- Bikepacking is a great way to escape from reality
and explore new places.
For a go as to how long you're away for,
be it a simple over nighter
or a trip of many months, your enjoyment of it
is gonna be linked in no small part to your stomach.
- Now on a smaller trip, you can probably carry
most of the food you require with you.
However, the reality is on a longer trip,
you are going to have to source food,
whether you like it or not.
Where and what you buy is very dependent
on where you are in the world.
However, there are a few golden rules that you can
stick to to help you make the most out of a situation.
(rock music)
Part of the joy of bikepacking is experiencing
different cultures and cuisine.
It's always important to try and eat with locals
when you can and try the local dishes, like we are here.
Bikepacking will be quite energy-intensive,
so you need to get the carbs in to fuel your riding.
Quite often rice or pasta-based dishes
are a good go-to option.
However, in countries like Morocco, quite often bread
is the carbohydrate of choice.
- Yeah, now you also have to think about vegetables.
Nutrients are an important part and actually
it can be quite hard to get in when you're out on the road.
So take the options where you can.
Food is great, obviously.
It's quite easily transportable on the bike.
But remember also, in certain countries, that golden rule
where if you can't peel it or wash it yourself,
then you probably wanna think about avoiding it.
(rock music)
- So my theory with bikepacking meals is that I'm not
trying to make a gourmet meal.
It's about getting the energy in that I need.
I can't really carry things like dairy and fresh fruit,
fresh meat that well on a bike, especially in a climate
like this because it will go off and you don't wanna
be eating meat on the turn and making yourself ill.
Also, it's easier just to cook one pot.
So if you've got a base for it, in this case rice,
you can then add sort of pre-prepared or
half-cooked ingredients to it.
So that can be things like tin fish, tin meat
or cured meat or even things like beans, things like that,
and then you can add different sources.
So some people take a little salt and pepper,
a little olive oil, and a little bit of flavor
really does improve it.
Mmm. Yum.
(rock music)
- Whenever you're on the bike for a long time,
you need to eat as you're goin' along.
The key to good ride food is to have something you can
easily digest and it's not gonna fall apart in your hands.
- Quite often, you're going to have to rely
on gas stations and small shops to buy your snacks
as you're goin' along.
So here's our quick guide on what to account for.
Ideally we'll get some nuts or some dried fruits.
Something natural to snack on.
However that's not always possible,
so lets go inside and see what we can find.
There's a good selection of cakes here
and they're a pretty good staple.
Plenty of energy in them and they don't really
go off too much and they've got their own wrapping
so they're not gonna melt and get everywhere.
Got some biscuits as well that we could get.
Plenty of calories in that.
Let's get some sweets too, just in case it gets nasty.
I got some treats.
I got some water.
- That's just so unhealthy.
I can't believe you'd even go there.
- It is pretty unhealthy, but there's not really
many options.
I've got some nice Oreos, a few cakes,
some mystery biscuits, and good old Haribos.
(chattering in background)
Don't beat yourself up about your diet
when you're away bikepacking.
After all, you're not going to be able to follow your
healthy meal plan at all times.
Sometimes you just need to get the calories in
and a little luxury is gonna improve your day
and might help your mood.
- Glad you said that Josh because that was me thinking
that my body was a temple.
(rock music)
- Now sometimes when it's all just a bit too much
and you're a bit too tired, you just need a bottle
of Coke for a caffeine and sugar rush, and sometimes
that's what it takes to get through the day.
- Yeah, whether it's just tired legs or a tired head,
it can make all the difference, can't it?
- Yeah definitely. Sugar.
Liquid sugar.
- Kill for an ice cream as well.
(rock music)
- Something to consider when you're buying foods
to take on your bikepacking trip is perishable items.
Especially in a warmer climate like this.
Unfortunately, it means you probably can't carry
things like fruit and fresh meat as easily
because they could go off and if they do go off
and you eat them, it could make you ill,
which isn't great, especially if you're in
somewhere remote.
Things to go for tend to be harder to find things.
Unfortunately, they're not the healthiest
but they don't go off and they do last a long time.
Things like tuna are great.
They're in a tin.
They're not gonna go off and they're gonna keep
for a number of days.
Healthier options would be dried fruit and nuts
and these give you plenty of energy and are not
gonna go off and make you ill.
(rock music)
Alright, so we've got some snacks for the road.
We now need to store them on the bike.
So there's a few different areas that I like to keep snacks.
The main one being the feed bag here.
So this is great for eating on the move.
You can just get to it easily, open it up,
and grab your food out.
So I'll put things like biscuits, probably some Haribos,
all within arm's reach in there.
And then I like to leave a little bit of space in the frame
bag as well so you can put some extra cakes in there.
They might get a bit squashed though, but
you soon get over it after a while.
Standards tend to drop.
And then finally, for bulkier items,
I like to just put it under the bungees
in the saddle pack.
So you can squeeze it under there and that will
stay nice and tight on there.
Just bear in mind that it's gonna be in the sun
so if it's perishable you might not wanna put it there.
(rock music)
- Now another key point, of course, is your hydration,
which is probably more important than your food.
You run out of calories, you'll go slowly and
feel a bit bad.
If you run out of water, the health implications
can very quickly become quite severe indeed.
So first rule is to drink liquid often
and the second rule is to make sure that you've
actually got enough storage for water on your bike.
As you can see, when you start getting weighed down
with bags and stuff, it rapidly limits your choices.
So a good tip is to actually use a collapsible
water bladder that can stash inside your bags
or on top of them, and a pro tip I'm told
is to actually use a full length frame bag and
then you can fill the whole bottom part
with a water bladder and that will increase the
storage capacities quite significantly.
The other thing when you're drinking a lot,
of course, is salt.
Now, you might find on a shorter trip you can take
a little tube of electrolyte tabs.
That will add obviously add back for when you're drinking.
But the alternative is the old school Dioralyte approach.
The flavor of these are a little bit different,
a bit less sweet so that might be more to your palate.
Now you might also find that your body starts craving salt,
in which case you should probably listen to it
and then treat yourself to a giant bag of crisps
or chips and bananas, as well, as a healthy alternative.
They've got potassium in there, which is another
great electrolyte.
(rock music)
Alright, let's go.
(rock music)
- You also need to consider storing water on your bike.
Now on this trip, we've got 700 mL bottles
and that's just about enough to see us through.
However, on a longer trip or in more remote areas,
you may want to consider running a cage
underneath the down-tube
or carrying a bladder inside your frame bag
to give you extra storage.
Now in Europe and North America, it's often safe
to drink the tap water.
However, in more far flung places, such as Morocco,
the tap water isn't always safe to drink.
So it's important to try and drink bottled water
when you can, or if it's not available,
take the appropriate filtering equipment
to make water safe.
That could be a water filter, a UV pen,
or just chlorine tablets.
That's a lot of chat for 1,900 meters, Josh.
- That's my sweat mate.
Woo-hoo-hoo.
(rock music)
And do make sure you give this video a big thumbs up
if you're enjoying the bikepacking content here
on GCN and if you'd like a little bit more information
on exactly what we're taking, Josh very kindly
talked me through it when we were actually
back in the UK before we'd come out.
So if you wanna see that video, click just down there.