We Tested Fjällräven's new Bikepacking Gear

If you had told me at the start of 2022 that I’d be taking part in a Specialized x Fjallraven gravel trip for work, I would have spluttered out my morning coffee and genuinely not believed you, but here we are. Pinching myself!

With the weekend to prep for our trip, nerves had truly set in! I’d never done a multi-day trip on bikes before; I had many thoughts going through my head… have I got everything, or maybe too much? Will we be okay? Can we do this? What’s the weather doing? Please don’t rain all day every day! Only one way to find out…

KIT ARRANGEMENT

Before we get stuck in, here is how our kit was arranged before setting off. For the 4 days we’re cycling in the new Specialized x Fjallraven clothing and equipment, which I’ll shorten to SxF. Clothing wise, we were using the SxF Anorak, SxF Wool Baselayer, SxF Shorts, SxF Trousers and SxF Wool socks.

Our bike bags were holding all our additional clothes and equipment. Both of us were using the SxF seat post bags, which are attached to your saddle seat rails and seat post. I was carrying a 16 litre drybag and Ralph had a 10 litre. We were both storing our sleeping systems in the seat post bags, this includes sleeping bags, sleeping mats, pillows and nightwear (merino baselayers and Rab Hut Down slippers). Ralph’s sleeping bag pack size was a lot bigger—being synthetic it doesn’t pack down as well a duck down bag, which was as small as a Nalgene bottle in my case; brilliant work Therm-a-rest. To help Ralph reduce this size, we bought a Sea to Summit Compression drybag, a piece of kit I’d highly recommend—it halved the size of the sleeping bag making it a lot easier to carry and pack away. In the middle of our bikes were the SxF frame bags in small and medium sizes where we stored our Primus gas, moka pot, bike tools, first aid, toothbrushes, toothpaste and a Grayl water bottle.

Along with this we had two SxF top tube bags for snacks, wilderness wipes and phones. Ralph had an additional SxF snack bag on his handlebar where he kept his Grayl water bottle and an Ortlieb handlebar bag. Thanks to Climb on Bikes in Hereford for supplying this! In this bag, Ralph was able to store his Montane Fireball Insulated jacket and a Montane Phase XPD waterproof jacket, because it is April after all and we’re off to Wales. We were also carrying five Sea to Summit Big River Dry Bags in the 8 litre size which are my second favourite piece of kit. Versatile, hardwearing and can be used for almost anything! I stored an MSR Hubba Hubba 2-person tent in the first bag, my Mountain Equipment Manaslu waterproof jacket and my Rab Electron Down jacket in the second bag and camping utilities in my third one. On my gravel bike, I was able to hold two of the bags on my forks using the Sea to Summit straps with the third bag on my handlebars where I doubled up on using the Sea to Summit straps with 2 sizes we stock. 500mm x 20mm and 20mm x 375mm.

DAY 1

Hereford > Trekitt > The Arch > Nant Syddion > Nant Rhys

With the van and bikes all packed up, we left home on Monday morning at 8.20am, with just a few more Sea to Summit drybags needed before heading to Elan Valley, Wales. After a quick visit to Trekitt, we grabbed our meal deal lunches and off we set. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day in April. We were gifted with blue skies, bright sunshine and a blast of wind.

Ready and willing, we set off into the woods from The Arch. We had a quick descent surrounded by pine trees, it was glorious. Decent gravel roads with lush scenic views, dipping in and out of the trees. We both mentioned we felt like we were back in Scotland or New Zealand whilst cycling—good old Wales delivering the goods. We soon hit our first bothy, Nant Syddion. Both Ralph and I found it quite creepy, maybe because it’s our first bothy? However, the views from here were out of this world. It looked straight out onto a grass field with a pine forest behind, looking up at the wind turbines. After a quick pitstop of food, water, a quick drone flight and a little note left in the bothy book, we set off. The gravel so far had been awesome! Fire roads, forests and freedom = Bliss!

