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MOUNTAIN BIKING IN WALES

Bikepacking can open up a whole new world of riding. As the name suggests, it involves riding a packed bike, although it's not the traditional, heavy-weight tourer you might imagine. Bikepacking strips things back to the essentials, allowing you to ride unhindered by the weight and bulk of cumbersome racks and panniers and leaving you free to enjoy the ride no matter where it takes you.

Once you've experienced the freedom that bikepacking offers, you may find yourself hooked but gaining that initial experience can be difficult and even a little daunting. We've been at the forefront of the UK bikepacking scene for ten years, running both the Welsh Ride Thing and Bear Bones Bikepacking … so let us use our experience to put you on the right track.

Bikepacking in the welsh mountains

Bikepacking Trips

Day one starts around 10.30am with the packing of bikes and a brief run-through of the route. We'll be carrying we need for the next twenty four hours but we'll aim to keep things as light and simple as possible. Once we're ready, we'll wind our way out through the sparsely populated hills and valleys that lead up to the higher mountain plateau. While the terrain and distance covered can be altered to suit the group, a certain level of climbing is inevitable, making some previous riding experience a definite advantage.

The days riding should last between four and five hours by which point we'll be high in the Cambrian mountains. It's a place which still feels remarkably wild and provides the perfect backdrop to the trip and the ideal location to make camp for the night. Tarps up, water collected and a brew on, after-which it's time to sit back, eat, chat and while-away the evening. We'll be carrying ultralight meths stoves, which while very small and efficient, don't have the capability of some larger stoves, so it's recommended that you bring either dehydrated food or something which doesn't require cooking.

After a night below the shadow of the mountains, we'll have a leisurely start to the day, packing kit and eating breakfast. With everything safely stowed away, we'll set off again across the plateau, taking in a varied cross section of trails as we head for home. The riding on day two generally involves less climbing than on the previous day, meaning progress tends to be a little quicker with us aiming to be back at base around mid-day.

A suggested kit list will be sent out in advance of your trip. However, it's unlikely to contain many items that you don't already have or can't easily obtain.

Cost: £95pp

You're free to bring your own equipment or alternatively, we can supply everything you need except a sleeping bag. Trips are run 'on demand' including mid-week. Simply contact us with your preferred date and we'll take it from there.