Bike Magazine Focuses on Bikepacking for September

compose Logan Watts
time Aug 28, 2015
comment 16

Bike Magazine has always featured storytelling, both literal and visual, with an adventuresome lilt. That’s what has placed the magazine in the upper escelon of mountain biking periodicals; it consistently ropes you in via promises of unspoiled dirt, incredible scenery, and the sense of bicycle induced freedom that sparks childhood déjà vu. It’s high time that they gave a proper bow to bikepacking.

They loosely define bikepacking as “seeking adventure through multi-day, self-supported trips on lightly loaded bikes.” And that’s certainly how they approached it. All of the bikes featured in the stories and write-ups are full-suspension trail slayers carrying minimal loads.

It’s about using the bike you already have for exploration. For seeking the unknown. For bikepacking in uncharted territory. – Brice Minnigh

The cover features “The Call of Kazbegi,” an epic chronicle written by Bike Mag’s editor Brice Minnigh, and perfectly photographed by filmmaker Joey Schusler and photographer Ross Measures. The story follows a high alpine journey across the Caucasus Mountains in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. It’s best summed up in this mid-story outtake, “We were alone in some of the world’s most remote wilderness, carrying everything we needed to survive. And we were shredding some of the sweetest alpine singletrack any of us have ever seen. This was what bikepacking is meant to be.”

“Outer Limits,” written by Graham Averill, is a colorful story told from the author’s own North Carolina backyard about a three-day bikepack through Pisgah where almost everything went wrong. Although he and the two other riders battled torrential rain and gale force wind for much of their trip, they found the beauty and solitude that comes from an immersive multi-day ride in the Appalachian mountains.

In place of the magazine’s typical bike and gear review section is a special feature titled “Cargo Space.” Three very different riders, Kurt Refsnider, Joey Schusler, and first-timer Evan Voss show off their rigs and bikepacking gear lists. All three explore the concept of bikepacking on full-suspension bikes in order to maximize the enjoyability of the ride, so these gear breakdowns showcase a modern approach to adventure by bike and explore concepts such as food, clothing, sleeping, and essentials.

In addition, there are several other worthwhile columns breaching the subject of bikepacking and a third feature about ultra-endurance rider, Jeremy Bishop. If you’re not a subscriber, go pick up a copy. Volume 22, Issue 07 will be on newsstands until 10/2/15. Also, a digital edition is available here.