I knew we had quite a climb between Nant Syddion and Nant Rhys with the wind turbines in front of us, spinning quickly! Steve, our buying manager at Trekitt, had mentioned the ‘hike a bike’ situation around here and he wasn’t wrong. I de-layered at this point—I had been wearing the SxF Anorak with my wool t-shirt underneath. With the sun out and little wind in the cove we were in, not to mention hiking with a 20kg bike, I figured it was best not to overheat! The climb itself was steep, sheer in fact, for about a third of it. Ralph was an absolute saviour and not only did he hike a bike with his bike, but also mine too towards the top. A true gentleman and absolute legend! Once we reached the false summit, we found a spot to celebrate with a coffee and homemade cookie, thanks Mum. We had made the Hike a Bike! Having enjoyed the sun, the epic views and some caffeine, we got going.

Heading for the wind turbines, we were back onto rideable gravel and some more manicured roads with another epic descent in the glorious golden hour. We managed to capture some of my favourite drone footage here with the two of us riding. I was so happy! We did start to notice the outside temperature was starting to drop off rapidly with the sun heading down. We soldiered on to get to Nant Rhys where we rode past a couple of cars, the first we’d seen all day, and met a walker who was slightly lost and was trying to find her car. We stopped to help her determine that she was headed in the right direction having looked at the OS maps. The final climb up to the bothy was intense—after the big descent we had just done, my legs were tired and starting to cramp up. I stopped to stretch them out, drink some water and have a snack—Ralph was collecting rubbish along the way to help with #trashfreetrails.

When we reached the top of the hill we were back into the evening sunshine where we got to enjoy the peaceful noise of birdsong and nothing in between, it was lovely! We grabbed water from the nearest river using our Grayl water bottles and headed for the bothy. Nant Rhys is a bit smaller than the Nant Syddion; not as much of a mountain hut as Nant Syddion, but more of a cottage style tucked away in the woods. Nant Rhys has been split into 2 areas—a smaller cosier room with the beds and woodstove and a much larger, open room with an additional bed, dart board and kitchen sides. I sent a signal on the Zoleo GPS tracker to my emergency contacts to let them know we had arrived at our base for the night, and all was okay. With the fire lit (with a bit of a struggle), Ralph made tea whilst I made the beds for the night—this was super easy with the sleeping mat pump sacks from Rab and Therm-a-rest. For Tea I had Firepot’s Beef Stew with Pearl Barley, which for a dehydrated meal was pretty decent—the portions were huge! Ralph’s was a lot smaller, but his food from Wayfarer was fresh food; he even helped me finish my tea. Now fed, it was time for bed, ready for day 2.

DAY 2

Nant Rhys > Cwm-Bach Bothy

A night full of broken sleep. We were both sleep deprived from the first night, having never done this before. Any noise and my body woke up with my brain thinking something or someone will be outside. We had an alarm set for 6am and 6:30am for a backup. Ralph was first up. We made some breakfast—Veggie Breakfast from Wayfarer for Ralph and Baked Apple Porridge from Firepot for me, with fresh ground coffee from Mill Bank Coffee local to Herefordshire in the Moka Pot. Strong coffee is essential for these trips. Ready and dressed for the day, we repacked our kit onto the bikes and made some additional tweaks to our setup for the full day ahead.

We set off and waved goodbye to Nant Rhys. There had been a frost overnight—when we hit the sun you could see the steam rising from the ground. We descended from the bothy which was a great way to start your day, with big open skies, wind turbines to the right and woodland to your left with the river flowing through. We brushed our teeth at this river, collected water and descended some more, before crossing two more bridges. Now back on green lane, we had to push up in parts and met our biggest puddle yet. To save our bearings we went around it to avoid the bogs and soggy shoes. We made it to the main road, energised with snacks (Haribo and electrolytes) for the no.81 Sustrans climb up to Elan Valley. It felt good to get this climb out of the way, I knew the road fairly well, but I wondered if that was better or worse.

