Electric bikepacking

Electric bikepacking- anyone done it?

I’m tempted, and I’m looking (perhaps) at getting a hardtail mountainbike that can carry a bit of kit. Something that can allow me to do a trip out to a bothy and back to somewhere where I can charge up again ready to carry on.

I know its all very subjective with a load of variables. I’m recovering from a replacement hip op. and hoping to regain a decent level of fitness but have to accept that I’m 62.

All advice is welcome- and please go gentle on me.

Do it.

I’ve no experience of e bike packing but I know it is doable from videos I’ve seen of bikes doing it whilst carrying external battery backups.

I’d buy a DJI amflow as it has fast charging. Mount a rack and a bar bag, carry the charger and go for a ride. It’s an expensive option tho.

I have a cube hardtail with a 750 battery.  Its a great bike.  I tend to do 40+ miles a day and find the range ok for one  night out ie 80 miles and a couple of thousand feet of climbing .  I still have to be careful with how much assist I use.. climbing with a lot of assist or ploughing thru bogs eats battery.

Its a bugger to lift over stuff

I’m recovering from a replacement hip op. and hoping to regain a decent level of fitness but have to accept that I’m 62.

Don’t let that dampen your enthusiasm. A friend of mine had a new hip last year and she’s doing a 200 mile Chase The Sun ride in June…

Best bit about bikepacking with an e-bike is that you need to stop at pubs and cafes for a while to recharge bike and body well. I’ve done overnight trips with my OH and she uses an E-bike, one bonus is she doesn’t notice the added weight of a few luxuries that I don’t pack when I’m going on my own!

If you got a hardtail it may be good to go for something that takes a 27.5 x 3″ rear wheel, it’ll help with load carrying over bumps. General advice is not to bother with hardtail e-bikes for MTBing as the back whell crashes into things more but at bikepacking pace on less DH/extreme terrain I expect a HT could be fine. Bothy trips with an e-bike sounds like a great plan, enjoy!

Sounds great. Some inspiration in the article below:

https://www.cyclinguk.org/cycle-magazine/great-rides-charging-around-world

I bikepack and I can’t see you’d have any issue whatsoever, alternate between bothy/tent and B&B/hotel etc.

A HT is a decent option and will open up road/gravel/canal’s etc plus plenty of frame space for a full-size frame bag.

Also take a look at the electric gravel bikes.

GCN did a piece on winter e-bikepacking – looked fun! possibly quite OTT but showed some possibilities regardless.

https://youtu.be/jSNgGeeCaw8?si=8stzxNbBz8RNZXfZ

not sure how you do youtube links – just trying again:

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The album Hendrix could have made, if he hadn’t been taken from us so soon.