Guide

Planning a multi-day gravel or bikepacking route

Seven minutes. For trips with a start, a finish and a week in between.

The hard part of a multi-day route is not finding the line. It is building a week you finish. Four decisions carry most of the weight: day length, resupply, sleep and bailouts.

Set day length from the week, not the route

Work backwards from the finish. If you have five riding days and a 500 km route, the average is 100 km. That average hides the day with 2,200 m of climbing and the day with a headwind across open fields.

Set the first day shorter than you think. Packing, food, a train delay and an untested bike eat the morning. A 60 km first day that ends in daylight beats a 120 km first day that ends in the dark with no shop open.

Then vary the days. Put the long day on the flattest section and the short day before the biggest climb. Build one easy day into the middle of the week. Most people need it more than they admit.

Plan resupply in gaps, not in towns

List the distance between reliable shops, not the towns themselves. Map every shop and water point on the route before you set day lengths. Sunday hours and seasonal closures remove options you counted on.

• Carry water for the longest gap, plus one more bottle.
• Carry food for one extra meal. A closed shop is annoying. A closed shop with no food is a problem.
• Note taps, cemeteries and village pumps as backup water. Treat water from a stream before drinking.
• Check the closing day of the biggest shop on the route. Many close one weekday, not only Sunday.

Choose sleep stops you can reach before dark

Hotels, huts and campsites have fixed locations. Wild camping has rules that change by country and by land owner. In Germany, wild camping is generally not allowed outside designated areas. In parts of Scandinavia, one night away from buildings is accepted. Check the rules for each country on your route.

Plan the sleep stop at the end of a day you know you can finish. A camp 10 km past the last shop sounds romantic until you arrive at midnight with no water.

Book the first and last night. The middle can stay flexible if the route has enough towns.

Keep a bailout on every day

A bailout is a road, a station or a village where you can end the day early. Note one for the morning, one for the afternoon. If the weather turns, you have a target that is not the finish.

Check train rules for bikes before you rely on one. Regional trains in many European countries take a bike without a reservation. High-speed trains often need one.

Ride the first day as a test

Load the bike the way you will ride it and do a 40 km loop with the full kit. You will find the bag that rubs, the strap that loosens and the gear that rattles. Better at home than 200 km into the trip.

Put the plan on paper

A phone dies, gets wet or runs out of signal. A printed card per day works in the rain and shows the whole day at once. Add the day distance, climbing, climbs, turns, resupply gaps and one bailout.