With the views of Craig Goch Reservoir in front of us, we stopped for lunch. I had Firepot’s Smokey Paella, which I would highly recommend and rate 8 out of 10, while Ralph had Wayfarers Peri Peri chicken which he rated 6 out of 10. We were headed for Cwm-Bach Bothy and did our best to avoid going the boggy way from Pont Ar Elan. The diversion meant we had an extra 2.5 miles via a bridleway. It felt like forever, to the point where you may start to doubt why you were doing the diversion in the first place, but we also had dry feet, so in hindsight, I do feel it was 100% worth it. I’m pretty certain I would have been miserable with soggy wet feet for the rest of our next 2 days. We stopped for a coffee around half way along before descending where we saw a group of wild horses, baby lambs and kites flying across the skies with an amazing 360-panoramic view around the Elan Valley area from West to East—you could see for miles.

Cwm-Bach Bothy was in the nicest setting, with open scenic views across the reservoir; the most Instagram-friendly bothy we had visited so far, having been restored a couple of years ago. Inside it’s one big room with one half being a sleeping platform and the other a fireplace and a little kitchen corner. The loo is located outside in a little lean-to shed on the Bothy. Unfortunately, previous visitors had dismantled the wood separating the loo from the storage unit. Please respect the bothy and don’t rip out wood off walls etc. The MBA (Mountain Bothy Association) is a volunteer-based charity offering to carry in kit and equipment to these remote locations to keep them in working order. With the very scenic setting in mind and the sun beginning to set, we thought it was a great time to set the tent up for some photos with the bikes. We shot some photos, made the fire inside the bothy and set our beds up for the night. I also swapped our sleeping systems around for the night so we could try different kit out. Ralph’s sleeping system for the night was the Exped Ultra R5 sleeping mat, the Therm-a-rest Questar 0°C sleeping bag and the Exped Versa M Pillow. I had the Rab Solar sleeping bag, Rab Iononsphere Sleeping mat in wide and the Rab Down Pillow. I also slept in my down jacket and my merino baselayers & legwear for a bit more warmth as I to prefer to sleep warm.

Beds made and photos taken, we were ready for tea—I had mushroom Risotto tonight. Hoping for a more peaceful night sleep. Over and out.

DAY 3

Cwm-Bach > Claerduu bothy

Oh dear, I think it was a case of wishful thinking for a peaceful night’s sleep—I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of glass jangling. When I first woke up to the noise, it seemed so far away but as it became closer and closer to the hut my heart was racing—I felt quite on edge in my sleeping bag, unsure of the noise. By morning I was sleepy and told myself it must have been the wild horses coming down from the hills rather than a person outside. The weather had changed overnight from sunshine to heavy rain and mizzle. We made breakfast, packed our sleeping kit away and repacked our bags and bikes, ready to leave Cwm-Bach bothy.

Today we were headed for the Craig Goch Reservoir bridge. We needed to stay high on the hill to avoid the bogs down low, so we re-joined the bridleway where we spotted wild horses high above us on the hill. Both of us were a bit too keen to get riding this morning—I managed to catch my mudguard and twist it (luckily didn’t break) and Ralph got a slight puncture—tubeless wheel setup to the rescue! We hit Craig Goch Reservoir Bridge and headed down past Penygarreg Reservoir, onto Garreg-ddu Reservoir, where stopped for lunch on a bench. Coffee on, food pouches rehydrating, we were ready for grub! For lunch today we both had Tuscan Stew—delicious! We would highly recommend this, ideally followed by homemade cookies. At this point was quite tired—I wish I had taken more treats as we were only two-thirds of the way around and not many sweets left.

After lunch we took the road around to Claerwen Reservoir, heading over the bridge and riding past Caban-coh Reservoir and a little church heading through the luscious green pine trees making our way up to Claerwen Reservoir. Ralph and I switched our bikes around at this point—he rode my gravel bike, whilst I turned on his e-bike battery to ride along the reservoir. I was really surprised to see at the very end of this reservoir there was a house; I couldn’t get over how remote this place was. The whole way around Ralph and I had played the game of ‘imagine living here and there’—this place was so alone and desolate in the middle of nowhere; they must see a lot of rain. It’s very bleak and exposed, with not many trees.

