I firmly believe that bike touring is the cheapest and most accessible form of global travel.
In recent years outdoor pursuits have been increasingly dominated by a consumerist mindset. You can’t practice some kind of hobby outside these days without needing to equip yourself from head to toe in all the latest lightweight bits and pieces. Make sure that you measure every aspect of your leisure time, using the latest electronic gadgets to track your performance, competing against your friends and coworkers to show them how fast you blazed your way across a scenic landscape.
What a load of bollocks. Of course the outdoors industry wants you to buy as much kit as possible. Every consumer market in the world is desperately trying to convince you that you’ll be happier if you just buy more of their products. Social media ‘influencers’ reinforce this, demonstrating products to online audiences is how they make their money.
Our ancestors conquered this planet wearing animal skins, you don’t need to splash out hundreds on a fancy raincoat from Arcteryx just to walk up a hill…
On my very first day riding out of Deadhorse, Alaska, I met a guy wearing an old dress shirt, cotton trousers and sandals, riding a steel mountain bike from the 90s equipped with homemade panniers fashioned from repurposed plastic containers. His entire setup probably didn’t exceed £500. He had ridden the length of the continent, all the way from Argentina.
Of course you should try to get the best equipment that you can reasonably afford, ideally this should be hard-wearing, easy to maintain and repair. However, if you don’t have much in the way of cash, and you’ve got a bad case of wanderlust, you have to make the dream happen any way you can!
To that end, I’m building a collection of DIY hacks on this page, aimed at helping the budget-conscious adventurer get on the road.
DIY duct tape bikepacking frame bag
DIY camping stoves
Make your own solid fuel tabs that can be used to boil water in camp. These work virtually the same as hexamine/ esbit tablets, albeit cheaper.
Solid fuel stoves are among the most lightweight cooking options you can carry for bikepacking/ backpacking.
Besides the fuel tabs, my ‘stove’ consists of 3 tent pegs and two bits of aluminium foil, which function as a windbreak and base. This takes up virtually no pack space and can be easily adjusted depending on the anticipated length of the trip. For a solo overnighter I just wrap two or three tabs in tinfoil, pop them in a pocket and head out.
For a larger burner, perhaps to cook up for several people, you might also want to try out the classic ‘buddy burner’. See below:
External resources
A collection of DIY hacks from various places on the internet. If you find any similar bits and pieces online, please share them with me and I’ll add them to the list.
A list of 14 bikepacking hacks
Budget build off: 5 examples of complete bikepacking rigs made to a $500 dollar budget
Make your own wooden front luggage rack
Make a front luggage rack from a skateboard
Make a saddlebag harness from an old bike tyre
Make panniers from a plastic container
Make your own drawstring stuff sack
Make your own cylindrical stuff sack
Make your own rolltop stuff sack
Make your own handlebar bag from a camera bag
Make your own ultralight pogies
5 different soda can alcohol stove designs
DIY fire starters (essentially the same as my DIY fuel tabs video above)