Badger Divide Route & Bikepacking Gear Advice

Been asked to join a group doing the Badger Divide route in May of this year. Never done bikepacking or bivvying and looking for any tips on the route itself, the gear required and bikepacking tips in general. 

For the route the plan is apparently to try and tie in most of the food stops with cafes where possible. Any specific must do camp sites?  

Gear wise I don’t want to be spending a fortune for what will more than likely be one or a few trips. 

Bike – I have a Merida Hybrid that I was just going to bung wider tyres on…any downfalls with this? Tyre recommendations? I don’t have much option to be honest here but any advice much appreciated. 

In terms of the tent – doing some research and given the fact I’m 6’5” the Alpkit soloist XL seems to be favourite – any alternatives? https://eu.alpkit.com/products/soloist-xl?variant=44016134226051

Tent footprint – must have?

Sleeping mat and bag – any good relative cheap options? 

Storage – I have panniers but are frame bags necessary? 

Water – I assume using a camelback for 4-5 days would become uncomfortable? So bottled the way forward? Do I need a filter?  

Thanks for the help. 

I’m 6 foot 4 and I’m not 100% sold on the soloist

It’s not a disaster. It kept me dry and i can lie in it in comfort. But the door is very low. So you need to crawl in and out ace you’ll be running the top of the door with your hips. The door also over hangs your sleeping area. So if it rains it goes inside with the inner with the door open.

My mate of the same height has a Lansham Ave gets on fine with it. There is a review here

Affordable backpacking tents review.

Gear wise I don’t want to be spending a fortune for what will more than likely be one or a few trips.

Beg and borrow everything possible!  Cheaper gear is heavy/bulky/cold.

Also space on the bike is important, big panniers will mean you can take a cheaper sleeping bag but be careful not to load them up with heavy gear as the bike will be unmanageable off-road.

It’s Scotland, so wild camping is legal and highly possible.

Here’s is a thread from three years back – https://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/badger-divide-questions-advice

A bunch.is on timing, but there are good notes on terrain, conditions, and stops.

Based on friends who’ve done it, all I’d say is “it can be quite rough and steep in places” – they did it on gravel bikes with 40-60mm tyres and low gearing and were fine. It also has some remote sections; having spares and around a day of food at all times means you don’t have to worry about running out of supplies. (I generally like the advice when bikepacking to have about a lean day of food on you at all times, so if you go without resupply you’re not hungry/screwed).

Agree on beg and borrow gear, don’t buy it for a first trip.

I know someone who did it on a hybrid, they just had to slow down on a descent or 10 when things got rocky. They used panniers too.

on the bike, https://www.cyclinguk.org/routes/weekender-badger-divide, says

“Bike type: Gravel bike or hybrid with 35mm+ tyres – or a mountain bike.”

there’s a downloadable GPX file there too for the route.

I did it in ’21.  How many days are you planning to take? For me (B&Bing) 3 was pretty comfortable; light bivvying – 2 would be doable, but hard work…

Riding wise, Correyairack is the only proper bastardy bit, although some of the WHW into Glasgow was very tired and washed out. I was on 650×45 Gravelkings, and that was A-OK. Gearing wise 40/42 with credit-card touring levels of luggage was just about OK. Rode all the Correyairack, but had to take a lot of breathers.

Expect weather. All of it. I mostly got lucky, but did have the full icy powershower type soaking leaving Fort Augustus. Genuinely you could have anything in May.

From memory, there’s plenty of options for food, although you need to make sure you pass Corrour Station when its open, or that’s quite a big gap. (there’s also the Glen Lyon tearooms a couple of hours later which I didn’t know about). Once you get to Killin, its relatively civilised. I ended up bringing back a lot of the snacks I took with me.

Enjoy it – its a fun experience. Laggan -> Killin is the best bit, IMO.

the hostel at Loch Ossian also sells camping food; pouches, bars etc so another option for stocking up with on bike supplies.  We also camped there, great spot

From what I recall, theres nothing that is especially narrow that would stop you from using panniers (assuming your rack can handle the pummelling of rough roads).

I’d also go in the North direction as who wants to end a journey in Glasgow ??
You also get the bonus of going up the steep bit of Correyairack

Thanks for the info so far!
Unfortunately I wouldn’t many people who would have the gear to borrow.
The plan is to go north to south and take our time with either 2 or 3 nights.

Tent footprint – must have?

No, just be careful when you pitch and remove any sharp debris. Defo would not bother with this

Sleeping mat and bag – any good relative cheap options?

What do you call cheap? A decent air sleep mat can be found for around £50 (Alpkit). Defo go air mat and not self inflating or just foam. Self inflating mats are not comfortable.

A sleeping bag to deal with unknown temperatures in the Scottish mountains will not be cheap as it’ll need to pack relatively small and not weigh a tonne. You’ll want something that goes down to around freezing temp to be safe. Do not fall into the trap of thinking you can skimp on this, it’ll most likely make your trip miserable if you get this wrong – as when you should be sleeping you’ll be awake and cold which in turns will make your next days riding a struggle. you can hire sleeping bags by the way.

Storage – I have panniers but are frame bags necessary?

Depends how much you spend on your camping gear. Cheap means heavy and bulky usually. Buy / rent kit first then from that determine what bags you need for your bike.

Water – I assume using a camelback for 4-5 days would become uncomfortable? So bottled the way forward? Do I need a filter?

I’d take a water filter, bottles and a camelbak personally. Use one bottle to collect water from say a river, filter then put into camelbak/bottle. One spare bottle for any sections where you need to carry more water.

I’m planning on doing it this year. Glasgow to Inverness for the prevailing wind conditions in the summer, south westerly. Two big days is doable but maybe more on a hybrid. I’ll just book a hostel mid way and not carry much.

When carrying anything on a bike, less is more… I’d make sure you have the absolute lightest/least you can safely get away with. Panniers will probably be a pain lugging everything up the Corrieyairack Pass, so bikepacking kit would be easier to push/pull/wrangle and is also moar aero… Also plan to resupply rather than carry everything from the start and I’ve never carried a water filter in Scotland. So far, not dead or Giardia infested.

Personally, these days, I’d try and book digs rather than carry camping kit off road but I can see why you might want to bikepack. It’s a short route so if you do get soaked on day 1, you’ve not got days and days of purgatory to the end.

Remember,  lightness is your friend.

Good luck.

I did it last year solo on my Camino with low gears (51 – 32) and found it fine over 4 days. I could have done it in 3 but probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much. I wild camped and carried most of my food. Water isn’t an issue as there are so many planes to refill – I took chlorine treatment tablets, didn’t bother with a filter.

Just a warning on panniers if you do use them make sure your rack & bags are in good condition / well strapped on with extra straps, loctite the bolts and pack everything tightly so it can’t rub against itself.

My wife used panniers and rubbed through the tent bag (luckily the tent didn’t suffer) because everything was able to shake about. There were a couple of other rub related casualties too. She’s switched to strap on bags.

On a Wales trip one of my mate’s racks sheared the bottom mount and dropped against his wheel locking it up – luckily he came to a sliding stop and stayed upright.

Another had his bags fall off and we had to keep tightening up the bolts holding the rack together.

I currently use a pannier rack with dry bags strapped to it – think of a poor man’s Tailfin.

I currently use a pannier rack with dry bags strapped to it – think of a poor man’s Tailfin.

I do that. Nothing poor about it. The tailfin is a work around for bikes that forgot eyelets for a rack