles Wide. A book / on his journey along the roads of Israel and occupied Palestine - a route that weaves from the ancient hills of Galilee, along blockaded walls of the Gaza Strip, and down to the Bedouin villages of the Naqab Desert. He shares a couple of extracts from the book...
by JULIAN SAYARER
LOST LANDS
The Frontier300 is a new UK coast-to-coast gravel route and event that weaves through the alluring Anglo-Scottish Borderlands, akin to the wailing westerlies. We head up to bikepack the 300-kilometre route and discover more about these lost lands, in the company of two world-record seekers...
by STEFAN AMATO & DUNCAN PHILPOTT
OUR BIKEPACKING / CYCLE TOUR & EXPEDITION KIT LISTS
What do you need to join one of our bikepacking tours or expeditions? We ride through the bike requirements, recommended kit list(s), what is available to hire from us, and frequently asked questions...
by PANNIER
FURTHLINES
In the wake of Storm Dennis, we explore the roads, gravel tracks and infrastructure lines of Snowdonia National Park's Carneddau Mountains. As we ride up, into the snow-sprinkled shadows of two Furth peaks, we slowly unearth a very humbling story of human influence in the mountains...
by STEFAN AMATO & DUNCAN PHILPOTT
FILM: RAINSPOTTING
Our new bikepacking film with Brother Cycles - tracks our 84-hour bikepacking ramble through Scotland's gloomy Grampians - IS OUT *09 APRIL 2020*. Watch the teaser, check the poster and join us on 25th March 2020 at 19.30GMT for our Watch Party...
by PANNIER
BEHIND THE SCENES I – PODCASTING THE SILK ROAD MOUNTAIN RACE
As Stefano heads to Morocco to document the inaugural Atlas Mountain Race, we chatted with him to understand more about his journey behind the scenes - what it's like, and what it takes, to tell the story of a bikepacking race...
by STEFANO NUCERA, ANTONIO ABREU & DANIL USMANOV
RAINSPOTTING
Six of us alight the sleeper train at Corrour - the highest, remotest station on the West Highland Line - and 'go for a w̶a̶l̶k̶ ride' through the wintry, gloomy Grampian Mountains of Scotland. We track the old-established north-south drove roads and, in true drover style, explore the alluring moorland voids in between...