Passing this farm, we were onto the green lane with lots of water! The amount of water it would be fun to ride/drive through in a Land Rover but not your bike. The landscape in this area felt like Lord of Rings surrounded by lots of water, hills, mountains and nothing in between. It was so quiet and with mizzle coming down, we got a glimpse of Claerduu bothy. We spotted a group of walkers heading down the hillside in their bright waterproofs heading towards the bothy for refuge away from the elements. Steve had told me this bothy was a 5-star experience—a running loo and water from the tap! Luxuries in life we hadn’t had for a couple of days.

A little while later we arrived at Claerduu bothy; it has a footbridge made from big slabs of rock near the front of the house. Here we met 15 people outside setting up their tents—they were part of the Duke of Edinburgh award—partaking in their gold practice on their fifth of six days with their mountain leaders. It was nice to meet like-minded people whilst on our trip; I think we had been very lucky so far to have the bothies to ourselves—the Mountain Leader had already done a job for us by lighting the fire. As part of their training, the DOE students had to sleep outside.

In this Claerduu bothy there are 2 floors with 3 rooms in total for bedrooms, a small kitchen area, dining room and fire with plenty of space. Outside is a firewood store and a flushing loo. We hung our waterproof jackets out near the fire to dry, ready for our last day tomorrow. Tea was eaten, beds were made, I wrote in my diary and we headed to bed as we knew the DOE were setting off around 7am tomorrow.

Day 4

Claerduu bothy > The Arch > Drive home.

We were awoken around 6am when we could hear the DOE students getting their things together; we knew they would be in around 7am to collect a few things that they had left by the fire and to collect water. I did feel for them as it was pouring with rain in the morning and who looks forward to putting wet kit back on? Up and about, we saw a glimpse of the sunrise before it started to rain and then hail a few times whilst we were eating breakfast and getting bikes and bags packed up. We were both feeling quite excited to be on the home run back to the van. After 4 days without a shower, we both felt gross and looked forward to feeling clean again.

Once out the door it was very soggy underfoot. We waved goodbye to Claerduu bothy (which was built in 1859!) and began to head back up the bridleway and onto the green lane. We had a great view over Llyn Teifi. One of the mountain leaders, Connor, had recommended we visit a self-servicing Tea shed in Pont-rhyd-y-groes which is open via a £1 donation for Tea and Coffee. After the Tea Shed we crossed the river and saw a vintage Shell garage with 2 very old petrol tanks – where of course we stopped to take some photos. Riding on we soon arrived at the Hafod Estate; a picturesque landscape from the 18th century. The estate was once the thriving home of the benevolent Johnes family– described as a ‘paradise’ for those who lived there, now part of the National Trust, a place I’m keen to return to. Our last leg of the journey was through the woods where we got some classic shots of the bikes next to felled timber. Eventually we made it back to the van in one piece. We’d done it! Woohoo!

On our route home, we took the scenic route via the Elan Valley Dams where only one of the dams was overflowing. Obviously, we were obligated to finish our epic route with Rainbow Cake, Coffee and food from the Elan Valley Visitor Centre ready for the drive home.

With an EPIC four days through Mid Wales, we’d like a say a big thank you to Climb on Bikes in Hereford for helping us with a Specialized E-bike, Specialized Tactic Helmet, Ortlieb bags and an additional Fjallraven Top Tube Bag. I can’t recommend these guys enough!

Here’s to more bike-packing adventures this summer; thanks for joining us on our journey.

KIT LIST:

Specialized Bikes x2 ( x 1 bike supplied by Climb On Bikes Hereford)

Specialized Helmets x 2 Tactics (x1 supplied by Climb On Bikes Hereford)

Specialized x Fjallraven Anoraks – Green & Red (Mens & Womens)

Specialized x Fjallraven Trousers – Blue (Mens)

SxF Shorts – Black (Womens)

SxF Wool Socks – White (Unisex)

SxF Wind Vest – Yellow (Womens)

SxF Wool Baselayer – Green (Womens)

Castelli Bibs (Womens)

Patagonia Bibs – (Mens)