Our tips for traveling light by bike

Traveling light by bike allows you to travel with peace of mind, carrying only the essentials in your luggage. There are many advantages to this approach. Indeed, having only the essentials in your panniers not only simplifies travel, but also offers a smoother, more enjoyable travel experience. By lightening the weight of your luggage, you reduce the amount of energy needed to pedal, enabling you to cover greater distances with less effort. This reduction in fatigue at the end of the day promotes a more enjoyable travel experience.

Traveling light allows you to free yourself from materialism and return to a simple way of life, focused on the essentials. This way of traveling delivers a profound sense of freedom, sparing you the daily dilemma of choosing what to pack. By lightening your load, every item becomes a deliberate and considered choice, allowing you to concentrate fully on the travel experience. Here are a few tips to help you travel light on your next cycling trip.

Travelling light allows you to free yourself from materialism and return to a simple way of life, focused on the essentials. This way of traveling delivers a profound sense of freedom, sparing you the daily dilemma of choosing what to pack. By lightening your load, every item becomes a deliberate and considered choice, allowing you to concentrate fully on the travel experience. Here are a few tips to help you travel light on your next cycling trip.

Our practical tips for traveling light

Traveling by bike embodies the spirit of light travel, where every kilometer covered allows you to discover new landscapes, at your own pace. By choosing to travel by bike, you’re opting for an approach marked by simplicity and efficiency, where every item taken along is assessed according to its necessity and usefulness.

• Your choice of bike will have an impact on the way you travel. There are many different types of bike: gravel bikes have been a trend for some years now. It’s versatile and offers you the possibility of traveling on roads and trails. Gravel bikes embody the spirit of adventure and exploration, and allow you to travel light, especially when bikepacking. This option requires compromises when it comes to packing. It also requires suitable, high-quality equipment.

• A hybrid bike or a traditional touring bike, equipped with a luggage rack, allows you to carry traditional panniers, offering the possibility of bringing more stuff to make your evenings more comfortable.

• An e-bike, equipped with a luggage rack and traditional panniers, makes cycling effortless.

• The key is to find the one that best suits your needs, your itinerary and will allow you to enjoy your cycling adventure to the fullest.

• If you have two rear panniers mounted on your bike’s luggage rack, distribute the weight on both sides for better stability and balance.

• Avant de vous lancer dans un séjour de plusieurs jours, prenez le temps de vous entraîner sur une journée avec tout votre équipement. Cette étape vous permettra d’évaluer le matériel dont vous avez besoin. Cela peut également réduire votre crainte de manquer de quelque chose pendant votre voyage. En éliminant l’inutile et en vous concentrant sur l’essentiel, vous pouvez voyager plus léger.

• Pack a small, minimalist first-aid kit, with only the essentials. You’ll also find pharmacies along the way if you need them.

The bikepacking option to travel even lighter

For those who aspire to travel with even less luggage, the bikepacking option offers an ideal solution. Bikepacking offers a minimalist approach to bicycle travel, making it possible to cover long distances nimbly and unencumbered. Bikepacking bags have a limited load capacity (less than 20 l). That’s why it’s essential to choose the right equipment and optimize space. They are compact and specially designed to fit bike frames. They are strategically placed so as not to interfere with the bike’s aerodynamics. What’s more, bikepacking can be adapted to different types of bikes, such as mountain bikes, road bikes and gravel bikes, offering great flexibility in cycling practice. Doing away with the traditional luggage rack and panniers means you can pedal more lightly, while retaining a good riding feel.

So you can use different bikepacking bags:

• A saddlebag: Depending on the model, capacities vary from 8 to 17 liters.
• Handlebar bag: 4 to 10 liters.
• Frame bag: 4 to 8 liters.

There are several bikepacking brands making handmade panniers in France: Here are 3 examples that we like at Abicyclette Voyages, Le rouquin qui roule ( Made in Rostrenen, in central Brittany ), Akao Designs ( Made in Saint-Malo, in Brittany ), Vélocidade (Made in Ariège).

We can’t fail to mention two of the world’s leading names in bikepacking bags: Restrap (Made in the UK), Apidura (Made in China).

The distribution of your belongings will depend on how easy it is to open your bags and how accessible they are. The most accessible bags (with the easiest opening) will hold the things you need during the day:

• Your documents: bank card, cash, health insurance, passport…
• Food: energy bar, Swiss Army knife, stainless steel fork…
• Personal care: sun cream, small first-aid kit.
• Clothing: raincoat, down jacket, gloves, etc.
• Mechanical equipment: patch kit, set of tire levers, multi-tool with chain tool, compact hand pump…
• Electronics: charger, GPS…

The less accessible panniers will hold your evening essentials, which you won’t need during the day.

• Personal care: travel toothpaste, toothbrush, chamois cream for the chafing…
• Evening clothes: underwear, fleece, pants

Our services for traveling light with Abicyclette Voyages

Here are a few recommendations for your next cycling adventure with Abicyclette Voyages :

• To travel as light as possible, forget camping and bivouac and opt for hotels. They save you the hassle of traditional camping equipment such as tents, mattresses and comforters.

On our trips, take advantage of hotel services that offer you a practical and comfortable solution for traveling light. Carefully selected hotels offer specially designed bike storage areas, ensuring a safe journey.

• Make the most of local players to eat out: you can choose to dine in local restaurants where you can sample traditional dishes and discover regional cuisine. Another option is to explore local markets to gather fresh ingredients for an impromptu picnic.

• Take only the essentials in your panniers: for those opting for the luggage transport service, take only those items that may be useful to you during the day (GPS, sunglasses, sun cream, etc.). You can also take along your Abicyclette Voyages musette bag, which is offered to you on the day of your departure and includes your route book and travel documents. If you’re not the type to compromise and take your beach paddles with you, that’s possible! On vacation, we understand the importance of uncompromising comfort. With our luggage transport service, you can travel light and still take everything you need with you. You can enjoy every moment of your getaway to the fullest.

At Abicyclette Voyages, luggage transport is an option that can be removed from your offer to reduce the carbon footprint of your cycling vacation. We hope our tips will help you limit the weight and volume of your belongings, so you can set off on your adventure without a luggage transport service, without diminishing the pleasures of every moment on your bike, and create memorable souvenirs.