My introduction to bikepacking (Part 1) - Croatia or bust

The bait

It started out as a simple conversation, a discussion of plans for the coming year, a common topic that normally comes up new year's day. Our daughter's boyfriend was talking about a wedding he was planning to attend in the summer. But this was more than a wedding. This was an epic trip he was planning, a trip where the lead up was commensurate with the penultimate event. As he described his plan, one word caught my attention. He was planning to get to this wedding in Serbia by traveling from Sweden on a bike!

It was that last word that caught my attention. Traveling from Sweden on a bike. Let me start by explaining that I am a bit of a bicycle fanatic, be it a road bike, a city bike or a mountain bike. I have done many events on a road bike ranging from centuries (100 mile rides), half and full ironman's, to full day cycling events of 300km or more. Riding off road I have raced cross country, competed in duathlons, raced enduro races and ridden downhill parks in several countries. In between I enjoy riding a bike around the city or commuting to work. In fact, when we moved to Sweden, we chose to not get a car and our main modes of transportation are bikes and walking. Thus, instead of having a car, we have several types of bikes ranging from skinny tire aero bikes for racing to fat tire mountain bikes for winter riding, and a number of options in between.

So back to this trip to Serbia. Why Serbia you may ask? It is because my daughter's boyfriend has family heritage and friends from Serbia, and this was a trip he was planning to attend two friend's wedding. At first I thought the idea of riding a bike to Serbia was a bit crazy, especially all alone, but as I thought about it more it became intriguing. "You're crazy", I told him, "crazy to make this trip and crazy to do it alone". The next part of the conversation is a bit unclear to me (perhaps because of new year's alcohol) but somehow I ended up saying that I would join him. At first it was a soft commitment, but a few days later I realized that this was something I really wanted to do. I love the motivation of a new challenge. Add to that an adventure, which traveling by bike to Serbia would certainly qualify as, and I was in.

The next step was the mental preparation, since to complete something like this provides a difficult mental challenge. For me that meant a firm commitment which comprised of two things. First, tell a few people that I was going to do this. Not enough that it seemed like a boast, but enough that I would be able to hold myself accountable. The second part was committing with the wallet which meant buying a proper bike for such a trip. This was accomplished by a ton of research, as I always do, and heading to a local shop and buying myself a proper gravel bike with a good amount of options for carrying gear.

Intro to bikepacking 101

There were two ways to go about this ride, one was to travel by road, or the second option, ride a mix of on and off-road and the most direct path. I have had more than my share of pavement and I was a bit leery of riding a bike along motorways and breathing exhaust over several weeks. Not having a great deal of experience in bikepacking, I decided to reach out to a friend of ours who had started bikepacking the year before for advice. His description made the decision easy, it was the more direct off road route and we would be bikepacking, as opposed to bike touring. The biggest differences between the two is the type of bikes you ride and the amount of gear you carry. For bikepacking you want a more rugged bike and you want to carry as light of a setup as possible since the terrain is more demanding and your bike needs to be maneuverable.

Now I was firmly committed, had a fixed date of July for the trip, and only had to figure out how to make it all work. I am off for a run now, but I will get back to that in my next post ….