What is better than a personal gift that really means something? How about a gift that is not only personal, but also useful? In this article we will discuss the 9 best gifts for bikepackers.
Here you will discover the best gifts you can give your bikepacking friend or family member. Gifts he or she will highly value.
Thinking of a unique and thoughtful gift can normally be quite a challenge, but if your friend or family member happens to be a bikepacking enthusiast, it becomes as effortless as a downhill ride.
I dare to say that most bikepackers are quite simplistic creatures: a gift doesn’t need to be that fancy, expensive or too much bling-bling.
Bikepackers value:
- lightweight
- compact
- easy-to-use
- good quality (I’d recommend spending a bit more for higher quality)
The 9 best gifts for bikepackers: men and women
Poster – a personalized route poster
- This is probably one of the most unique and personal gifts on this list. A poster with a route they’ve cycled.
- What I also come across a lot on Instagram are posters of a special day on the bike. For example, I saw a person who climbed the Stelvio pass and integrated the route profile on a poster.
A Travel Guide
- For my 24th birthday, my brother and sister-in-law gave me a travel guide for cyclists as a gift. The book is called Epic Bike Rides of Europe by Lonely Planet. It’s great to flip through every now and then to get inspiration and find out where you would like to go bikepacking in the future. (Goodreads 4.13/5 out of 30 ratings).
- Another book that I have heard many good stories about is Two Years on a Bike by Martijn Doolaard. This Dutchman cycled from Vancouver to Patagonia. It’s visually great and it is both a travel story as well as a visual journey. (Goodreads 4.73/5 out of 105 ratings).
Headlamp
- Every bikepacker needs a headlamp since it will give them two free hands instead of only one.
- Some important features to consider are: battery life, compactability, weight, adjustable brightness, the amount of lumen, water resistance, and reach distance. In other words, you can make it as crazy as you want here, but for a price of around 30 euros you can easily buy a great-quality headlamp.
Subscription to a bikepacking magazine
- Which magazine is best to give as a gift depends mainly on the country in which you live. (For logistical reasons).
- Worldwide delivery: The Bikepacking Journal by Bikepacking.com.
- For the Dutchies, your bikepacking friend or family member will probably love this magazine named Bicycling.
E-reader or E-reader books gift card
- An e-reader is a great gift for bikepackers since it’s: compact, lightweight, and makes them able to read books in the dark, like a tent.
- With an e-reader you can bring hundreds of books with a total weight of 200 grams.
- An e-reader gift card is great as well. That way they can choose their own reading material. Yet, it’s important to check the compatibility of the gift card with their specific e-reader. For instance, Kindle and Kobo e-readers require different gift cards, so make sure you choose the right one.
Bicycle multi-tool
- A must have for every bikepacker. Your friend can use it for maintenance or if something happens during the cycling trip. When buying, pay attention to the weight and whether it is compact or not.
- Also make sure that the multi-tool has enough functionalities. Think about: various wrench sizes, screwdrivers, allen keys, etc.
A gift card
- RideWithGPS is an app many bikepackers use. With this app, you can create handmade routes and easily upload them to your GPS device.
- A Spotify Premium gift card. It has every song you can think of and a great variety of podcasts. With Spotify Premium, they won’t have ads, no more shuffle-only mode, unlimited skips and replays, better audio quality, and can listen online.
Gas stove
- You will see that you can buy gas stoves in all shapes and sizes. There are certain brands which are famous for their higher quality such as: MSR, Campingaz and Vango.
- Again, weight is an important factor, but perhaps the most important is foldability.
- For example the MSR pocketrocket 2 is awesome, but also more pricey than the other ones.
Powerbank
- There’s a good chance that your bikepacking friend takes a power bank when traveling. Pay close attention to the weight and size. I have one from Trust with a capacity of 20,000 mAh. This lasts me about 3 days to charge my phone, GoPro and GPS.
- If your friend mostly goes on shorter adventures, a power bank of 10,000 – 15,000 mAh should be fine.
- Also pay attention to the number of ports. The more there are, the more devices can be charged at the same time.
- Lastly, pay attention to the power delivery capacity. The more power (kWh), the faster devices can recharge.
A final tip to leave you with
Try to discover which cycling podcasts your friend or family member listens to. There’s a good chance they sell their own merchandise. This makes for a nice, personal and unique gift.
9 best gifts for bikepackers: conclusion
And that concludes my list of the 9 best gifts for bikepackers. Here you can find a summary:
- Poster – a personalized route poster
- A Travel Guide
- A good headlamp
- Subscription to a bikepacking magazine
- E-reader or E-books gift card
- Bicycle multi-tool
- A gift card for an app he or she uses a lot
- Gas stove
- Powerbank
