Bike-packing the GR5

Last summer myself and a friend decided to have a go at bike packing, the trip never started out as a bike-packing idea but I’m really glad it ended up as one. We had decided we wanted to do a multi day point to point style ride through the Alps during the summer and set out looking for a route, we initially thought to use refuges and cabins however we quickly realised the cost of that wasn’t viable so… The idea to get together some kit and go bike packing was sprung.

We packed up our tarp, sleeping bags, cooking equipment and a spare pair of knickers and set off on a trip from Briançon to Nice via many epic alpine trails and cols and it was bloody awesome!

Neither of us had ever tried bike packing before so we were a little unsure how ‘good’ the riding would be with all the extra gear. We weren’t surprised to find the uphills were slow going but the descents were still just as awesome! So to all you bike Packers out that I, I never got it before but I understand you now and If anyone hasn’t tried bike packing before I would definitely recommend giving it a go, we had a lot of fun.

I finally got round to sorting through the hundreds of photos and even had some fun with Photoshop/indesign to make some little graphics to give an insight into our trip.

Bike-packing the GR5

Your site is very slow!! or its my lap top but it sounds and looks great!

Ah dammit! I thought I’d fixed it before posting. It’s weird, seems to be slow for some and then not for others. My I.T/web skills and don’t stretch far enough to work out why 😥

Excellent! Looks like a cracking trip 😀

Thanks! Did the site load ok for you Mr. Cheeze?

Worked ok for me, good read. Cheers!

Nice write up! Looks like you had a great time , might give it a go myself ( I live pretty close to la grave )

That looks fantastic. Great trip and write up.
I’ll read that all later when I don’t need to go to work.
Thanks for posting.

Looks like an amazing trip! I’ll have a proper read later – I’m eyeing up the Torino-Nice Rally later this year, I think there’s plenty in common with your route.

Site loaded fine, but images were a little bit slow.

Just had another look. some of the images are extremely slow, like weren’t there after 90 seconds. Are you hosting full res images?

Also, your air mattresses: great to lie on or great to talk to? 😉

We had very company air mattresses which you can get from Decathlon for £30 (bargain!) and sleeping bags

My work is scared of your website…bookmarked for a read in the pub.

Oysterkite – I lived in Grenoble for two years! Shame we never met!

Ned – I have ridden a bit around Torino, and a good bit in the hills by the sea but along the french/Italian border and really enjoyed it. I think that Torino nice rally will be seriously good fun! Been following then on Instagram actually.

I don’t get why the page loads fine for some and not for others. It’s the same amongst my friends.

The mattress was great company at night, especially when Jan wouldn’t let me cuddle up to him! Ha ha

I actually wrote a bit of a diary while we did it and took a heck of a lot of photos so I’ll be writing the days up in a bit more detail of anyone is interested I’ll some links when I get round to it!

Sounds very interesting ,same issue as above re the slow photo down load slowing down website.
More please.

Cheers Senor J, will be posting more in the coming weeks!

A Gallery of all the images from the trip i’ve uploaded so far is here if you like

@anus where is the photo taken of the large green meadow? http://anyexcusetoride.com/galleries/gr5-highlights-2/ It is the 2nd or 3rd photo in

Great looking trip

Hey John, if i’ve got the right photo then it is the first col we did south of Briancon called the Col des Ayes, it is the switchbacks you can see in the map i’ve linked below…

Col des Ayes map

Oysterkite-where exactly are you? we’re just up in the hills behind grenoble airport between the aiport and st. marcellin i.e. north of grenoble.

Did the Torino Nice this year: can 1000000000000000000000000000000% recommend it. Might be back this year if family planning (not in that way) permits. Mrs Mugsy is planning to be there.