Personal setups » MPS’s Setup for Sahara, Westafrica, SouthernEurope – 10.000km tour
by MPSMy gear for the last trip I did, a three month tour from Liberia through Sierra Leone, Guinee, Guinee-Bissua, Gambia, Senegal, Mauretania, West-Sahara, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Andorra, France, Monaco, Italy and San Marino.
At the time I did not knew that “bikepacking” exists, so I didnt find out about any companies making framebags and the like, I just went to the local bike shop and build things myself. I used a normal handlebar bag (removed the heavier plastic casing) and strapped my matress up front (not shown on pic). The triangular bag holds mosquito spray, sunscreen and first aid kit, the saddle bag is for spare parts and tools, the tent (Helsport Ringstind Superlight) goes into the bottle holder, and I have 3 bottles on the frame. I also had a camelbag, 2L, in my backpack, but never used it.
In addition to the things shown I carried a 25L backpack, which was half empty most of the time. It was mostly for carrying extra food, documents, my clothing and having my valuables close on my body. It weights 500gr, with luggage about 3kg. In total I had ~20kg, 2,5k water, 7,5kg bike and ~10kg gear.
Took me 89 days to do the roughly 10k kilometers, and I had lots of restdays due to waiting on visas. I did do one taxi ride, one time hitchhiking in a boring stretch in WestSahara/Dhakla, and a bus from Madrid to Barcelona, because I couldnt be bothered to ride in and out of the two largest cities in Spain, its too much hassle.
Bike is a Carver Evolution Carbon.
If you want to find out more, come by www.unlocked-achievements.com, I did quite a few tours already, current count is 115 countries. I’m currently preparing my next trip, ~30.000km through Siberia in winter to get to Japan, and do the Silkroad in summer to return to Europe.
PS: Now I’m itching to get my hands on proper bike-packing bags. 😉
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what about food/cooking gear? was it always dry so no need for a tent?
Food was in the backpack, cooking gear I dont carry and the tent is clearly visible on the pictures. Its in the bottle holder. A helsport ringstind superlight.
what kind of bag is that on the front??
It’s a Carver bag, same brand as the bike. It’s essentially a copy of an ortlieb handle bar bag, similar design, same materials.
What saddle bag is that? Nice setup 🙂
We typically use 2 8-12 liter seal line drybags which are made out of siliconized nylon (silnylon) in conjunction with 1″ webbing and buckles strapped around our drop handlebars and bungees for the rear.
One drybag is under the handlebar and one is on a rear rack. We will use a multi-tool including necessary tools, a spare tube, some chamois butter, a first aid kit with iodine and band aids, emergency esbitt stove and a single walled stainless mug for boiling water/rehydrating food packets/oatmeal/instant coffee packets etc along with cashews, dried fruit and about 2 liters of water in cages or a larger bladder in a triangle frame bag made from revelate design, porcelain rocket or similar alternative. Sleeping bag is in one bag, clothing and tarp in the other. A small saddle bag carries our tools etc.
I dont remember the saddle bag brand, it’s some no-name product. By now I’m using a full set of apidura bags, currently cycling Japan to Germany with them.